Amin: Syria calling for emergency meetings
 |
CNN's Rula Amin
Story Tools
|
DAMASCUS, Syria (CNN) -- The Syrian Foreign Ministry insisted Sunday that an Israeli air attack on what the Israelis said was a Palestinian terrorist training camp near Damascus was instead a civilian site.
The overnight attack came hours after a suicide bombing in an Israeli restaurant killed 19 people and injured at least 50 others.
CNN's Rula Amin filled the following report on Syria's reaction from Damascus.
AMIN: We just heard from the Syrian Foreign Ministry, which said the Israeli attack had actually hit a civilian site. The Syrian statement called the Israeli raid a flagrant violation, a serious escalation.
Damascus is filing an official complaint with the United Nations and is demanding that the Security Council meets immediately to discuss the Israeli attack.
Damascus is also calling on the Arab League for an emergency meeting, to support Syria and discuss what can be done.
We have also heard from a spokesman from Islamic Jihad in Beirut, who denied that what was hit was actually a training camp. He said Islamic Jihad does not have any fighters or any kind of military activities in Damascus.
This is the first time that Israel hit in Syria in over 20 years. And Arab governments, Arab officials in the region are very concerned that this could escalate.
We heard from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, as well as the Jordanian foreign minister, Marwan Muasher.
Both called on the United States to restrain Israel, because they are concerned that this could actually mean a further deterioration in the very tense situation here, and a start of a new cycle of violence.
