US hands back gun battle Syrians

The US has returned five Syrian border guards wounded during a gun battle on the Iraqi border earlier this month.

A Syrian government spokesman said the guards were handed over on the Iraqi border and taken to hospital for further treatment.

No other details were immediately available.

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa had said yesterday that Syria wanted to avoid escalating tensions with the United States and is instead engaged in quiet diplomacy over the return of the border guards.

The June 18 border clash, during which US forces attacked what they suspected were fleeing officials of Saddam Hussein’s deposed regime near the desert border post of Abu Kamal, threatened to stoke already strained relations between Washington and Damascus.

Syria was a loud opponent of the US-led invasion of Iraq, while Washington at one stage accused Damascus of harbouring fleeing former Iraqi officials and sending weapons to Saddam’s forces – claims Syria rejected.

“This subject has had media attention more than it deserved,” al-Sharaa said yesterday.

He said Syrian and US officials were discussing the fate of the five soldiers, three of whom were seriously injured and taken to a military hospital in Baghdad. The other two were treated in western Iraq. One Iraqi was also killed in the attack.

US officials have been unable to explain the full circumstances of the attack, including why houses in a nearby village and the vehicles were struck and who was being targeted.