Syria vows harsh response if Israel attacks

SYRIA: Syria vowed a "harsh and direct" response if it is attacked by Israel, showing no sign of bowing to U.S. pressure to abandon support for Hizbollah.

"Any aggression against Syria will have a firm and direct response not limited in time or means," Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said in a statement.

"The resistance (Hizbollah) will win and the Israeli aggression will fail," Bilal said. "The resistance has hit deep inside Israel and the enemy did not expect this."

Syria is a main backer of Hizbollah, whose fighters captured Israeli soldiers in a cross-border operation on Wednesday, sparking Israeli reprisals that have so far killed more than 100 civilians in Lebanon.

The United States, Israel's chief ally, has said Syria must lean on Hizbollah to release the two soldiers and stop fighting.

Bilal said Syria will not relinquish support for Hizbollah, adding that demands by the Lebanese group for Israel to withdraw from occupied Lebanese territory and release Lebanese prisoners of war it has held for years were just.

Syrian officials did not initially react to the outbreak of the violence. President Bashar al-Assad made guarded comments on Saturday, saying Syria will help Lebanon cope with the Israeli attacks, without specifying how.

Syrian authorities have eased procedures at border crossings, which have become Lebanon's only outlet to the world after Israel blockaded the country's Mediterranean ports and bombed its airports. Meanwhile, Hizbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said confrontation with Israel was just beginning after the bombardment of the Israeli city of Haifa.

"We will continue. We still have a lot more and we are just at the beginning," he said in a taped televised address. "We promise them surprises in (any) confrontation."

Hizbollah guerrillas fired rockets at Haifa, killing eight people, on the fifth day of confrontations with Israel.

"As long as the enemy pursues its aggression without limits and red lines we will pursue the confrontation without limits and without red lines," Nasrallah said.

"The enemy doesn't know our capabilities or what we have."

He denied reports there were Iranian troops in Lebanon helping Hizbollah.

Damascus, Beirut, Monday, Reuters