Demonstrations prompt closure of U.S. Embassy in Syria

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/10/29/iraq.syria/

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. Embassy in Damascus announced that it will be closed Thursday because of "increased security concerns" arising three days after a U.S. strike in Syria.


Iraqi refugees took to the streets in Damascus, Syria, on Wednesday to protest Sunday's airstrike.

more photos » Officials said the action was taken because of concerns over anti-U.S. demonstrations scheduled for Thursday over Sunday's airstrike, which Syria claims left eight people dead near the Iraq-Syria border.

Demonstrations were reportedly staged Wednesday throughout Syria to protest the incident, which has raised tensions among Iraq, Syria and the United States.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Abu Kamal, Syria, near the Iraqi border, burning American flags and shouting angrily, the country's official news agency SANA reported.

The Syrian government summoned the top U.S. official in the country, Maura Connelly, on Wednesday to request that an American cultural center be shut immediately. The government also requested a closure date of November 6 for the American-run Damascus Community School, deputy U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.

The Syrians did not specify how long the closures would last, Wood said.

Connelly told Syrian officials that the United States "expects them to provide adequate security to the buildings" during the closures, Wood said.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7698820.stm


Fury sweeps Syria after US raid


By Paul Wood
BBC News, Sukkiraya

Souad Khousaim lay very still on her hospital bed and in a quiet voice wracked with pain told me she was one of the innocent victims of Sunday's raid by US special forces.

"I went outside to get my son and the Americans shot me," she says. "They were very close, five metres away. I was screaming, terrified."

Her husband was among the seven Syrian men who died, but hospital officials have not told her this yet.

The US military sent troops 8km (five miles) into Syria, to the village of Sukkiraya, to take action which they hope will help shut down al-Qaeda's secret pipeline into Iraq for men, weapons and money.

The mission was to capture or kill, Abu Ghadiya, an Iraqi-born al-Qaeda cell leader the US says has helped to bring thousands of jihadist fighters across the border.

'Over in minutes'

We went to the place where the raid is said to have happened - a breeze-block compound on the banks of the Euphrates, which flows gently from Syria into Iraq



http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2008-10/30/content_7157826.htm
Syria formally informs US of closure of its school, culture center

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

The ministry made the move after a deadly US cross-border raid in Abu Kamal near the border with Iraq on Sunday, killing eight Syrian civilians and wounded another.


A Syrian policeman stands in front of a door of an American school in Damascus October 28, 2008. The Syrian cabinet decided on Tuesday to close a Damascus-based American school and a US culture center in response to a deadly raid by US helicopters near the Syrian border with Iraq.


It asked the charge d'affaires to take necessary measures to execute this decision by Nov. 6, SANA said.

On Tuesday, the Syrian cabinet decided to close a Damascus-based American school and a US culture center in response to the US attack.


A Syrian policeman stands in front of a door of an American school in Damascus October 28, 2008. The Syrian cabinet decided on Tuesday to close a Damascus-based American school and a US culture center in response to a deadly raid by US helicopters near the Syrian border with Iraq.


Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mikdad summoned Arab and foreign ambassadors in Damascus on Wednesday and briefed them on the developments since the US raid.

"Syria is waiting for official clarifications from the United States and Iraqi governments regarding this unacceptable breach of Syrian sovereignty before taking further steps," he was quoted as saying.

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Syria_files_UN_Security_Council_complaint_after_US_raid?curid=115790

Syria files UN Security Council complaint after US raid
In the aftermath of a United States raid in border town Abu Kamal within Syria on October 26, the country has filed a complaint with the United Nations Security Council to prevent further breaches of Syria's borders. Calling the operation a "terrorist aggression," Syria has alleged that eight civilians were killed in the raid, which was launched from neighboring Iraq.

"Syria draws attention to this aggressive act and expects the UN Security Council and member countries to assume their responsibility by preventing a repetition of this dangerous violation," read a letter to the UN Security Council. It called for the UN "to hold the aggressor responsible for the deaths of the innocent Syrian nationals."