US kills Syrian civilians & violates sovereignty

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Syria slams deadly village raid as US 'war crime'

Syria protested vehemently on Monday over what it said was a US attack on a border village that left eight civilians dead, with the official press branding it a "war crime.

"The American forces from Iraq committed cold-blooded murder," the government newspaper Tishrin wrote. "They committed a war crime in killing eight Syrian civilians in a quiet village.

Official media reported that American helicopter-borne troops from Iraq launched an assault on a building site Sunday in the village of Al-Sukkiraya, which lies just eight kilometres (five miles) from the border.

The US military in Iraq said in a statement it does not have "any information" on the the incident, which if confirmed would be the first of its kind into Syrian territory.

Damascus has summoned the official US and Iraqi representatives in protest, the official SANA news agency said, describing the dead as a father and his four children, a couple and another man.

Syrian state television broadcast pictures of the scene, showing a building site with bloodstains on the ground, and the bodies of victims lying in the morgue.

"Four American helicopters violated Syrian airspace around 1645 (1445 GMT) on Sunday. American soldiers attacked a civilian building under construction and fired at workmen inside, causing eight deaths," official media said.

"Syria condemns and denounces this act of aggression and US forces will bear the responsibility for any consequences," SANA quoted an unidentified official as saying.

"Syria also demands that the Iraqi government accept its responsibilities and launches an immediate inquiry following this dangerous violation and forbids the use of Iraqi territory to launch attacks on Syria.

Foreign Minister Walid Muallem is due in London for a visit on Monday.

"This American aggression illustrates the stupidity of the administration of (US President George W.) Bush," Tishrin said. "The Bush administration must acknowledge the war crimes it has committed in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Syria.

In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman Commander Darryn James said there was "no response" from the US Department of Defence.

The Iraqi defence ministry has also refused to comment.

US commanders say Syria is the main transit point for foreign jihadists crossing into Iraq and have blamed Damascus for turning a blind eye to the problem but Iraqi officials have said Syria has been boosting border security.

Al-Sukkiraya is on the Euphrates river across the border from the Iraqi town of Al-Qaim, a stronghold of Al-Qaeda and other insurgents. US commanders have regularly said the area around Qaim is a transit point for foreign fighters.

"I heard shooting, I ran to get my son and they shot me," one woman lying in a hospital bed told Syrian state television in footage aired on Monday.

"I was fishing and I saw four helicopters. They started shooting like the rain," said another man, his arm in a bandage. "I saw eight soldiers coming out (of a helicopter) with weapons... I tried to flee and I was hit.

Last month, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told Bush that Iran and Syria -- long targets of US blame over the deadly unrest in the country -- no longer pose a problem.

However, on October 16 Iraqi forces arrested seven Syrian "terrorist" suspects at a checkpoint near the city of Baquba, a hub of Al-Qaeda fighters, the Iraqi defence ministry said.

Syria's first ambassador to Iraq in 26 years took up his post in Baghdad this month, marking the official end of more than two decades of icy relations.

On September 28, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed she had met her Syrian counterpart to discuss Middle East peace efforts despite renewed criticism from Washington over Syrian policies.

Their talks came after Bush slammed Damascus in an addresss to the UN General Assembly, saying regimes like Syria and Iran "continue to sponsor terror.

Washington has also accused Damascus of failing to give adequate cooperation to the International Atomic Energy Agency in its investigation into a mystery facility bombed by Israel in September last year that US officials have charged was a nuclear plant.

Story at:

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Syria_slams_deadly_village_raid_as__10272 008.html

Iraq defends US-Iraq cross-border raid into Syria

Iraq today defended launching a joint raid with the United States across the border into neighbouring Syria, claiming that the target was a site used by terror groups planning attacks against it.

Syria has protested vigorously about last night's raid, claiming that four children were among the eight to die after four military helicopters landed at sunset near al-Sukkari farm, five miles inside the Syrian border.

The Syrian ambassador to London described the raid as outrageous, and an embassy spokesman demanded to know why Iraq had not simply informed it that its territory was being used by hostile groups. Iraq, however, responded by saying that it had warned Syria about insurgency activity, but that no action had been taken.

Jihad Makdissi, the press attache at the Syrian embassy in London, said: "If (the United States) have any proof of any insurgency, instead of applying the law of the jungle and penetrating, unprovoked, a sovereign country, they should come to the Syrians first and share this information.

But Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, retorted: "The attacked area was the scene of activities of terrorist groups operating from Syria against Iraq.

"The latest of these groups... killed 13 police recruits in an (Iraqi) border village. Iraq has asked Syria to hand over this group which uses Syria as a base for its terrorist operations.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry has summoned the US and Iraqi ambassadors to Damascus to protest about the operation.

The incident is expected to dominate discussion when Walid al-Muallem, the Syrian Foreign Minister, meets David Miliband, his British counterpart, in London later today.

A joint news conference after the meeting was today cancelled at the last minute as "inappropriate". A Foreign Office spokeswoman said that both sides had been concerned that the press briefing would have been dominated by questions about the US raid.

