Syria demands UN to act against US for Sunday's air strike

Wednesday October 29, 2008 05:55 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The Syrian government demanded on Tuesday the United Nations and its Security Council to act against the helicopter strike carried Sunday by the U.S air force against Al Sukkariyya Syrian village, near the Iraqi-Syrian border.

Eight Syrians, including five family members, were killed in the strike and the United Sates said that it believes that a prominent member of Al Qaida was among the dead. The U.S stated that the claimed member helped in smuggling foreign fighters into Iraq.

Syria strongly denounced and rejected these claims, and considered the American strike as “\a “terrorist act against Syrian civilians”.

The official Syrian news agency, SANA, reported that Syria sent a letter to the UN Secretary General and the Security Council demanding a condemnation to the attack.

In its letter, Syria demanded the Iraqi government to probe the assault and to prevent using Iraqi territory as ground for further attacks.

Syria also demanded that the United States should be held responsible for the assault.

The Agency stated that Syria expects the UN and the Security Council to prevent such attacks and violations in the future, and also demanded that “the aggressor [The Unites States] should be held responsible”.

The Syrian government was also angered by the idleness of the Iraqi government as it failed to provide a stronger response to the violation.

Syria also delayed a meeting of the Iraqi-Syrian Committee that was supposed to be held in Baghdad on November 12.

The official response of the Iraqi government after the attack was a statement by the Iraqi government spokesperson, Ali Al Dabbagh, who said that Iraq does not want to be used a a ground for attacks against neighboring countries.

Yet, the government also said that “Syria must act and crack down of organizations operating on Syrian soil with the intention to harm Iraq and its security”.

The United States does not ave an embassy in Syria, but it shut all US institutions operating in there after the strike.

On Tuesday, Syria closed, until further notice, an American School and an American cultural center in Damascus.

arab world | international politics | news report saed at imemc dot org