Syria protests US attack in UN letter

Source: Press TV, 29-10-2008

In a letter to the UN, Syria has protested the US chopper attack on a border village on Sunday that killed eight Syrian civilians.

The Syrian Cabinet wrote a scolding letter to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council, slamming United States' Sunday attack on a building in a village near the border with Iraq.

"Syria condemns this act of aggression perpetrated by the US occupation forces," the letter said, SANA news agency reported.

Syrian officials have, in the letter, asked the UN to hold Washington responsible for the "barbaric" act that killed eight Syrian citizens in Al Sukkariah village.

"This act of aggression perpetrated by the US forces against Syrian civilians indicates the U.S. administration's determination to go on in its policies that brought to the region nothing but killing and destruction," the letter read.

It also said: "This act of aggression represents a dangerous violation of the Syrian sovereignty and the UN principles and conventions."

Syria has promised retaliatory measures against the US interests. It has already closed an American school and another US cultural center in the capital Damascus.

Syrian government also asked the UN Security Council and its member countries to help prevent any such incidents from happening.

US has not been noticeably vocal on the issue and has only said that its helicopters had targeted an al-Qaeda suspect in the village.