We Will Defend Territory Against Attack, Vows Syria

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 lambast 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. Iraqi media were last night reporting that US sources were claiming to have killed the leader of a border-smuggling network.

The US again refused to comment publicly on the attack, despite clear hints from officials in Washington that special forces had indeed targeted al-Qaida-linked foreign fighters moving into Iraq. 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 if such an attack recurred, Syria would defend its territory. "The Americans know full well 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 the country's 18 provinces. But the US still controls Iraqi air space and runs military operations where and when it chooses. "We have been in meetings all day about this," said an Iraqi defence official. "This is not something we can control or respond to." 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 - told the Guardian the province was no longer a haven for insurgents using the Iraqi border town of Qaim, close to where Sunday's attack took place, as a staging point.

"We can say with certainty that al-Qaida are 95 per cent defeated," said Sultani. "They have gone. Five per cent 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 agreement extending the legal basis for American forces in Iraq after a UN mandate expires in December, with a prominent Kurdish politician, Mahmoud Othman, claiming the raid was carried out without the Iraqi government's knowledge.