Thousands of Syrians protest US raid

Thousands of people demonstrated in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Thursday, in an apparently stage-managed protest by the government of the American military raid across the Iraqi border into Syrian territory on Sunday. Accounts of the demonstration were carried by SANA, Syria's official news agency. It would be highly unusual for a spontaneous demonstration to arise in Damascus, where political speech is often punished and political protests are not tolerated. Judging by other news accounts and images shown on television, it seemed clear that the government had orchestrated the protest, which looked precisely timed and organized. The BBC showed TV scenes of crowds of protesters massing in central Damascus, carrying Syrian flags and pictures of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. According to The Associated Press, which reported from Damascus, Syrian riot police formed a protective ring around the United States Embassy, a mile away from the demonstrations. The embassy was closed for the protests and the crowds dispersed peacefully after a couple of hours, The A.P. said. Syria said eight civilians were killed in the raid on Sunday, and has described the attack as "terrorist aggression" by the United States. But American officials said the raid, by American helicopter-borne forces, killed an Iraqi militant responsible for running weapons, money and foreign fighters across the border into Iraq. The American officials said that all the people killed in the assault were militants. Earlier this week, in its first retaliation against the raid, the Syrian cabinet said it had decided to order the closure of the American School and an American cultural center in Damascus. The strike into Syria was by far the boldest by American commandos in the five years since the United States invaded Iraq and began to condemn Syria's role in stoking the Iraqi insurgency. But in justifying the attack, American officials said the United States was determined to halt the flow of militants and weapons across the border to the insurgency. They confirmed the death in the raid of the man suspected of leading an insurgent cell, an Iraqi known as Abu Ghadiya. In the raid on Sunday, about two dozen American commandos in specially equipped Black Hawk helicopters swooped into the village of Sukkariyah, six miles from the Iraqi border, just before 5 p.m., and fought a brief gun battle with Abu Ghadiya and several members of his cell, the officials said. It was unclear whether Abu Ghadiya died near his tent on the battlefield or after he was taken into American custody, one senior American official said