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 on Sunday in the village of Al-Sukkiraya, which lies just 8km from the border.
The United States has yet to comment on 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 on Monday 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 16.45 local time (1.45pm GMT) on Sunday. They penetrated eight kilometres into Syria,” official media said.
“American soldiers attacked a civilian building under construction and fired at workmen inside, causing eight deaths,” it said.
Sana said one person was also wounded in the attack on the village of Al-Sukkiraya, about 550km north-east of the capital.
Syria summoned the US and Iraqi envoys to Damascus to protest against what it called a US military attack and to demand that Iraq prevent US forces from “launching aggression against Syria” from its territory.
“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.
Sergeant Brooke Murphy, a US military spokesperson in Baghdad, said that the military was “in the process of investigating” the incident.
In Washington, a Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment. Commander Darryn James said that there was “no response” from the US Department of Defence about the Syrian reports.
The Iraqi defence ministry also refused to comment, on the grounds the incident took place inside Syria.
US commanders say Syria is the main transit point for foreign jihadists crossing into Iraq. Washington has blamed Damascus for turning a blind eye to the problem.
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.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told US President George Bush last month that Iran and Syria — long targets of US blame over the deadly unrest in the country — no longer pose a problem.
Iraqi officials have also said that Syria has been boosting border security.
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 Syria in his farewell address to the UN General Assembly. “A few nations — regimes like Syria and Iran — continue to sponsor terror,” he charged.
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. – AFP