Syrian troops on alert to repel Israeli attack

DAMASCUS: Chief of staff General Hassan Turkmani called on the Syrian army Thursday to stand “ready to respond” to any Israeli attack, the official news agency SANA reported.

The general, in a speech for Syria’s Air Force Day, ordered “fighters to work day and night, to be very alert and stand ready to respond to any attack on the part of the Israeli government of (Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon”. Israel’s government, Turkmani charged, was “going through internal crises which it is trying to export by turning on Syria”. He said the Arab world at large was “going through a dangerous phase (because of) the threats against Syria”. —AFP

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