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Arab League slams U.S. raid inside Syria

China view

2008-10-28    CAIRO, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) — The Cairo-based Arab League (AL) on Monday denounced a U.S. air strike on Sunday inside the Syrian territories that killed eight Syrian civilians.

    Such a violation undermines the efforts to establish regional security and may lead to more tensions in the region, the pan-Arab body said in a statement.

    The U.S. move spoils the credibility for peace efforts in the war-torn Iraq and its neighbors, said the statement.

    Confirming its solidarity with Syria, the Arab organization voiced its support to Syria to protect its people and sovereignty.

    At least eight people were reportedly killed Sunday during a U.S. helicopter raid on a building inside Syria on borders with Iraq, the first of its kind at such scale since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

    A U.S. military official has justified that the U.S. raid targeted a network of al-Qaida-linked foreign fighter steaming to Iraq.