US choppers attack Syrian village near Iraqi border

[sharonbn]

News agencies
Latest Update: 10.27.08, 00:04 / Israel News

US military helicopters attacked an area along Syria's border with Iraq Sunday, killing eight people, the Syrian government said, condemning what it called "serious aggression."

The raid, which a US military official in Washington confirmed, indicated the desert frontier between the two countries remains a key battleground 5 and a half years into the Iraq war.

The US official said the attack targeted elements of a robust foreign fighter logistics network and that due to Syrian inaction the US was now "taking matters into our own hands."

A government statement carried by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) condemned the raid and said the Foreign Ministry had summoned the charges d'affaires of the United States and Iraq to protest the strike.

The attack occurred just before sundown in an area of farms and brick factories about eight kilometers inside the Syrian border.

Four helicopters flying along the Euphrates River struck the Sukkariyeh Farm near the town of Abu Kamal, the Syrian government said. The helicopters attacked a civilian building under construction, firing on the workers inside and killing a number of civilians, including four children, the statement said.

Local residents told The Associated Press by telephone that two helicopters carrying US soldiers raided the village, killing eight people and wounding five others. One of the witnesses said five of the dead were from a single family. SANA's report added that US soldiers disembarked and stormed a building in the village.

The US military official said the special forces raid targeted elements of a network that sends fighters from North Africa and elsewhere in the Middle East to Syria, where elements of the Syrian military are in league with al-Qaeda and other fighters.

Syria holds US, Iraq responsible
The Syrian government condemned the attack, holding both the US and Iraq responsible. "Syria condemns this aggression and holds the American forces responsible for this aggression and all its consequences," the government statement said.

"Syria also calls on the Iraqi government to shoulder its responsibilities and launch an immediate investigation into this serious violation and prevent the use of Iraqi territory for aggression against Syria."

A senior Israeli security official told Ynet that Israel was not involved in the attack. Earlier, Israeli intelligence sources postulated that the attack had targeted al-Qaeda agents.

US attacks on terror hubs are not an uncommon occurrence in Iraq, but it is the first time such an onslaught has taken place in Syria.

The area is near the Iraqi border city of Qaim, which had been a major crossing point for fighters, weapons and money coming into Iraq to fuel the Sunni insurgency. Iraqi insurgents seized Qaim in April 2005, forcing US Marines to recapture the town the following month in heavy fighting.

Syria's interior minister, Bassam Abdul-Majid, told a security meeting in the Syrian capital in April that it had stepped up measures along its border with Iraq, setting up fixed checkpoints and patrols to prevent insurgent infiltration and smuggling.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...613436,00.html

[sharonbn]

Roee Nahmias
Published: 10.27.08, 10:33 / Israel News

Sunday evening's unusual attack by special US forces in Syria "targeted members of a logistic network of foreign fighters", Lebanese newspaper As-Safir reported Monday, quoting American military sources.

A senior army official in Washington said that "Syria's weakness" was what had prompted the US government to deal with the issue. On Monday, Syrian television aired footage from the scene of the attack.

According to the American source, special forces carried out the attack against a smuggling network of foreign fighters from northern Africa and other areas in the Middle East into Syria and from there to Iraq. The Americans had failed to block the smuggling network because it was operating from the Syrian side of the border.

Eight people were killed in the strike, all Syrian citizens, including a man and his four children and a couple.

"We are taking matters into our own hands," the senior American source said.

The attack took place several days after the commander of the US forces in western Iraq had said that his forces were doubling their efforts to secure the Syrian border, which he referred to as a "breached gate" being used by foreign fighters seeking to enter Iraq.

Syrian state television aired footage from the scene of the strike on Sunday night, showing blood stains on the floor of the attacked constriction site.

Akram Hamid, one of the people injured in the attack, said that he was fishing in the Euphrates River when he suddenly spotted four helicopters arriving from the border.

"One of the helicopters landed on agricultural land and eight soldiers got off," he said. "They fired for about 15 minutes, and when I tried to leave the area on my motorcycle I was hurt by a bullet in my right arm."

Jihad Makdissi, a spokesman for the Syrian Embassy in London, told the BBC that his country maintained its international right to retaliate.

"If they (the United States) have any proof of any insurgency, instead of applying the law of the jungle and penetrating, unprovoked, a sovereign country, they should come to the Syrians first and share this information," Makdissi said.

