Syrians Protest Deadly U.S. Border Raid

Tens of thousands of Syrians poured out onto a Damascus square in a government-orchestrated rally Thursday to denounce a deadly U.S. raid near the Iraqi border and send a loud message to America: Leave us alone!

A private Syrian television station also reported that Damascus was reducing the number of troops on its border with Iraq in response to the "American aggression." The station, Dunia, showed footage of what appeared to be Syrian troops dismantling positions on the Iraqi border and leaving the area.

An Iraqi government official said Syria had sent additional troops to the border region after Sunday's raid and those troops withdrew from their positions today. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

Syria had threatened it would end border security cooperation with the United States and Iraq in response to the attack. Earlier Thursday, a ranking government official challenged Washington to prove that U.S. helicopters targeted a top al Qaeda militant in the attack that Syria says killed eight civilians.

The demonstration in Damascus was held a mile away from the U.S. Embassy, which had shut down for the day over security concerns. But the protest passed without violence, and the flag-waving crowd dispersed peacefully after two hours of chanting anti-American slogans.

Hundreds of Syrian riot police in helmets, batons and protective shields ringed the embassy protectively. The demonstrators made no attempt to head for the U.S. compound in the upscale Maliki neighborhood. Plainclothes security agents stood at surrounding intersections.

The crowd at the central Youssef al-Azmi Square seemed to direct its anger mostly at U.S. President George W. Bush.

Ahmad Deeb, a 30-year-old civil servant, said he came to condemn the U.S. "attack against Syria's sovereignty" and tell Bush: "enough criminal acts."

"Leave us alone," said Deeb. "The world will be better next week because whoever is going to be elected as president will be better than Bush."

University student Hussam Baayoun, 20, said the demonstrators "want the Americans to stop their acts of terrorism in Syria, in Iraq and the rest of the world."

Protesters totted pictures of President Bashar Assad and held banners reading "America the sponsor of destruction and wars" and "We will not submit to terrorism." Another banner criticized Iraq for letting Americans use its territory to attack Syria.

The Syrian government has demanded Washington apologize for the strike of the Abu Kamal border community and threatened to cut off cooperation on Iraqi border security if there are more American raids on Syria territory.

Although authorities usually keep Syria under tight control and Americans have generally felt welcome in the country, violence against U.S. and European interests at protests has erupted in the past.

After Sunday's raid, Damascus ordered the closure of an American school in Damascus, expected within a week, and the immediate closing of the U.S. cultural center linked to the embassy.

In Baghdad, the foreign ministry said Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari called his Syrian counterpart late Wednesday to express Iraq's rejection of the attack and stress his government's keenness to avoid any political escalation that would damage relations between the two countries.

Washington has not formally acknowledged the raid 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 of smuggling fighters into the war-torn country. The Iraqi national also goes by the name Abu Ghadiyah.

Syria insists the dead were all Syrian civilians and has challenged Washington to provide evidence its forces targeted a top al Qaeda operative.

Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said the "aggression ... was supposed to yield a catch so that they could show it to the world ... But the catch turned out to be an innocent family."

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

But American accusations that Syria wasn't doing enough to prevent foreign fighters from crossing its borders into Iraq remains a sore point in relations. Syria says it is doing all it can to safeguard its long, porous border.