Syria on Sunday warned it would respond directly and by all means necessary to any Israeli attack on its territory.
DAMASCUS: Syria on Sunday warned it would respond directly and by all means necessary to any Israeli attack on its territory, in its first official reaction to Israel's offensive on neighbouring Lebanon.
"Any Israeli attack against Syria will provoke an unlimited, direct and firm response using all means necessary," Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said, according to the official SANA news agency.
Damascus-ally Iran also warned arch-enemy Israel of unimaginable losses if it attacks Syria and vowed that it was standing by the Syrian people.
"We hope the Zionist regime does not make the mistake of attacking Syria, because extending the front would definitely make the Zionist regime face unimaginable losses," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.
Israel said on Saturday that Syria was not a target in its offensive, after firing rockets close to the Lebanese-Syrian border.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov warned of a real threat that the Middle East crisis could drag other countries in the region into the conflict, just ahead of a G8 summit of world leaders likely to be dominated by Israel's military offensives in Lebanon and Gaza.
Syria, which backs the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, was the longtime powerbroker in Lebanon until international pressure and outcry over the assassination of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri forced it to withdraw its troops from Lebanon last year.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Saturday that Syria will put its resources at the disposal of Lebanon to help cope with Israeli attacks devastating the country.
Nine Israelis killed in Hezbollah missile attack: At least nine Israelis were killed and over 30 others injured in a new barrage of rocket attacks by Hezbollah militant group into Israel's northern city of Haifa, leading Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to warn of far- reaching consequences to neighbouring Lebanon.
All casualties were in an Israel Railways depot near an Israel Electric Corporation installation on Haifa Bay, a spokesman of the rescue service Magen David Adom said.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned there would be "far-reaching consequences" for the rocket attack even as Israel security forces informed people in southern Lebanon of imminent Air Force raids.
The Israeli Army believes missiles fired by Lebanese guerrillas at the city of Haifa on Sunday were probably made in Syria, a senior political source said.
The political source said that Israel's Army chief, Dan Halutz, had told the cabinet meeting: "Some of the missiles were probably produced by Syria."
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