Concern over the possibility of broader war in the Middle East grew
Monday in the wake of reported airstrikes on Syrian military
installations.
The reported strikes
killed 42 Syrian soldiers, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights said Monday, citing medical sources. It said 100 people remained
missing.
The Syrian government
warned Sunday's apparent strikes -- which followed one last week
attributed by Syria to Israel -- "opens the door wide for all the
possibilities."
Syrian ally Iran warned of a "crushing response" while Russia called reports of Israeli involvement "very worrying."
But an Israeli general
who commands forces on the Syrian border said "there are no winds of
war," according to the Israel Defense Forces website.
The heightened tensions
come amid questions over possible chemical weapon use in Syria and
international debate over how to respond to the country's bloody civil
war, in which more than 70,000 people have died in more than two years
of fighting.
On Monday, a U.N. official spoke of strong suspicions that rebels, not Syrian government forces, have used chemical weapons.
Details of reported strikes
Syria claimed Israeli missiles struck at its military facilities on Sunday.
According to the
state-run SANA news agency, Israeli missiles struck a research center in
Jamayra, a facility in Maysaloun and what the news agency described as a
"paragliding airport" near Damascus.
The blasts prompted terrified residents nearby to run for cover.
"Everything kept
exploding over and over again," said Anna Deeb, whose family lives just
over a mile away. "We could hear gunshots, we could hear people
screaming. ... We didn't know what to do, and there was a problem with
us breathing because the smoke was too much."
Syria says the attack followed another Israeli airstrike late last week.
Israel has not confirmed
or denied that its forces were involved in any attacks inside Syria,
but a U.S. official told CNN's Barbara Starr on Monday that Israeli
forces conducted Sunday's strike, as well as one last week.
Sunday's strike targeted
a research facility in a mountainous area near Damascus and weapons
that were to be transferred to Hezbollah, according to the source.
The earlier strike,
which U.S. officials had previously said happened Thursday or Friday,
targeted Fateh 110 missiles stored at the Damascus airport, the source
said.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad told CNN the attacks amount to a declaration of war by Israel.
"The details are not
clear on what happened," al-Mekdad told CNN. "Did they fire missiles?
... It is not clear for me, because I don't know how it happened, and of
course it is worrying, but Israel will suffer the same."
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