Hamburg  - The Syrian Arab Republic, a neighbour of both Israel and Iraq, is embroiled in several conflicts. The country has been the target of several military attacks:

October 26, 2008: US soldiers attack a village near the Iraqi border, Syria claims. Nine people are said to have been killed and 14 injured in the commando raid. According to Iraqi sources, the operation was to target suspected terrorists that had previously attacked Iraqi security forces on the border. The US military has not officially confirmed the operation.

September 6, 2007: The Israeli air force strikes several targets in Syria. According to unconfirmed reports, a nuclear reactor in process of being built was the target. Syria sharply condemned the attack, adding however that no military facility was hit. Israel confirmed the attack only a week later, without saying what the target had been.

June 28, 2006: Israeli fighter jets fly past the palace of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country's north. According to the Israeli military, the mission was to put pressure on Assad to rein in Khaled Mashaal, the Syrian-based exiled chief of the radical Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

October 4, 2003: Israeli military strike an alleged training camp near Damascus after a female suicide bomber from the radical group Islamic Jihad killed 19 people in a pub in the northern Israeli city of Haifa. It was the first attack by Israel on Syria in near 30 years.

June 18, 2003: At least five Syrian border troops were wounded in a battle triggered by a nearby US attack on a convoy of suspected high-ranking Iraqi military personnel from the Saddam Hussein regime. (dpa)