[Marxism] "US choppers attack Syrian village near Iraq border"

[Fred Feldman]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/26/africa/26syria-fw.php0
"US choppers attack Syrian village near Iraq border"

The Associated Press
October 26, 2008

Damascus: U.S. military helicopters attacked an area along Syria's border
with Iraq Sunday, killing eight people, the Syrian government said,
condemning what it called "serious aggression."

The raid, which a U.S. military official in Washington confirmed, indicated
the desert frontier between the two countries remains a key battleground 5
1/2 years into the Iraq war. The U.S. official said the attack targeted
elements of a robust foreign fighter logistics network and that due to
Syrian inaction the U.S. was now "taking matters into our own hands."

A government statement carried by the official Syrian Arab News Agency
condemned the raid and said the Foreign Ministry had summoned the charges
d'affaires of the United States and Iraq to protest the strike.

The attack occurred just before sundown in an area of farms and brick
factories about eight kilometers, or five miles, inside the Syrian border.

Four helicopters flying along the Euphrates River struck the Sukkariyeh Farm
near the town of Abu Kamal, the Syrian government said. The helicopters
attacked a civilian building under construction, firing on the workers
inside and killing a number of civilians, including four children, the
statement said.

The U.S. military official said the special forces raid targeted elements of
a network that sends fighters from North Africa and elsewhere in the Middle
East to Syria, where elements of the Syrian military are in league with Al
Qaeda and other fighters. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
political sensitivity of cross-border raids.

While U.S. forces have had considerable success in shutting down the "rat
lines" in Iraq with help from Iraq and governments in North Africa, the
Syrian part of the network has been out of reach, he said.

"The one piece of the puzzle we have not been showing success on is the
nexus in Syria," the official said. "We are taking matters into our own
hands."

The White House in August approved similar special forces raids across the
border of Pakistan to target Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives. At least one
has been carried out.

A resident of the nearby village of Hwijeh, speaking on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said some of the
aircraft in Sunday's attack landed and disgorged troops who fired on a
building. At least one of the dead was a construction worker, he said.

"Syria condemns this aggression and holds the American forces responsible
for this aggression and all its consequences," the government statement
said. "Syria also calls on the Iraqi government to shoulder its
responsibilities and begin an immediate investigation into this serious
violation and prevent the use of Iraqi territory for aggression against
Syria."

The flow of foreign fighters into Iraq has been cut to an estimated 20 a
month, a senior U.S. military intelligence official said in July. That
marked a 50 percent decline from six months earlier, according to the
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss
intelligence reports.

Ninety percent of the foreign fighters enter through Syria, and foreign
fighters toting cash have been Al Qaeda in Iraq's chief source of income,
according to U.S. intelligence.

On Thursday, the commander of U.S. forces in western Iraq said in a briefing
with Pentagon reporters that American troops were redoubling efforts to
secure the Syrian border.

Major General John Kelly said in last week's briefing that Iraq's western
borders with Saudi Arabia and Jordan were fairly tight as a result of good
policing by security forces in those countries but that Syria was a
"different story."

"The Syrian side is, I guess, uncontrolled by their side," Kelly said. "We
still have a certain level of foreign fighter movement."

He added that the U.S. was helping construct a sand berm and ditches along
the border.

"There hasn't been much, in the way of a physical barrier, along that border
for years," Kelly said.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem of Syria accused the United States earlier
this year of not giving his country the equipment needed to prevent foreign
fighters from crossing into Iraq. He said Washington feared Syria could use
such equipment against Israel.

Syria's interior minister, Bassam Abdul-Majid, told a security meeting in
the Syrian capital in April that it had stepped up measures along its border
with Iraq, setting up fixed checkpoints and patrols to prevent insurgent
infiltration and smuggling.

Though Syria has long been viewed by the U.S. as a destabilizing country in
the Middle East, in recent months, Damascus has been trying to change its
image and end years of global seclusion.

Its president, Bashar Assad, has pursued indirect peace talks with Israel
and has agreed to establish diplomatic ties with Lebanon, a country it used
to dominate both politically and militarily.