Iraq today defended launching a joint raid with the United States across the border into neighbouring Syria, claiming that the target was a site used by terror groups planning attacks against it.

Syria has protested vigorously about last night's raid, claiming that four children were among the eight to die after four military helicopters landed at sunset near al-Sukkari farm, five miles inside the Syrian border.

The Syrian ambassador to London described the raid as outrageous, and an embassy spokesman demanded to know why Iraq had not simply informed it that its territory was being used by hostile groups. Iraq, however, responded by saying that it had warned Syria about insurgency activity, but that no action had been taken.

Jihad Makdissi, the press attache at the Syrian embassy in London, said: "If (the United States) have any proof of any insurgency, instead of applying the law of the jungle and penetrating, unprovoked, a sovereign country, they should come to the Syrians first and share this information."

But Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, retorted: "The attacked area was the scene of activities of terrorist groups operating from Syria against Iraq.

"The latest of these groups... killed 13 police recruits in an (Iraqi) border village. Iraq has asked Syria to hand over this group which uses Syria as a base for its terrorist operations."

The Syrian Foreign Ministry has summoned the US and Iraqi ambassadors to Damascus to protest about the operation.

The incident is expected to dominate discussion when Walid al-Muallem, the Syrian Foreign Minister, meets David Miliband, his British counterpart, in London later today.

A joint news conference after the meeting was today cancelled at the last minute as "inappropriate". A Foreign Office spokeswoman said that both sides had been concerned that the press briefing would have been dominated by questions about the US raid.

Mr Miliband, as the representative of America’s principal ally in Iraq, might have found it awkward to appear alongside Mr al-Muallem at a time when Syria is condemning what it describes as an act of “serious aggression” by the US.

In a statement carried by the Syrian state news agency, Damascus claimed that the helicopters targeted a civilian building under construction, and “opened fire on workers inside the building, including the wife of the building guard, leading to the [death] of eight civilians”.

Suleiman Ghadban, head of the hospital in the nearby town of Bou Kamal, said: “The hospital received seven bodies aged between 16 and 50 and three wounded, including the mother of the [deceased] family.”

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