DAMASCUS, 25 March 2003 — Syria said yesterday US and British aircraft bombed a bus carrying Syrian civilian workers returning home from Iraq, killing five and injuring an unspecified number in what it described as a “criminal act”.
“US and British aircraft bombed a Syrian civilian bus carrying Syrian workers working in Iraq on their way to Syria. This criminal act resulted in the death of five of the Syrian citizens and the injury of others,” an official statement said.
A US military spokesman in Qatar yesterday confirmed that allied forced destroyed a civilian bus during an attack on a bridge in Iraq, but said President Saddam Hussein’s regime bore ultimate responsibility.
The US and British envoys to Damascus were summoned to the Foreign Ministry and handed an official protest, the statement said, noting that Syria reserved the right to seek compensation. “This act represents a breach of the 1949 Geneva convention on protecting civilians during war ... therefore the Syrian Arab Republic condemns this act and reserves the right to demand compensation in line with international law,” it said.
An earlier report from the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said a US plane had fired a missile at a bus carrying 37 Syrians, killing five and wounding at least 10.
SANA said the incident occurred on Sunday morning in Iraq’s Al-Rutbeh arear.
The bodies of the dead were taken to a Damascus hospital.
hospital director Abdullah Al-Asali said. “The deaths were caused by an explosion... We saw shrapnel wounds and distortions due to an explosion,” he said.
