maandag 27 oktober 2008

Irak 261


De Amerikaanse chaos in het Midden Oosten breidt zich uit.
'US Forces Kill Eight in Helicopter Raid on Syria
Monday 27 October 2008

by: Ian Black and Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian UK
Four US helicopters were used in a raid in Syria on Sunday. (Photo: McDonnell Douglas)
Washington - American helicopters flying from Iraq landed inside Syria yesterday and dropped special forces who killed eight people, the Damascus government said last night, as Washington admitted it had targeted "foreign fighters."
Syria warned that it held the US "wholly responsible for this act of aggression and all its repercussions."
It described the dead as Syrian civilians, five of them members of the same family. Syrian state television reported that the attack was against a farm near Abu Kamal, five miles from the Iraqi border. Doctors in nearby al-Sukkariya said another seven people were taken to hospital with bullet wounds.
The incident threatened to unleash a new wave of anti-American feeling in Syria and across the Middle East at a time when President Bashar al-Assad, already being courted by Europe, is looking forward to improved relations with Washington after the November 4 presidential election. News of the attack led bulletins across the Arab world last night - suggesting it will have wide resonance.
Syria summoned the US charge d'affaires in Damascus to explain the incident. It also called on the Iraqi government to prevent its airspace being used in this way in future.
Eyewitness accounts said eight US soldiers landed in two helicopters and that the dead were building workers. A senior Syrian source quoted by the official Sana news agency, said four helicopters violated Syrian airspace and described the target as a "civilian building under construction".
In Washington an unnamed military official told the Associated Press the raid had targeted elements of a "foreign fighter logistics network", and that, due to Syrian inaction, the US was "taking matters into our own hands". It was the first known American attack on Syrian soil.
Intriguingly, Farhan al-Mahalawi, mayor of the nearby Iraqi border town of Qaim, told the Reuters news agency that the targeted village had been surrounded by Syrian troops.
In Israel, a security official said Israel was not involved. Last year Israel destroyed an alleged nuclear site in northern Syria. Qaim has been a significant crossing point for foreign fighters, weapons and money entering Iraq to fuel the Sunni insurgency.'

1 opmerking:

Anoniem zei

O stan! wat ben je toch weer negatief over "onze jongens"

Peter Flik en Chuck Berry-Promised Land

mijn unieke collega Peter Flik, die de vrijzinnig protestantse radio omroep de VPRO maakte is niet meer. ik koester duizenden herinneringen ...