Waving Syrian flags and carrying anti-U.S. banners, thousands of Syrians took to the streets in the capital Damascus Thursday to rally against a recent U.S. deadly attack on Syrian border.
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Syrian protesters gather at Youssef al-Azmi square during a demonstration against the U.S. raid on a village near the Syrian-Iraqi border last Monday, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday Oct. 30, 2008. Hundreds of Syrian riot police ringed the shuttered and closed U.S. Embassy in Damascus on Thursday, as tens of thousands of Syrians converged on a central square for a government-orchestrated protest to denounce a deadly U.S. raid near the Iraqi border. [AP Photo/Hussein Malla] |
Eight Syrian civilians were killed on Sunday in a U.S. cross- border helicopters attack in al-Sukkariah village in Abu Kamal near the border with Iraq.
The demonstrators from various societies, including public, religious, students, women and civic groups as well as trade unions, began marching in downtown Damascus streets since Thursday morning.
They waved national flags and banners reading anti-U.S. slogans such as "No to U.S. aggression on the Syrian territory" and "The American aggression will not succeed," Xinhua correspondents saw at the scene.
Calling their protest as a "march of anger", the protestors condemned the attack as an "unjustified crime" which violated the international law.
They called on international labor organizations to carry out their responsibilities and stand by the innocent workers killed in the attack.
Earlier on Wednesday, tens of thousands of angry demonstrators also paraded in the streets of Abu kamal to protest the U.S. attack.
While demonstration took place on Thursday, the Syrian authorities meanwhile boosted security around the U.S. embassy in Damascus and dozens of riot police surrounded the embassy compound.
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Syrian women shout slogans as they demonstrate in Damascus. The US embassy in Syria shut its doors as thousands marched through Damascus to protest at a deadly American raid on a village near the Iraqi border that Syria branded a barbaric act. [AFP/Joseph Barrak] |
The U.S. embassy in Syria closed temporarily on Thursday due to "increased security concerns."
The embassy said in a statement on its website that the Thursday closure came "due to past demonstrations which resulted in violence and significant damage to U.S. facilities and other embassies."
It also warned American citizens to avoid to be near the vicinities of the mass protest, noting that a Damascus-based U.S. school would also temporarily close on Thursday.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday summoned Maura Connelly, U.S. charge d'affaires in Damascus, officially informing her of the decision of the Syrian cabinet to close a U.S. school and a cultural center in Damascus, according to the official SANA news agency.
However, the U.S. has made no official confirmation or denial to the Sunday attack, which the State Department and White House have refused to comment on.
Some U.S. officials have only explained that the raid killed a top operative of al-Qaida in Iraq who intelligence suggested was about to conduct an attack in Iraq.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mikdad told Arab and foreign ambassadors in Damascus on Wednesday that "Syria is waiting for official clarifications from the United States and Iraqi governments regarding this unacceptable breach of Syrian sovereignty before taking further steps."
DPRK slams U.S. air attack on Syria
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday slammed the United States for launching an airstrike against Syria.
"The military attack is an unpardonable inhuman criminal act as it is an undisguised infringement upon the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a sovereign state and state terrorism committed under the pretext of anti-terrorism war," the official KCNA news cited a DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
"The DPRK vehemently denounces the U.S. grave infringement upon the dignity and territorial integrity of Syria and sends full support and solidarity to the Syrian government and people in their just efforts and measures to defend the sovereignty and security of the country," the spokesman said.
U.S. helicopters taking off from Iraq raided a Syrian village on Sunday, killing eight Syrians and injuring one.
(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2008)
