Region | Syria
Grief and shock sweeps through Syrian village
Grief and shock swept through this small, impoverished village in northwestern Syria yesterday as it buried 23 of its people who were killed when Israeli missiles slammed into a refrigerated warehouse just across the border in Lebanon.
- AP
- Published: 23:34 May 3, 2009
- Syrian Kurds in the Jandaris village in north Syria carry the coffin of a worker who was killed by an Israeli air raid on a farm near the Lebanese village of Qaa.
- Image Credit: Reuters
Jandires, Syria: Grief and shock swept through this small, impoverished village in northwestern Syria yesterday as it buried 23 of its people who were killed when Israeli missiles slammed into a refrigerated warehouse just across the border in Lebanon.
"How long will the Arabs and the world keep silent about Israel's crimes?" asked Brifan Rashid, who lost her brother in the Friday attack. She was slightly wounded.
"How long will the US support Israeli terrorism? What have those poor workers done to Israel to receive such a fate?" asked the 18-year-old, choking back tears. Her father was still missing in the rubble.
The Syrian government blamed the attack on Israel and said its chief international backer, the United States, bore responsibility.
Four missiles blasted the warehouse in the Lebanese town of Qaa, where farm workers were loading vegetables and fruits on to trucks bound for the Syrian market, killing at least 33 labourers according to Syria's official news agency, including 23 Syrian workers. The bodies of the 10 Lebanese killed were believed to have been buried quickly after the attack.
The Syrian dead included 18 men, two elderly women and three young girls. Ten others were wounded.
Rashid recalled she was resting in a small room when the attack occurred. "The room's walls fell upon me and I lost consciousness,"she said.
Wailing crowds thronged pavements in front of the village cemetery yesterday, and large tents were erected to host the mourners.
"God is Great," they shouted before the coffins, wrapped in Syrian flags, were laid in front of the cemetery for prayers. Many in the crowds carried pictures of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Reaction: Syria says US is to blame for deaths
Syria said the United States administration was directly responsible for the death of about two-dozen Syrians killed in an Israeli air attack on an eastern Lebanese village.
"The US administration shoulders direct responsibility for the massacres committed in Lebanon" because of its reluctance to call for an immediate ceasefire in the face of international demands for an end to fighting, Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said.
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