Damascus will respond to Israeli attacks against targets on its territory, but will "choose the moment" and may not do so immediately, a Syrian political official said on Monday.

"Syria will respond to the Israeli aggression and will choose the moment to do so," the official close to the regime, who was speaking from Damascus, told AFP in Beirut.

Two Tunisian soldiers were wounded Monday when a device exploded in the Mount Chaambi border region during the ongoing hunt for a group of jihadists who have mined the area, a medic said.

"Two soldiers were wounded, one of whom lost his leg and the other was hurt in one eye," said a doctor at the hospital in Kasserine, the regional capital just a few kilometers from the theater of operations.

Kuwait's supreme court on Monday upheld life terms on two Iranians, a Kuwaiti and a stateless on charges of forming a ring to spy for neighboring Iran.

The court, whose rulings are final, also upheld the acquittal of two Iranians, including the only woman in the ring, and a Syrian, a statement issued by the court said.

Gunmen on Monday demanded the Libyan government's resignation as they besieged ministries despite the adoption of a law to purge officials from the regime of dead dictator Moammar Gadhafi from their posts.

"We are determined to continue our movement until the departure of (Prime Minister) Ali Zeidan," said Osama Kaabar, a leader of the militias who had promised to lift their siege if the law was passed.

Israel's military said Monday it is poised to lift a closure on the country's northern airspace imposed a day earlier as part of an alert that followed air strikes on Syria.

"Civilian aviation in northern Israel will resume regular operation following security assessments," a statement said.

China on Monday implicitly criticized Israel's air strikes in Syria as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Shanghai for a visit.

The raids on military sites outside Damascus a day earlier, believed to target weapons headed for Lebanon's Hizbullah, raised new fears of Syria's 26-month-long conflict spilling over into the wider region.

Israeli raids on Syrian targets at the weekend killed at least 42 soldiers, a watchdog said Monday, as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon led calls for restraint to prevent the war spilling over borders.

"At least 42 soldiers were killed in the strikes, and another 100 who would usually be at the targeted sites remain unaccounted for" after the Israeli strikes near Damascus, said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A top Iranian general said any arms Israel targeted in Syria did not come from the Islamic republic, in remarks published on the Revolutionary Guards website on Monday.

Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri "denied Western and Israeli media reports that an Iranian weapons depot has been targeted in Syria," the website reported.

The Turkish authorities are carrying out blood tests on Syrians who have fled the fighting at home to determine if they have been victims of chemical weapons, a medical source said Monday.

"Samples have been taken from people wounded in Syria who have been transported to Turkey," the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that the results were not yet known.

Syrian rebels have made use of the deadly nerve agent sarin in their war-torn country's conflict, U.N. human rights investigator Carla del Ponte has said.

"According to the testimonies we have gathered, the rebels have used chemical weapons, making use of sarin gas," del Ponte, a former war crimes prosecutor, said in an interview with Swiss radio late on Sunday.