Strike on Syria sparks crisis talks

Syria insists there are no militant training camps on its soil

The United Nations Security Council has held an emergency meeting at Syria's request following an Israeli air raid on Syrian territory.

The country's UN ambassador, Faisal Mekdad, called on council members to condemn what he called Israel's military aggression against the sovereignty and territory of Syria.

Israel says its target was a training camp used by the Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad - which carried out a suicide bombing in the Israeli city of Haifa on Saturday, killing 19 people.

The Security Council meeting was adjourned without a vote.

Further consultations will now take place.

The secretary general strongly deplores the Israeli air strike on Syrian territory UN statement World reaction

Damascus has insisted the site targeted by Israel was a civilian zone. It said Israel was threatening security in the Middle East with its first attack on Syrian soil in nearly 30 years.

The US ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte, called on all sides to avoid heightening tension.

But he said: "The United States believes that Syria is on the wrong side of the war on terrorism."

The BBC's UN correspondent, Greg Barrow, says Mr Negroponte's comments signal that Washington would not look too kindly on a resolution that condemns Israel and ignores the role of other actors in the Middle East.

Syria and Israel are long-standing enemies, still technically at war over Israel's occupation and illegal annexation of the Golan Heights.

Outrage

Speaking to the Security Council, Israel's ambassador, Dan Gillerman warned the other countries against lending their support to a Syrian resolution condemning the Israeli action

RECENT SUICIDE ATTACKS 9 September: 15 killed in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv 19 August: 23 killed in Jerusalem 11 June: 17 killed in Jerusalem 18 May: 7 killed in Jerusalem 5 March: 17 killed in Haifa Eyewitness: Dead children Bomber's deadly mission Yom Kippur shrouded in grief

"Syria deserves no support for its complicity in murder and the Council would commit and unforgivable act of moral blindness were it to act otherwise," he said.

Mr Gillerman left the chamber as soon as he had finished speaking, to observe the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur.

Earlier, he had expressed "outrage and dismay" at the fact that the Security Council had agreed to hold the meeting at all, particularly given the Jewish holiday and Saturday's suicide bomb.

"For Syria to call a Security Council meeting is as if Bin Laden had called a Security Council meeting after 9/11," he said, adding that it was the "epitome of double standards".

He would not comment on whether Israel planned further attacks in the region, saying only that "Israel will continue to do whatever necessary to protect the lives of its citizens".

He said he would be "very surprised" if the US would support Syria's resolution, commenting on President George W Bush's condemnation of Syria as part of the "axis of evil".

Change of policy

Israel said the target of the air-raid was the Ein Saheb camp, 22 kilometres (14 miles) outside Damascus, which it said was used by several militant groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Israel released footage of what it said was the target of the raid

Syrian media have described Ein Saheb as a Palestinian refugee camp.

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa said the raid "threatens security and peace in the region and internationally, and could aggravate the deteriorating situation in the region".

"Syria has practised the highest level of self-restraint, realising that Israel is trying to create pretexts ... to export its internal crisis to the region," Mr Sharaa said in a letter to the UN.

The BBC's Kim Ghattas in Beirut says that, given Syria's obsolete army, diplomacy is Damascus' safest path.

Israeli Government spokesman Avi Pazner stressed that the air strike was not directed against Syria - but against Islamic Jihad, the group which has claimed responsibility for the Haifa bombing.

But he said every country had to understand that it would be held responsible if it harboured terrorists.

The Israeli raid marks a clear change in policy for Israel, which normally responds to Palestinian suicide attacks by striking against targets in the West Bank and Gaza.

On Sunday, Israelis began burying those killed in the Haifa bombing , including three generations of the Zev Aviv family which lost five family members.

Four children and several Arabs were among the dead. About 50 other people were injured, in what was one of the deadliest suicide attacks since the start of the Palestinian intifada three years ago.