Syria threatens to strike Golan Jews if attacked again

Syria has threatened to attack Israeli colonies in the Golan Heights if Tel Aviv launches another assault on its territory.

In a move that will raise tension after Israel struck a suspected terrorist training camp near Damascus earlier this month, Farouq Al Shara, Syria's foreign minister, warned that further "aggression" would prompt Syria to use "other cards".

Al Shara's threat, in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, raises – for the first time since the Israeli raid – the prospect of Syria attacking the area seized from it by Israel in 1967.

The foreign minister also claimed that Syria was unable to stop resistance fighters pouring across the border into Iraq to attack American troops.

"They are very determined and many of them dream of seeing an American tank," he said.

Al Shara added that Israel's first incursion into Syria for 20 years had caused deep anger. While Damascus wants peace, he said, many Syrians wanted to hit back. The raid followed an attack by a Palestinian suicide bomber that killed 19 people in a restaurant in the port city of Haifa.

"After the attack we acted in a responsible way and went to the United Nations and a majority of our people supported that," Shara said. "But if we are attacked again our people will not stand for it and we have to carry out the will of the people.

"We have many cards that we have not played. Don't forget there are many Israeli colonies in the Golan. I am not exaggerating but I am describing things as they might happen."

One western diplomat said that it was feasible that Syria could react to another Israeli attack by striking at Golan colonies, or by "reactivating" Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon.

Such a reaction would "up the ante to a dangerous level", he said.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and annexed the area in 1981, claiming that Syria had used it as a base from which to attack Israel. More than 14,000 Jews live on the Golan and the slopes of Mount Hermon.

Washington is already planning tough diplomatic and financial action against Syria.

Al Shara said Syria could not control the border with Iraq and had failed to stop militants going to fight against American forces.

"We are doing everything we can," he said. "We have tightened our checkpoints and are turning people back. But the border is long and we cannot cover it all. If America, a rich superpower, cannot stop Mexicans crossing into the United States, then how can we, a poor country, be expected to stop Palestinians getting into Iraq?" he added.