Mr Miliband, as the representative of America’s principal ally in Iraq, might have found it awkward to appear alongside Mr al-Muallem at a time when Syria is condemning what it describes as an act of “serious aggression” by the US.

In a statement carried by the Syrian state news agency, Damascus claimed that the helicopters targeted a civilian building under construction, and “opened fire on workers inside the building, including the wife of the building guard, leading to the [death] of eight civilians”.

Suleiman Ghadban, head of the hospital in the nearby town of Bou Kamal, said: “The hospital received seven bodies aged between 16 and 50 and three wounded, including the mother of the [deceased] family.

Footage from Reuters television has shown the aftermath of the raid - a truck riddled with bulletholes, and bloodstains and spent cartridge cases on the ground at a half-acre fenced farm building. Osama Malla Hameed, a neighbour, said that four helicopters converged on the farm from different directions. Two hovered over it while two landed for a period of less than five minutes, and soldiers got out and fired shots, injuring his nephew in the hand.

Sami al-Khiyami, the Syrian ambassador to London, said: "This is an outrageous raid which is against international law. It is a terrible crime. I don't know the political meaning of it." He said that Syria was waiting for "clarifications from the Americans" before deciding whether to lodge a complaint at the United Nations Security Council.

US forces based in western Iraq denied that they were involved in the incident, suggesting that it may have been carried out by a special unit ouside the regular US command structure.

While the Pentagon did not confirm the attack, a US military spokesman said that the raid targeted a network of foreign fighters based at the farm. “We are taking matters into our hands,” the unnamed US official said.

Mr al-Dabbagh refused to say who carried out the raid. "Iraq is always seeking distinguished relations with its sister Syria. The presence of some anti-Iraq groups in Syria, which are supporting and participating in activities against Iraqis, would hinder improvement of these operations," he said.

America accuses Syria of failing to do enough to stop militants, including al-Qaeda operatives, from infiltrating over the border. The Bou Kamal border area, close to the farm in eastern Syria, is the country’s main crossing point into Iraq.

Last week the commander of US forces in western Iraq said that US troops were redoubling efforts to secure the Syrian border, which was far more laxly policed than Iraq's borders with Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

“The Syrian side is, I guess, uncontrolled by their side,” Major-General John Kelly said. “We still have a certain level of foreign fighter movement.

The Syrian Foreign Minister accused the US this year of not giving his country the equipment that it needed to prevent foreign fighters from crossing into Iraq. He said that the US feared Syria could use such equipment against Israel.

The reported attack comes at a particularly sensitive time, as Baghdad and Washington struggle to sign an agreement to allow US troops to stay in Iraq beyond this year. Neighbouring countries, including Syria and Iran, have voiced concern that such an accord would enable the US military to attack other countries from Iraqi territory, a charge that US officials deny.

Story at:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5022717 .ece

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Syrians take part in a demonstration against the U.S., held in Damascus Oct. 30, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Angry Syrians march in Damascus streets to show protests against U.S. raid
by Jia Xiaohua, Gu Kang

DAMASCUS, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Waving Syrian flags and carrying anti-U.S. banners, thousands of Syrians took to the streets in the capital Damascus Thursday to rally against a recent U.S. deadly attack on Syrian border.
Eight Syrian civilians were killed on Sunday in a U.S. cross-border helicopters attack in al-Sukkariah village in Abu Kamal near the border with Iraq.

The demonstrators from various societies, including public, religious, students, women and civic groups as well as trade unions, began marching in downtown Damascus streets since Thursday morning.

They waved national flags and banners reading anti-U.S. slogans such as "No to U.S. aggression on the Syrian territory" and "The American aggression will not succeed," Xinhua correspondents saw at the scene.

Calling their protest as a "march of anger", the protestors condemned the attack as an "unjustified crime" which violated the international law.

They called on international labor organizations to carry out their responsibilities and stand by the innocent workers killed in the attack.

Earlier on Wednesday, tens of thousands of angry demonstrators also paraded in the streets of Abu kamal to protest the U.S. attack.
While demonstration took place on Thursday, the Syrian authorities meanwhile boosted security around the U.S. embassy in Damascus and dozens of riot police surrounded the embassy compound.

The U.S. embassy in Syria closed temporarily on Thursday due to" increased security concerns."

The embassy said in a statement on its website that the Thursday closure came "due to past demonstrations which resulted in violence and significant damage to U.S. facilities and other embassies."

It also warned American citizens to avoid to be near the vicinities of the mass protest, noting that a Damascus-based U.S. school would also temporarily close on Thursday.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday summoned Maura Connelly, U.S. charge d'affaires in Damascus, officially informing her of the decision of the Syrian cabinet to close a U.S. school and a cultural center in Damascus, according to the official SANA news agency.

However, the U.S. has made no official confirmation or denial to the Sunday attack, which the State Department and White House have refused to comment on.

Some U.S. officials have only explained that the raid killed a top operative of al-Qaida in Iraq who intelligence suggested was about to conduct an attack in Iraq.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mikdad told Arab and foreign ambassadors in Damascus on Wednesday that "Syria is waiting for official clarifications from the United States and Iraqi governments regarding this unacceptable breach of Syrian sovereignty before taking further steps."
Editor: Deng Shasha

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