Four helicopters flying along the Euphrates River struck the Sukkariyeh Farm near the town of Abu Kamal, the Syrian government said. The helicopters attacked a civilian building under construction, firing on the workers inside and killing a number of civilians, including four children, the statement said.

A government statement carried by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) condemned the raid and said the Foreign Ministry had summoned the charges d'affaires of the United States and Iraq to protest the strike.

Iran also condemned the US strike Monday morning. Hassan Qashqavi, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said during his weekly press conference in Tehran that "we condemn any violation of countries' national sovereignty, which leads to the killing of innocent people, and this is unacceptable by us."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...613619,00.html

[sharonbn]

News agencies
Latest Update: 10.27.08, 21:43 / Israel News

VIDEO - Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem accused the United States on Monday of carrying out a "terrorist aggression" on Syria after a deadly raid which Damascus said killed eight civilians.

"The Americans do it in the daylight, this means it is not a mistake, it's by blunt determination. For that we consider this criminal and terrorist aggression," Muallem told a news conference in London.

He said Syria will ask the United States and Iraq for an investigation into the attack, which took place in the Albou Kamal area in eastern Syria on Sunday.

Meanwhile a US counterterrorism official said the head of a Syrian network that funneled foreign fighters, weapons and cash into Iraq was killed in the raid. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence, named the man as Abu Ghadiyah, and called him the single most important foreign fighter cell that has bedeviled Iraq since the US invasion in 2003.

According to the US, special forces carried out the attack against a smuggling network of foreign fighters from northern Africa and other areas in the Middle East into Syria and from there to Iraq. The Americans had failed to block the smuggling network because it was operating from the Syrian side of the border.

Eight people were killed in the strike, all Syrian citizens, including a man and his four children and a couple.

The Associated Press, Reuters and Roee Nahmias contributed to the report

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...613918,00.html

[sharonbn]

Reuters
Published: 10.29.08, 13:12 / Israel News

The US embassy in the Syrian capital may close to the public indefinitely following a raid on eastern Syria blamed by Damascus on Washington, a US embassy spokesman said on Wednesday.

"The American community in Syria should be aware that unforeseen events or circumstances may occur that could cause the US Embassy in Damascus to close to the public for an unspecified period of time," the spokesman said.

He declined to comment on whether the number or status of US diplomats in Syria could change.

A message on the embassy's web site advised Americans to avoid demonstrations and review their personal security. The warning was posted Monday.

A day earlier, US troops landing in helicopters attacked a compound near the Iraqi border, killing eight people.

The attack drew an angry response from Syria. The government on Tuesday ordered an American school and cultural center in the capital to close.

A demonstration is planned in Damascus on Thursday by groups describing themselves as independent to protest against the raid on the Syrian side of the border with Iraq.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...614787,00.html

[sharonbn]

Yitzhak Benhorin
Published: 11.10.08, 07:20 / Israel News

WASHINGTON – The American commando operation in Syria on October 26 was not the first time Special Operation troops operated in that country following the war in Iraq and the flow of Arab terrorists from Syria to Iraq, the New York Times reported Monday, quoting senior US military officials.

According to the report, since the Iraq war began, Special Operations forces have several times made cross-border raids aimed at militants and infrastructure aiding the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq.

The raid in late October, however, was much more noticeable than the previous raids, military officials said, drawing a sharp protest from the Syrian government. Similar operations in the past were not revealed as the Syrians kept silent.

Since 2004, the reports said, the United States military has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against al-Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere.

These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President Bush, the officials said.

The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the al-Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States.

The 2004 order identifies 15 to 20 countries, including Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and several other Persian Gulf states, where al-Qaeda militants were believed to be operating or to have sought sanctuary, a senior administration official told the paper.

Negotiations to hammer out the 2004 order took place over nearly a year and involved wrangling between the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department about the military’s proper role around the world, several administration officials said.

Senior officials of the State Department and the CIA voiced fears that military commandos would encroach on their turf, conducting operations that historically the CIA had carried out, and running missions without an ambassador’s knowledge or approval.

No raids into Iran
Even with the order, each specific mission requires high-level government approval. Targets in Somalia, for instance, need at least the approval of the defense secretary, the administration official said, while targets in a handful of countries, including Pakistan and Syria, require presidential approval.

