Syria has called for an end to the "occupation" of its neighbour, Iraq, in its first official response to the fall of Baghdad. But Damascus did not respond to accusations on Wednesday from US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that it was helping members of Saddam Hussein's regime to escape. The US administration kept up the pressure on Syria on Thursday, with Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz saying it was "shipping killers into Iraq to try to kill Americans". In a foreign ministry statement, Syria said: "In these dangerous circumstances, Syria calls on the international community to make every effort to put an end to the occupation." The Iraqi people should be allowed "to freely choose their dictator government without foreign interference", it said. But Damascus said nothing about Mr Rumsfeld's assertions that he had seen "scraps of intelligence saying that Syria has been co-operative in facilitating the move of the people out of Iraq and into Syria". |