Syria Airstrike: US Claim they "Killed a Major Smuggler of Insurgents into Iraq"

SUKKARIYEH, Syria (AP) -- Families in this Syrian village on Monday buried relatives they said died in a U.S. helicopter attack. A U.S. counterterrorism official said American forces killed the head of a Syrian network that funneled fighters, weapons and cash into Iraq.

The raid Sunday targeted the home of Abu Ghadiyah, the nickname for the leader of a key cell of foreign fighters in Iraq, according to the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence. The U.S. Treasury Department has identified him as one of four major figures in al-Qaida's Iraq wing who were living in Syria.

Also Monday, a villager said U.S. forces grabbed two men and took them away by helicopter during the cross-border raid.

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Speaking at a news conference in London, Mr Muallem said the raid on the town of Abu Kamal was "not a mistake" and that he had urged the Iraqi government to investigate.

In pictures: Grief and anger in Syria

"We consider this criminal and terrorist aggression. We put the responsibility on the American government," he told reporters following talks with UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

He added: "All of them [the victims] are civilians, Syrian, unarmed and they are on the Syrian territories.

"Killing civilians in international law means a terrorist aggression."

Asked if Syria would use force if a similar operation was mounted, he said: "As long as you are saying if, I tell you, if they do it again, we will defend our terrorities."

Referring to the US presidential election, he said: "We hope the coming administration will learn the mistakes of this administration."

Three children and a married couple were said to be among the dead

Mr Muallem and Mr Miliband were scheduled to hold a joint press conference, but Mr Miliband withdrew. The UK government has declined to comment on the raid.

The US official quoted by AFP said: "Look when you've got an opportunity, an important one, you take it.

"That's what the American people would expect, particularly when it comes to foreign fighters going into Iraq, threatening our forces."

SUKKARIYEH, Syria (AP) -- Families in this village near the Iraqi border buried loved ones Monday who they said were killed when the U.S. military launched a rare attack in Syrian territory. During the funerals, angry residents shouted anti-American slogans and carried banners reading: "Down with Bush and the American enemy.''

The Syrian government said four U.S. military helicopters attacked a civilian building under construction shortly before sundown Sunday, killing eight people in the village of Sukkariyeh -- about five miles inside the Syrian border.

A U.S. military official in Washington confirmed Sunday that special forces had conducted a raid in Syria that targeted the network of al-Qaida-linked foreign fighters moving through Syria into Iraq.

"We are taking matters into our own hands,'' the official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of cross-border raids.

Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, described the raid as "cowboy politics,'' Speaking in London, al-Moallem said of the U.S. raid. He warned that if there was a repeat "we would defend our territories.''

The attack is another sign that the United States is aggressively launching military raids across the borders of Afghanistan and Iraq to destroy insurgent sanctuaries. In Pakistan, U.S. missile strikes have killed at least two senior al-Qaida operatives this year and ramped up the threat to groups suspected of plotting attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan and terror strikes in the West.

Iran condemned the attack as did Russia, which has had close ties with Syria since Soviet times.