The Pentagon has exercised its authority frequently, dispatching commandos to countries including Pakistan and Somalia, the report said.

Some of the military missions have been conducted in close coordination with the CIA, according to senior American officials, who said that in others, like the Special Operations raid in Syria on October 26, the military commandos acted in support of CIA-directed operations.

According to the New York Times, there had been no raids into Iran using that authority, but the American officials suggested that US forces had carried out reconnaissance missions in Iran using other classified directives.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...620189,00.html

[Steven]

Should we stop because Assad is mad?

[sharonbn]

nope, by all means, bombs away.

[Steven]

nope, by all means, bombs away.

Hey we finally agree on something.

[sharonbn]

Syria seems to be like an open field for shooting galleries. Remember Israel attacked and destroyed a Syrian nuclear plant in 2007 (with no apparent retaliation)
and on a similar topic what's the chance of the US doing something active about Iran nuclear plant?

[Steven]

Syria seems to be like an open field for shooting galleries. Remember Israel attacked and destroyed a Syrian nuclear plant in 2007 (with no apparent retaliation)
and on a similar topic what's the chance of the US doing something active about Iran nuclear plant?

I have read that the military there is pathetic. The reason the probably did not retaliate was because they want no part of the IDF.

If McCain had won I would of said yes, but with Obama who knows. I know that most politicians lie, but I have never seen someone talk out of both sides of their mouth like Obama. He recently said that Iran cannot have nukes, maybe it is just talk or maybe he will put on a display of power to show the critics that he is not weak. I have no idea, even some liberal news commentators who pushed for Obama are coming to realize that we do not know much about him and what he will actually do. The election is over, the feelings are dying down and now reality is taking place.
I found you this, sorry I could not give you a better answer.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...ticle/ShowFull

[KettleWhistle]

and on a similar topic what's the chance of the US doing something active about Iran nuclear plant?

Hopefully, absolute zero. We don't need the stupid leftist wars like Israel's last war in Lebanon. Iran is not the problem for Israel, despite all the rhetoric--they are far, out, and Israel's defenses against them are adequate. Not so with the local Arab populations who occupy the Land of Israel, oppress Jews, require insane military personnel involvement in their policing, and produce massive anti-Israel propaganda.

[Kenneth]

...and produce massive anti-Israel propaganda.

Iran fund train and openly support the Hamas and Hezbollah. But you're right, attacking Iran would only strengthen that regime. Better to cripple them economically.

[sharonbn]

Iran is THE problem for Israel. not b/c of the threat of nuclear attack on Israel, but b/c the possession of a nuclear bomb. Once the Iranians have the bomb, they can easily provide it to Hizballah or Hamas or even attempt to smuggle in into Israel. Imagine a suicide bomber with a little nuke under his shirt...

and don't think that Iran will stop with the ME. It will be happy to export its bombs to terror cells operating all over the globe. The day Iran will have a nuclear bomb, the rules of the game will change forever.

[Rob]

Which reminds me:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126194

A Jordanian prof.:

"Whoever managed to get a martyrdom-seeker into Dimona, should consider how to get martyrdom-seekers into Dimona and elsewhere armed with non-conventional explosives - and perhaps even small nuclear bombs," he stated. "We should think in this direction."

What will the response be????

I think the end of Islam....

[Mediocrates]

Yes and no. A suitcase nuke as it were is probably far ahead of what they are capable of developing for the foreseeable future. It implies a state of the art H-Bomb or at the very least something on the order of a deployable battlefield tactical nuke, nuclear munition or similar device which proabably today is about the size of a steamer trunk and weighs 100-250lbs. The US had deployed a battlefield weapon called Davy Crockett with a practical yield of up to 180t (0.18Kt). The US also deployed 3 different nuclear artillery shells with yields of 72-100t (0.072-0.1Kt). All of these have been phased out and eliminated. It's theoretically possible to construct a nuclear weapon with as little as 4Kg of material, but that's just a theory and even if it were plausible the complete weapon would weigh in about 50-60lbs.

The real leverage that a 'small' nuclear state owns is the threat of using it not the use. A nuclear armed Iran becomes a regional geopolitical heavyweight. They can make any sort of regional demands on Iraq, shipping lanes, US troop deployment, economic concessions, threats to arm other countries and so on.