Syria on Tuesday protested to the UN Security Council over what it branded a barbarous US helicopter raid on a village near the Iraqi border and decided to close two US institutions in Damascus.
The government also indicated Sunday’s deadly raid, launched from Iraq, could have repercussions on ties with Baghdad by postponing a Nov. 12 to Nov. 13 meeting of the Syrian-Iraqi high commission.
Baghdad initially appeared to condone the raid by US troops as aimed against insurgents who infiltrate Iraq, before joining in condemnation of the assault on Tuesday.
PHOTO: AP
In a letter to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, Syria protested “this aggressive act and expects the UN Security Council and member countries to assume their responsibility by preventing a repetition of this dangerous violation.”
It called for the Security Council “to hold the aggressor responsible for the deaths of the innocent Syrian nationals,” state news agency SANA reported, quoting the letter.
In New York, Syria’s ambassador to the UN, Bashar Jaafari, said the letters asked Ban and the Security Council “to assume their responsibility” to prevent any repeat of “such aggressive and terrorist acts against a sovereign member of the United Nations.”
“It is up to the president of the Security Council [Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yesui (張業遂)] in consultations with the members to decide on the steps that should be taken,” he told reporters.
Jaafari said Damascus was “studying taking further steps at many levels” and added that he was awaiting further instructions from his government.
In addition to the protest, the Syrian Cabinet also decided to close the US cultural center and the American School in Damascus.
Damascus has said eight civilians were killed in the assault, including children, in the first confirmed US military action of its kind inside Syrian territory.
The ministers condemned the raid, which a US official said targeted foreign fighters who infiltrate Iraq, as a “barbarous crime which amounts to the peak of state terrorism as practised by the US administration.”
It was a “violation of the UN Charter and international law,” a statement charged.
Meanwhile, the ruling Baath party’s No. 2, Mohammed Saeed Bkheitan, said the raid amounted to “an act of piracy” against a farm inhabited by families and laborers.
In Baghdad, the government slammed the assault, which an unnamed official in Washington said was believed to have killed Abu Ghadiya, “one of the most prominent foreign fighter facilitators in the region.”
“The Iraqi government rejects the US helicopter strike on Syrian territory, considering that Iraq’s Constitution does not allow its land to be a base for launching attacks on neighboring countries,” spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said. “We call upon American forces not to repeat such activities and Baghdad has launched an investigation into the strike.”
On Monday, Dabbagh said the raid targeted a border area used by insurgents to launch attacks on Iraq.
Iraq’s parliament said it regretted that “the operation took place at a time when relations between Iraq and its neighbors are progressing.”
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS