Iraq War crosses into Syria?

[Guest Aloysius]

Syria: 8 dead in U.S. helicopter border strike from Iraq

 

By Yoav Stern and News Agencies

 

Syrian state-run TV and witnesses said Sunday that American helicopters attacked an area close to the Iraqi border zone, killing at least nine people.

 

Local residents in a Syrian border town said that American forces killed seven men in a helicopter-borne commando attack inside Syrian territory. State-run TV later raised the number of dead to eight.

 

Doctors in the town of Al-Sukkariya, some eight kilometers from the Iraqi border, said seven corpses and four wounded had been delivered to a nearby clinic after the attack.

 

An official Syrian spokesman confirmed the attack.

 

The eyewitness accounts said that four helicopters were involved in the operation, with two of the helicopters landing in the town and eight American soldiers disembarking. The eyewitnesses said that the seven killed men were supposedly construction workers.

 

Afterwards, the U.S. helicopters left Syrian airspace with all the soldiers again on board.

 

There was no initial U.S. comment about the reported incident. If confirmed, it would be the first time that American forces had carried out an attack on Syrian soil.

 

In response, the Syrian Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. charge d'affaires in Damascus to protest the strike, Syria's state news agency SANA reported.

 

Syria's deputy foreign minister had informed the U.S. official of "Syria's protest and condemnation of this serious attack", it said. The Iraqi charge d'affaires had been summoned for the same reason, the news agency reported.

[osusev]

I would say the black operations THAT ARE THE REAL SUCCESS FOR STABILITY IN IRAQ NOT THE SURGE.... are what is probably crossing into Syria. Its not liek Syria has not been helping and arming the insurgents and criminals.

 

I dont have a problem with it in Syria's case as long as we dont get caught and we assasinate and hunt down the leaders like the Israeli's did after the Munich olympics.

[Mr. T]

We shall be in Iran within 60 days! take em out Bush! Before they get the Nukes!

 

[Guest Aloysius]

Interesting analysis from an Israeli newspaper:

The readiness of Bashar Assad to renew diplomatic negotiations with Israel a year ago with the help of Turkish mediators can be explained to a large extent by the hope in Damascus that it would enable them to become closer to Washington.

 

This didn't really happen (although Assad did derive an immediate dividend with his improved image in the Arabic world and a warming of relations with Europe.)

 

Although President Bush did not veto the Israel-Syria discussions, his administration remained very skeptical of the Syrian regime and continued to see Damascus as a part of the axis of evil.

 

The U.S. also refused to implement practical actions that would encourage the Syrians to make progress in negotiations.

 

Now it has become clear that the U.S. will not hesitate to attack terrorist targets within Syrian territory.

 

In this regard the Americans are not alone. Israel preceded them with the attack on the Dir a-Zour nuclear facility in September last year, not to mention a succession of mysterious incidents on Syrian soil, from the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh last February to the assassination of Brigadier General Mohammad Suleiman around two months ago.

 

The common denominator to all these operations is that nobody takes the Syrians seriously anymore, given the repeated violations of their sovereignty. It is doubtful the domestic security situation there has ever been this unstable.

[PlaygroundLegend]

We need to pull out now! This is Retarded! We are picking fights we dont need to pick!

[Westside Steve]

Although President Bush did not veto the Israel-Syria discussions, his administration remained very skeptical of the Syrian regime and continued to see Damascus as a part of the axis of evil.

 

Good.

 

The U.S. also refused to implement practical actions that would encourage the Syrians to make progress in negotiations.

 

As in?

 

Now it has become clear that the U.S. will not hesitate to attack terrorist targets within Syrian territory.

 

Even better.

WSS