Syria Hardens Stance On U.S. After Raid

Syria hardened its stance against the U.S. on Wednesday, threatening to cut off cooperation on Iraqi border security while demanding America apologize and promise not to repeat a deadly cross-border raid into its territory.

The U.S. Embassy announced that it was closing its doors on Thursday "due to security concerns." The statement on its Web site did not say for how long.

The closure announcement came ahead of a government-sanctioned mass demonstration set for Thursday in Damascus to protest Sunday's raid that Syria said killed eight people in the eastern border community of Abu Kamal.

The Syrian government already had ordered the closure of an American school and cultural center. That and a U.S. embassy warning to be vigilant has raised concerns among Americans living in Damascus.

According to a State Department official, America's senior diplomat in the country, Maura Connolly, was officially notified of Syria's request that the American Cultural Center be closed effective immediately. Syria also wants the Damascus Community School, also known as the American School, to be closed by Nov. 6, reports CBS News State Department reporter Charles Wolfson.

"We are looking at how to respond," State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said, adding that in the meantime: "we expect the Syrian government to provide adequate security for the buildings in which the American Cultural Center and Damascus Community School are housed."

Earlier Wednesday, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad demanded an investigation into Sunday's raid and assurances that Iraqi territory not be used for attacking Syria. If U.S. troops raid Syrian territory again, Mekdad warned that cooperation would be cut off.

"We ask of them (Iraqis) and the Americans to investigate and provide us with the background for such a criminal, terrorist act against an independent state ... (and) make an official apology for this aggression and pledge not to repeat it," Mekdad told The Associated Press.

"What is required of the American government is to confess to this aggression and not be cowardly," he said, adding that the U.S. should also compensate Syria.

There has been no formal acknowledgment of the raid from the United States. But U.S. officials, speaking to the media on condition of anonymity, have said the target of the raid was Badran Turki al-Mazidih, a top al Qaeda in Iraq figure who operated a network smuggling fighters into the war-torn country. The Iraqi national also goes by the name Abu Ghadiyah.

Mekdad rejected the U.S. reports and insisted all those killed were Syrians.

"The allegation that this person was killed is a false claim. Therefore, a search for him by world intelligence agencies, including Syria's, should continue," he said.

Though Syria has long been viewed by the U.S. as a destabilizing country in the Middle East, in recent months, Damascus has been trying to change its image and end years of global seclusion.

Its president, Bashar Assad, has pursued indirect peace talks with Israel, mediated by Turkey, and says he's open for future direct talk as early as next year. Syria also has agreed to establish diplomatic ties with Lebanon, a country it used to dominate both politically and militarily.

But one of the sore points in U.S.-Syria relations has been American accusations that Syria wasn't doing enough to prevent foreign fighters from crossing its borders into Iraq. Syria says it is doing all it can to safeguard its long, porous border.

Despite its opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Syria also has moved to improve relations with Baghdad, sending an ambassador earlier this month for the first time in 25 years. Iraq on Wednesday demanded that a crucial security deal under discussion with the U.S. must include a ban on U.S. troops using Iraqi territory to attack Iraq's neighbors.

With tensions between the U.S. and Syria on the rise, the U.S. Embassy issued a warning advising Americans to avoid demonstrations and review their personal security. Thursday's government-sanctioned protest was expected to draw tens of thousands.

Despite the warning, some Americans living in Syria said they were not too worried.

"I feel that it might be tough for me to say that I am an American, for a while, but I don't have any concerns for my personal safety," said Kate Alberswerth, a 24-year-old New York native who is studying Arabic in Damascus.

Though authorities usually keep Syria tightly controlled and Americans have generally been welcomed, violence against U.S. and European interests at protests occasionally has erupted in the past.

In a 1998 demonstration, small violent groups trashed the American ambassador's residence and entered the American and British cultural centers in Damascus to protest U.S.-British airstrikes against Iraq. In 2006, thousands of outraged Syrians protesting offensive caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus.

At the Damascus Community School in an upscale neighborhood, students and teachers attended classes as usual Wednesday despite the government's closure order. An employee at the American cultural center, which is linked to the embassy, said it was also open.

But later Syria's official media said the Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. envoy to formally convey the government's decision.