Syria’s Assad warns Israel on air strikes and Golan

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has warned Israel that it will respond in kind to any future air strikes.

In an interview with a Lebanese TV channel, he said there was “popular pressure” to open a military front against Israel in the Golan Heights.

He also suggested Syria may have received the first shipment of an advanced Russian air defence system.

Israel has warned it will regard the Russian missiles as a serious threat to its security.

Mr Assad’s comments came as a Syrian doctor in the strategic town of Qusair, the scene of heavy fighting in recent days, described the horrors of living there.

There were more than 600 injured people trapped in rebel-held districts with no access to medical assistance, he told the BBC.

“They are waiting three to four days for drinking water and that doesn’t include the water they need for everyday use for washing their clothes and for normal day-to-day activities,” he added.

There were women and children “dying in the battle for more control” of the town, which lies 30km (18 miles) south-west of Homs, he said.

He said he had seen the bodies of “many” fighters from the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah and described their participation in the conflict as a game-changer.

Gen Selim Idriss, the military chief of the main umbrella group of Syrian rebels, the Free Syrian Army, told the BBC on Wednesday that more than 7,000 Hezbollah fighters were taking part in attacks on Qusair.

Meanwhile, US and UK officials are looking into unconfirmed reports that an American woman and a British man have been killed in Syria.

This follows a report aired by Syrian state TV showing the bodies and identity cards apparently of Westerners killed by government troops while fighting for the rebels in north-west Idlib province.

source http://www.bbc.co.uk

Tags: Assad, Israeli, strikes, Syria

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