UNITED NATIONS: Syria’s UN envoy said yesterday that he has asked the UN Security Council to take action to prevent a repeat of a US attack last weekend on Syrian territory and the government in Damascus said it has ordered that an American school and a US cultural center in the capital be closed.
Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari told reporters that he made the request in letters to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yesui, who holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council.
He asked Ban and the council “to assume their responsibilities” in preventing such aggression and to hold the American administration responsible for such acts.
In Washington, a government official said the US raid killed a top operative of Al-Qaeda in Iraq who intelligence suggested was about to conduct an attack in Iraq.
The target of the afternoon attack in Sukkariyeh, near the Iraqi town of Husaybah, was known as Abu Ghadiyah, the leader of the most prolific network that moves Al-Qaeda associated foreign fighters into Iraq, the official said.
Syria rejected that assertion. “What they are saying is just unjustified. I deny it totally,” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallem said in London.
