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.”
VIOLENT STANDOFFS: The government said 215 students have been injured since the start of the movement last month, including a teenager who lost a hand on Monday Thousands of demonstrators yesterday massed under heavy police surveillance in Paris and cities across France, as unions and teachers joined high-school students who for days have been demanding better conditions in protests punctuated by violent clashes. Students have blocked the entrances to hundreds of high schools for 15-to-17-year-olds since late last month, complaining of missing teachers, overloaded schedules, dilapidated classrooms and buildings that cannot cope with rising temperatures. In the Paris suburb of Creteil, where the protests started last month, students piled barriers outside the Saint-Exupery high school. “We are here to make our voice heard, all too often forgotten,” student Abderrahmane Abdelkader
As shark attack survivor Mel Ismail fought the predator that severed his leg, he noticed something odd. “I saw its eye ... a big black eye,” Ismail said. “But it was winking back at me — I was trying to get my fingers in its eye and just pushing its eye as I was being dragged.” When the shark swam off, he managed to struggle back to shore, the surfer and professional firefighter said in an Australian Broadcasting Corp interview broadcast on Thursday. He was surfing at Glenfield Beach near Geraldton on Australia’s west coast when he was attacked on Sept. 14. He
A Tuvalu government adviser yesterday said it felt like Australia had “taken over” the tiny country’s sovereignty during a visit by leaders to the Pacific island. The official — a senior government adviser who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to the media — said they were disappointed in Australia’s handling of the visit. The comments came during a visit by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other leaders to Tuvalu, which has become a symbol of the existential threat posed by rising seas and is a key partner in Canberra’s Pacific strategy. “Just because we signed the
Halfway around the world from Russia, in a Caribbean tourism hot spot, men young and old are being lured by Moscow with tantalizing job offers, only to find themselves en route to the front lines in Ukraine. Moscow and Kyiv have recruited thousands of foreign nationals into their armies since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Moscow is accused, in some cases, of using fake job ads to hoodwink men from deprived backgrounds in Africa, Asia and Latin America into traveling to Russia and then forcing them to fight on arrival. From countries such as India, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea, Colombia and
RSS