Syria asks for return of guards

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syria's foreign minister said Sunday that Damascus wants to avoid escalating tensions with Washington and is quietly seeking the return of five Syrian border guards wounded and taken by U.S. forces during a battle on the Iraqi border.\nThe June 18 border clash, during which U.S. forces attacked what they suspected were fleeing officials of Saddam Hussein's deposed regime, threatened to stoke already strained relations between Washington and Damascus.\nSyria was a loud opponent of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, while U.S. officials at one stage accused Damascus of harboring fleeing former Iraqi officials and sending weapons to Saddam's forces -- claims which Syria rejected.\nBut it seemed Sunday that Syria was keen to play down the recent attack near the desert border post of Abu Kamal.\n"This subject has had media attention more than it deserved," Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa said, adding that Syria "wanted to follow quiet diplomacy through diplomatic channels."\nAl-Sharaa said Syrian and U.S. officials were discussing the fate of the five soldiers, three of whom were seriously injured and taken to a military hospital in Baghdad. The others were treated in western Iraq. One Iraqi was killed in the attack, U.S. officials have said.\n"Contacts are under way between the two sides, and we hope to reach positive results for a satisfactory solution to this problem, away from any escalation or misunderstanding between Syria and America," al-Sharaa said during a news conference Sunday with visiting Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen in the northern city of Aleppo.\nOn Saturday, the U.S. Embassy in Damascus said the State Department was working with the Pentagon regarding the "timing and particulars of the repatriation of the five Syrian border guards."\nDuring the June 18 battle, U.S. warplanes and commandos launched a ferocious strike on a convoy of vehicles the Americans had suspected to be carrying former Iraqi officials fleeing to Syria.\nU.S. officials have been unable to explain the full circumstances of the attack, including why houses in a nearby village and the vehicles were struck and who was being targeted.