DAMASCUS, Syria – Syria threatened Wednesday to cut off security cooperation along the Iraqi border if there are more American raids on Syrian territory, and the U.S. Embassy announced it would close Thursday because of a mass rally called to protest a deadly weekend commando attack.
Tens of Iraqi refugees in Syria protest against a US raid on a Syrian village at Sukkeriyah, 8 km from the Iraqi border, that killed eight people, in downtown Damascus on Wednesday Oct. 29, 2008. The protestors chanted anti-US slogans and carried Iraqi flags. Syria's deputy foreign minister said Wednesday that Damascus wants America and Iraq to apologize to Syria for a U.S. commando raid mounted from Iraq that killed eight and pledge not to repeat it again.
(AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi)Thousands were expected to participate in the government-sanctioned protest. Though authorities usually keep Syria under tight control and Americans have generally been welcomed, violence against U.S. and European interests at protests has erupted in the past.
"The U.S. Embassy will be closed on Oct. 30th due to past demonstrations which resulted in violence and significant damage to U.S. facilities and other embassies," the embassy said on its Web site.
It also said an American school in the Syrian capital would temporarily shut its doors Thursday and warned U.S. citizens in Syria to be vigilant.
The Syrian government already ordered the closure of the school and an American cultural center linked to the embassy. In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Syria formally notified the U.S. that the cultural center should shut down immediately and the school by Nov. 6.
"We are looking at how to respond," Wood said, adding that in the meantime: "We expect the Syrian government to provide adequate security for the buildings in which the American Cultural Center and Damascus Community School are housed."
Earlier, the Syrian government demanded that Washington apologize for Sunday's cross-border helicopter strike by American special forces that killed eight people. U.S. military officials said the raid killed a top al-Qaida in Iraq operative who was about to conduct an attack in Iraq.
Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad said Syria wants assurances Iraqi territory will not be used again to raid Syria.
"We have demanded that an investigation be conducted and that Iraq not be used for attacks against Syria. Otherwise, this would torpedo all agreements reached during the Iraq neighbors' meetings and bilateral agreements," he told The Associated Press in an interview.
Iraq also demanded Wednesday that a crucial security deal under discussion with the U.S. must include a ban on American troops using Iraqi territory to attack neighboring countries.
Though Syria has long been viewed by the U.S. as a destabilizing country in the Middle East, attacks on its territory are rare and Damascus has been trying in recent months to change its image and end years of global seclusion.
Syrian President Bashar Assad has pursued indirect peace talks with Israel and says he is open to direct talk as early as next year. Syria also has agreed to establish diplomatic ties with Lebanon — a country it used to dominate — for the first time in their history.
But the U.S. still accuses Syria of doing too little to prevent foreign fighters from crossing into Iraq. Syria says it is doing all it can to safeguard the long, porous border.
Despite its opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Syria has moved to improve relations with Baghdad, sending an ambassador earlier this month for the first time in 25 years.
Mekdad demanded the U.S. and Iraq apologize for the attack and asked for American compensation.
"What is required of the American government is to confess to this aggression and not be cowardly," he said.
There has been no formal acknowledgment of the raid from the United States. But U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said the target was Badran Turki al-Mazidih, a top al-Qaida in Iraq figure who operated a network of smuggling fighters across the border. The Iraqi national also goes by the name Abu Ghadiyah.
Mekdad rejected the U.S. reports and insisted all those killed were Syrians.
"The allegation that this person was killed is a false claim. Therefore, a search for him by world intelligence agencies, including Syria's, should continue," he said.
With tensions between the U.S. and Syria on the rise, the U.S. Embassy advised Americans to avoid Thursday's demonstrations and review their personal security. Past protests have occasionally turned violent.
In 1998, small groups trashed the U.S. ambassador's residence and entered the American and British cultural centers in Damascus to protest U.S.-British airstrikes on Iraq. In 2006, thousands protesting newspaper caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad burned the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus.
Despite the warning, some Americans living in Syria said they were not too worried.
"I feel that it might be tough for me to say that I am an American, for a while, but I don't have any concerns for my personal safety," said Kate Alberswerth, a 24-year-old New York native who is studying Arabic in Damascus.
No comments :
Post a Comment