Sukkariyeh: Families in this Iraqi border village prepared to hold funerals today for eight people they say were killed when US military helicopters launched an extremely rare attack on Syrian territory. Local clergy washed the bodies as angry residents gathered nearby chanting "May God s wrath fall on them."

The Syrian government said four US military helicopters attacked a civilian building under construction shortly before sundown yesterday on the Sukkariyeh Farm about eight kilometers inside the Syrian border. The government statement said eight people were killed, including four children.

A US military official in Washington has said special forces conducted a raid in Syria that targeted the network of al-Qaida-linked foreign fighters moving through Syria into Iraq.

"We are taking matters into our own hands," the official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of cross-border raids.

The US military in Iraq said it did not have any information about the incident. But the raid came just days after the commander of US forces in western Iraq said American troops were redoubling efforts to secure the Syrian border, which he called an "uncontrolled" gateway for fighters entering Iraq.

Iraqi officials said they hoped the raid would not harm relations with Syria, and Iran condemned the attack.

Syria called the raid a "serious aggression," and its Foreign Ministry summoned the charges d affaires of the US and Iraq in protest.
Source : PTI