Nine die in US attack inside Syria

Nine people were killed on Sunday when US helicopters attacked a village inside Syria along its border with Iraq, the private television channel al-Dunia reported on Sunday. Earlier the official SANA news agency reported the incident without identifying the helicopters.
Al-Dunia said an unknown number of American helicopters attacked the village of Al-Sukkiraya, around 550 kilometres (340 miles) north-east of the capital. It did not say when the attack happened. "Nine people were killed and 14 wounded in the raid, which hit a group of builders while they were working," the television station said. "All victims were civilians," it said. "We are in the process of investigating this," Sergeant Brooke Murphy, a US military spokesperson, told AFP in Baghdad.
US commanders say Syria is the main transit point for foreign jihadists crossing into Iraq. Washington has blamed Damascus for turning a blind eye to the problem. On October 16 Iraqi forces arrested seven Syrian "terrorist" suspects at a checkpoint near the city of Baquba, a hub of al Qaeda fighters, the Baghdad defence ministry said.