At this point, the US hasn’t confirmed but is investigating. The report that it was the US comes from witnesses and Syrian state television. From Sky News:
Syrian TV channel Al Dunia said a number of American helicopters attacked the village of Al Sukkiraya, on Syria’s border point with Iraq.
Witnesses said the attack targeted a house in the area in which a man and his four sons, and two other people were killed.
“Nine people were killed and 14 wounded in the raid, which hit a group of builders while they were working,” the television station said.
Alon ben-David, a security correspondent with Israel’s Channel 10, believes American military action was taken against suspected al Qaeda territory on Syrian soil.
He told Sky News: “In a combined operation, four helicopters closed in on the target – a building in which there were five members of the same family.
“The gunships attacked and eight American soldiers landed on the ground to storm the building before leaving.”
According to this AP report at the Washington Times, a US military official said they’ve been reinforcing the Syrian border in the areas where terrorists have been able move into Iraq freely.
If it was the US, I’m curious as to whom they were targeting.
Update: Well, it seems an unnamed US military official said US special forces attacked foreign insurgents who have been coming in and out of Iraq.
U.S. military helicopters launched an extremely rare attack Sunday on Syrian territory close to the border with Iraq, killing eight people in a strike the government in Damascus condemned as “serious aggression.”
A U.S. military official said the raid by special forces targeted the foreign fighter network that travels through Syria into Iraq. The Americans have been unable to shut the network down in the area because Syria was out of the military’s reach.
“We are taking matters into our own hands,” the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of cross-border raids.
