Dubai – Syria has frozen its ties with Iraq following a cross-border attack by US forces on a Syrian village, the Dubai-based al-Arabiya news network reported Friday.
It said the Iraqi charge d’affaires had been summoned to the Syrian Foreign Ministry in Damascus and told that economic cooperation was being frozen, as was cooperation between security services.

BAGHDAD – The deadly U.S. raid into Syria may complicate efforts to win approval for a new U.S.-Iraqi security deal by drawing attention to a fact many Iraqis detest — that they can’t control everything American forces might do.
Syrian officials say U.S. troops and helicopters launched the raid Sunday inside Syrian territory close to the Iraqi border, killing eight people.
The U.S. command in Baghdad would not comment, but a U.S. military official said American special forces targeted the network that smuggles fighters and weapons into Iraq. The official spoke …

Few issues so clearly divide Barack Obama and John McCain as the war in Iraq. Their differences were stark even before the war began: Obama opposed it, McCain favored it.
Then there was the troop surge: Nobody pushed harder for sending additional troops than McCain. Obama didn’t just oppose the surge, he proposed the opposite, calling for the withdrawal of troops.

Iraq has ruled out the possibility of signing any agreement with Britain before the finalization of a security deal with the United States.
“Al-Maliki told the British side that Iraq will discuss the matter after finalizing the agreement with the US,” Haydar al-Abadi, a Parliamentarian from the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) told the Voices of Iraq news agency.
Maliki has called for the withdrawal of British combat troops from the country after their UN mandate expires at the end of 2008.

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s Cabinet is meeting to review a proposed security pact with the United States that would keep American troops in the country three more years.
The Cabinet must sign off before the draft agreement goes to Iraq’s parliament.
The biggest Shiite alliance has expressed reservations over the agreement and some Sunni lawmakers are also opposed.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh says the Cabinet meeting began Tuesday with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki chairing the session.