Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Monday that the Damascus government would ask the United States and Iraq for an investigation into an attack Sunday by special operations forces in the village of Sukkariyeh, near Syria's border with Iraq.
A senior terrorist was eliminated in the attack. Syria says eight civilians were also killed and two were wounded. An eyewitness said U.S. forces grabbed two men and took them away by helicopter. It is the first time the U.S. has attacked a Syrian target since the Second Gulf War in 2003.
Muallem told a news conference in London, "The Americans do it in the daylight. This means it is not a mistake, it's by blunt determination. For that we consider this criminal and terrorist aggression." He said his country would defend itself if the U.S. attacks its territory again.
The U.S. government is refusing official comment, but an American counter-terrorism official said on Monday that the raid targeted Abu Ghadiya, the terrorist nickname of a former lieutenant of Iraq al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. air strike in 2006.
Abu Ghadiya had been identified by the US Treasury Department as one of four major figures in al-Qaeda's Iraq wing who were living in Syria. The village of Sukkariyeh is not far from what is believed to be a major crossing point for foreign fighters supporting the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
The American official called the operation a success, adding, "He (Abu Ghadiya) is believed to be dead. This undoubtedly will have a debilitating effect on this foreign fighter smuggling network." Among the foreign fighters smuggled into Iraq were suicide bombers. A U.S. military official, who confirmed the strike, said Sunday that due to Syrian inaction the U.S. was now "taking matters into our own hands."
The European Union expressed reservations on Monday night about the strike. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he was worried over the killing of civilians and expressed hope the situation would soon return to normal.
He echoed a statement by French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office that France was very concerned about the attack and called for restraint and the "strict respect" of nations' territorial integrity. The statement also said France "deplores the loss of Syrian civilians."
Russia, which is rumored to be selling military equipment to Syria, condemned the attack. A statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry said, "We believe attacks that are worthy of condemnation should not be launched on the territory of sovereign states under the slogan of the fight against terrorism." The statement continued, "It is obvious that such unilateral military actions have a sharply negative effect on the situation in the region, and widen the seat of dangerous armed tension."