- DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - A
U.S. missile hit a passenger bus carrying Syrian civilians fleeing the
war in Iraq, killing five and injuring 10, Syria's official news agency
reported Monday. The agency reported that the air-to-surface missile hit
the bus Sunday morning in Iraq close to the Syrian border. A U.S. Central
Command spokeswoman had no information on the report. She said, however,
that U.S. forces do not target civilians and that they fire very carefully,
using precision-guided missiles against select military targets. The Syrian
agency said the wounded were taken to a Syrian hospital on the border with
Iraq while the dead were sent to a hospital on the outskirts of the Syrian
capital of Damascus. Officials reported that relatives had retrieved the
bodies. Syria, which strongly opposes the U.S.-led war on Iraq, has repeatedly
called for a peaceful solution of the Iraq-U.S. dispute over Baghdad's
weapons arsenal. Meanwhile, four Iraqi diplomats and their families arrived
in Damascus on Monday after neighboring Jordan expelled them over the weekend,
the Syrian agency reported. They were among five diplomats expelled for
actions "incompatible" with their diplomatic duties. Jordan said
the expulsions - the first of Iraqi officials by an Arab state - were ordered
for "security" reasons. ###
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- http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2003/mar/24/032406228.html
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