Syrians mourn over the coffins of their relatives killed in a US military raid in the village of Al-Sukkariya on the Syria-Iraq border on October 27, 2008. Syria on Tuesday protested to the UN Security Council over what it branded a "barbarous" US helicopter raid on a border village near Iraq and decided to close two American institutions in Damascus. (AFP/File/Ramzi Haidar)From The Guardian:
Iraq's government rebuked Washington yesterday for launching a military raid into neighbouring Syria from Iraqi soil, while Damascus retaliated by ordering a US school and cultural centre to be closed.
In a brief public comment more than 24 hours after the special forces strike, an Iraqi government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said Baghdad rejected raids on its neighbours and did not want to be used as a launch pad.
"The constitution does not allow Iraq to be used as a staging ground to attack neighbouring countries," Dabbagh said, though he also called for an end to insurgent activity in Syria.
The Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, last night said Iraqi officials had "started to see the truth" about the raid.
Damascus took its first reprisals against Sunday's raid by ordering the indefinite closure of the American school and a cultural centre. Both cater to the small US community and other expatriates in the Syrian capital. The Syrian cabinet said the US had violated the UN charter and international law with its raid.
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My Comment: According to the Iraqi Government .... it is OK for foreigners to come into Iraq via through Syria .... and to kill its own citizens. Sigh .... Arabs are acting as Arabs. What the Iraqi Government should have said ... is taht on the next raid they want to be in the front leading the attack.
But it is not going to happen.