Moscow  - Russia - which has a military cooperation agreement with Syria - Monday joined those co

Istanbul  - It is an open guess whether the truth will come to light beyond a shadow of doubt as to

Cairo - Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa on Monday condemned the US raid in Syria on Sunday, describing it as "a violation of Syrian sovereignty."

Mussa told reporters at the League's headquarters that the US action did not help stability in the already volatile region.

He underlined the Arab League's support for Syria's "right to defend its land and people" and called for an investigation in the incident to "hold those responsible into account."

London - Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem was holding talks with is British counterpart David Miliband in London Monday, but a planned joint news conference was called off following reports of a US raid into Syrian territory, the Foreign Office said.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the press conference had been abandoned because both sides had been concerned that it would be dominated by questions about the US raid.

Commentators said it would clearly have been awkward for Miliband, as the representative of the US' principal ally in Iraq, to have appeared alongside al-Muallem at a time when Syria was condemning what it described as an act of "serious aggression" by the US.

Beirut - Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Seniora denounced Monday the US helicopter-borne commando raid in Syria which allegedly targeted the al-Qaeda-linked insurgents streaming into Iraq.

According to Syria, eight people, including a married couple and their four children were killed in the raid on a building in the village of Al-Sukkariya, some eight kilometres from the country's border with Iraq.

"The raid by US helicopters on Syrian territory ... constitutes a violation of Syrian sovereignty and thus is a dangerous, unacceptable attack that we condemn," a statement from Seniora's office said.

Damascus - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Monday he did not believe the reported US commando raid in Syria would affect Israel.

Barak declined to say whether the US had given Israel prior notice of the raid, which he called part of the global struggle against radical Islamic terrorism.

"This is apparently part of the continuation of the struggle which is taking place today on the entire globe really against radical Islamic terror," he told Israel Radio.

Asked if the US had notified Israel, he replied: "I don't want to get into anything of that sort."