Syria orders US school, cultural center closed
Damascus retaliates following Sunday's US raid on Syrian-Iraqi border, orders two American institutions closed, files official censure with UN
The Syrian government has ordered that an American school and a US cultural center in Damascus be closed in response to a deadly raid by US helicopters near the Syrian border with Iraq.
US military helicopters attacked an area along Syria's border with Iraq on Sunday night, killing eight people. The Syrian government condemned the strike, calling it "a serious act of aggression."
US officials said the raid killed a top operative of al-Qaeda in Iraq who intelligence suggested was about to conduct an attack in Iraq.
According to a report in the official SANA news agency, the decision came at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday chaired by Prime Minister Naji Otari.
The report said that the Syrian education minister was given instructed to implement the decision.
SANA further reported that Damascus has sent official condemnations of the attack to UN Secretary-
General Ban Ki-moon and to the head of the UN Security Council; saying that the UN should assert is responsibility for "the dangerous American aggression."
The Syrian government has also decided to postpone a meeting of the Iraqi-Syrian high committee, which was scheduled to take place in mid November. No new date was set at this time.
