Tensions Increase in Syria
Tensions between the United States and Syria continued to rise Thursday as Syrian riot police were forced to form a security ring around the United States embassy in Damascus due to a government-organized protest.
The protest attracted thousands of Syrians angry with the U.S. for carrying out a deadly strike against a target in Syria last Sunday.
Luckily for embassy personnel, the crowd dispersed peacefully, however, because most protesters had to either go to class or to work.
The embassy itself was closed today due to security concerns. U.S. officials feared that extremists might use the protest to launch violent attacks against the embassy, and warned Americans living in Syria to remain in doors, or at least not enter the part of Damascus where the protest was organized.
Although anonymous U.S. officials claim that the raid against the building in Syria was necessary in order to take out a leader of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda in Iraq, Syria says that all victims were innocent civilians. It demands an apology and compensation from Washington.
Washington itself has not publicly responded to the Syrian allegations nor officially given an explanation for the raid. Anonymous sources say, however, that the target was a leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Badran Turki al-Mazidih, who also goes by the name of Abu Ghadiyah.
One of the protesters told reporters that the goal of the protest was to force the United States to “stop their acts of terrorism in Syria, in Iraq and the rest of the world.” Protesters waved flags of Syrian President Bashar Assad and held anti-America banners.
Syria, meanwhile, threatened to stop securing its border with Iraq, which is important for both Baghdad and Washington because many foreign extremists have entered Iraq through the Syrian-Iraqi border. Then again, the U.S. believes that Syria is not doing nearly enough to secure the border, meaning that the attack was probably worth the risk of alienating Damascus.
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Hard for Syria to stop securing something they are not securing to begin with