Syria Protests to US Over Last Weeks Strike in Iraq
VOA News
25 Jun 2003, 20:35 UTC
Syria says it has protested last week's U.S. military strike near its Iraqi border in which several Syrian border guards were wounded.
The official Syrian news agency (the Syrian Arab News Agency) reports Damascus demanded Washington return the wounded Syrian troops in U.S. care to avoid, what it called, any misunderstanding. The news service reports Syria says failure to do this could lead to an escalation that neither country wants.
The Syrian request is the first official response from Damascus since U.S. forces targeted an Iraqi motorcade moving towards the Syrian border last week. U.S. officials say five Syrian troops were wounded in the operation, three of whom were treated by U.S. forces. None of the five has yet returned to Syria.
U.S. defense officials are still working to determine who was killed in the attack. They believe the convoy carried officials from Saddam Hussein's ousted regime. But they say there is no indication that the former Iraqi dictator or his two sons were killed.
Defense officials say the strike was launched following intelligence information gathered from a captured aide of Saddam.
Some information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters.
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