Syria yesterday condemned the US for launching "criminal and terrorist aggression" on its soil, while the Iraqi government defended action against foreign jihadis amid warnings it might complicate plans for a controversial security agreement between Baghdad and Washington.
Walid al-Muallem, Syria's foreign minister, used a visit to London to lambaste the US for its "cowboy politics" and hinted that Sunday's raid was designed to halt Syria's gradually improving relations with the EU and Britain. Iran and Russia also condemned the US for aggravating tensions in the region.
Syria reported that US troops, backed by helicopters, launched the attack five miles into its territory, killing eight people, including four children. But at the funerals of the victims, where angry crowds chanted anti-American slogans, an Associated Press photographer said he saw the bodies of seven men.
The US refused to comment publicly, but an official said the raid's target was Abu Ghadiya, a former aide of the Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Ghadiya was a major smuggler of al-Qaida-linked foreign fighters into Iraq, the official told Reuters. "He [Abu Ghadiya] is believed to be dead. This undoubtedly will have a debilitating effect on this foreign fighter smuggling network."
If confirmed, it would be the first such US strike inside Syria since the 2003 invasion. Muallem, in the first public comments by the Damascus government, warned that an attack recurred, Syria would defend its territory. "The Americans know that we stand against al-Qaida," he said. "They know full well we are trying to tighten our border with Iraq."
Muallem had been due to hold a press conference with David Miliband, the foreign secretary, but the event was canceled by mutual agreement, apparently because Miliband did not want to be questioned about the raid. Miliband said Britain was concerned about the growth of al-Qaida groups and insurgent networks developing along the Syria-Iraq border. British officials claimed Muallem did not deny the seriousness of the problem and the need for better cooperation with Iraq, but gave no firm commitments. In Baghdad, the Iraqi government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, appeared to support the US by calling the area of the attack "a staging ground for activities by terrorist organizations hostile to Iraq". He added the US operation "was targeting smugglers who transferred people to Iraq".
The US has steadily been ceding control of the Iraqi armed forces to the Maliki government and has transferred security responsibility for 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces. But the US still controls Iraqi air space and runs military operations where and when it chooses. "This is not something we can control or respond to," an Iraqi defense official said. But Brigadier Fadel al-Sultani, now responsible for security in the Hilla region - which takes in part of the restive Anbar province that stretches towards the Syrian border - said the province was no longer a haven for insurgents using the Iraqi border town of Qaim as a staging point.
"We can say with certainty that al-Qaida are 95% defeated," said Sultani. "They have gone. Five percent are out there and are robust. We retain a strong interest in them, and so do the Americans. They were with us this morning discussing an offensive." A convoy of senior US officers left his headquarters compound in Hilla around noon on Sunday.
The attack in Syria also provoked new concerns about the deal extending the legal basis for US forces in Iraq after a UN mandate expires in December, with a prominent Kurdish politician, Mahmoud Othman, saying Iraq's government had no prior knowledge of the raid.
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"Syria 'Gave Green Light For Raid'" by Dominic Waghorn, Sky News
Why did America launch a daylight helicopter attack on Syria provoking worldwide outrage? The plot thickens.
Publicly America is still saying nothing but US officials are making intriguing claims off the record.
Now, a respected Israeli intelligence expert says he has been told the operation was carried out with the knowledge and co-operation of Syrian intelligence.
Ronen Bergman, author of The Secret War with Iran, makes the claim in the Yediot Ahronoth newspaper, based on briefings with two senior American officials, one of whom he says until recently "held a very high ranking in the Pentagon".
Mr Bergman told Sky News the raid happened after America had lobbied Syria intensely to deal with an al Qaeda group conducting activity on the border.
The Syrians were unwilling to be seen publicly bowing to US pressure to tackle the group, he says, but in the end gave the Americans the green light to do so themselves.
He claims the Syrian government told the Americans: "If you want to do this, do it. We are going to give you a corridor and carte blanche. We will not harm your troops."
Mr Bergman maintains Syrian intelligence has been co-operating secretly with its US counterpart for some time in its war with al Qaeda.
There are several unanswered questions about the mysterious raid. In particular why it happened with very little apparent resistance by Syrian forces.
Mobile phone video of the attack shows no air-to-air or ground-to-air defense activity.
This is strange, Mr Bergman points out, given Syrian paranoia about helicopters being used by Israel for espionage purposes.
"The Syrians have invested so much in aerial defenses, especially against choppers and the Americans go in in daylight and nothing is being done."
The Syrian government has slammed the attack as "criminal and terrorist aggression".
It claims there were no al Qaeda operatives in the area.
Other unnamed American officials claim the attack killed a senior al Qaeda commander responsible for funneling foreign fighters into Iraq from Syria.
Independent journalists who reached the attack site yesterday reported claims by local people that the victims of the raid were all innocent civilians.
"He said, She said" controversy. But invokes the question, "Is this another example of Israeli "overkill?"
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