SYRIA: Israelis, Yanks, Turks, airstrikes, intrigues et al

[TonyTiger]

Israeli warplanes strike Syrian weapons facility, US official tells Fox News

Published May 04, 2013 - FoxNews.com

A Syrian weapons facility was struck overnight Thursday into Friday by Israeli warplanes, a U.S. official told Fox News.

A source told Fox News that it is not clear whether the warplanes crossed into Syrian airspace or whether the missiles were fired from across the border. It did not appear that a chemical weapons site was targeted, officials told The Associated Press, and one official said the strike appeared to have hit a warehouse. U.S. forces were not involved.

When Israeli planes fired on a weapons convoy inside Syria in January, they remained outside Syrian airspace. The convoy was believed to be carrying Russian SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles. "Israel is determined to prevent the transfer of chemical weapons or other game-changing weaponry by the Syrian regime to terrorists, specially to Hizbullah in Lebanon," an official from the Israeli Embassy in Washington told Fox News.

Israel has targeted weapons in the past that it believes are being delivered to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. Earlier this week, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said his group would assist Syrian President Bashar Assad if needed in the effort to put down a 2-year-old uprising.

...

The airstrike, first reported by CNN, came hours before President Barack Obama told reporters at a news conference in Costa Rica on Friday that he didn't foresee a scenario in which the U.S. would send troops to Syria. More than 70,000 peoples have died and hundreds of thousands have fled the country as the Assad regime has battled rebels. The Israeli strike also follows days of renewed concerns that Syria might be using chemical weapons against opposition forces. Obama has characterized evidence of the use of chemical weapons as a "game-changer" that would have "enormous consequences."

While the U.S. has been providing nonlethal aide to opposition forces in Syria, even stepping up that form of support in recent days, the Obama administration has resisted calls from some American lawmakers to arm the rebels or to work to establish a no-fly zone to aid the insurgency.

On Thursday, however, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the administration is rethinking its opposition to providing arms to the rebels. He said it was one of several options as the U.S. consults with allies about steps to be taken to drive Assad from power. Officials in the administration who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss strategy said earlier this week that arming the opposition forces was seen as more likely than any other military option. Obama followed Hagel's comments by saying options will continue to be evaluated, though he did not cite providing arms specifically. Concerns that U.S. weapons could end up in the hands of al-Qaida-linked groups helping the Syrian opposition or other extremists, including Hezbollah, have stood in the way of that change in strategy.

"We want to make sure that we look before we leap and that what we're doing is actually helpful to the situation as opposed to making it more deadly or more complex," Obama said Thursday at a news conference in Mexico. Pentagon spokesman George Little declined to comment on the report.

Fox News' Jennifer Griffin, James Rosen and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Link (Fox News)

[Spellbound454]

Israel don't want those weapons falling in the hands of their enemies.

Al Qaeda (Sunni) are intolerant of Hizbullah (Shia).....but they both hate Israel and the West even more than they hate each other.
They kill each other in their tens of thousands and do a good job of clubbing together to blame someone else for their own evils.
Where are all the protests from the Muslim countries as thousands are dying by their own hands?

There is a bit of a quandary over which affillliated extremist group to support.....If any.

[TonyTiger]

Tourist town's new wave of visitors: Fighters on their way in or out of Syria



The Old Market in Antakya, Turkey, has become a frequent stop for jihadists on their way to or from Syria, where they are battling the regime of President Bashar Assad.

By Ammar Cheikhomar and Ian Johnston, NBC News

ANTAKYA, Turkey -- In the Old Market of the ancient city of Antakya, there is a palpable sense of unease.

For wandering among the ordinary shoppers and tourists drawn to this border town -- known in antiquity as Antioch -- are hardened fighters like Abu Muntaser Alliby. “I wish to die in Syria while I'm defending the oppressed there,” said the 27-year-old Islamist fighter from Libya, a veteran of three six-week tours in Syria who adopted a false name when he took up arms.

Antakya has gone from a tranquil stop on the tourist trail sometimes called "Tuscany with minarets" to a key staging post for the thousands of foreign fighters who have flocked to wage jihad against President Bashar Assad in Syria, bolstering the ranks of al Qaeda and Taliban-style militias. The presence of Alliby and others like him has sparked angry protests by local people in the city. But others have profited, with shops springing up to supply the new demand for camouflage clothing, communication devices, backpacks and other equipment.

Their presence has also created a headache for the rebel Free Syrian Army. While they are allies in the struggle to topple Assad, their goal of establishing one Islamist state covering the entire Arab region is far removed from the FSA’s hopes of a democratic Syria.

And they are also cited as the main reason why the U.S. and other Western countries have not supplied the rebels with arms -- as some may end up in the hands of Alliby and his comrades. Some analysts now believe this policy has inadvertently helped groups like Jabhat al-Nusra -- officially allied with al Qaeda in Iraq -- and the Syrian Islamic Front, an umbrella body of disparate groups with a similar ideology to the Taliban. At the moment, they're the only ones getting a steady stream of money and weapons and therefore are more attractive to would-be fighters than the poorly armed FSA.

But, listening to Alliby, it’s easy to see why the Obama administration is nervous and Israel might decide to take military action. “We all have the same goal, which is to bring down the Syrian infidel regime and raise the banner ‘no God but Allah’ in Syria,” he said as he looked through the market for a backpack. “I guess that this is the goal of every Muslim in Syria. ... We are all Muslims and we all ask for the jihad and hope to die while we are defending our religion,” he said. “I said goodbye to my parents and friends. I don't want to go back. I hope that I die in Syria or in Palestine. I think any mujahed [jihadi] in Islam wishes to fight in Palestine against the Jews,” he added. “And I hope that we can have a center of Muslim mujahedeen [holy warriors] in Syria to proceed from Syria to liberate Palestine. Jihad starts from Syria and ends in Jerusalem.”

...

In addition to jihadists, Antakya has also drawn journalists from around the world. One hotel is known as the BBC’s base, another is home to al-Jazeera. The jihadists, too, have their favorite hotel at a discreet distance from media camps. It is at the bargain end of the market, but -- unlike the cheapest establishments -- provides an Internet connection and breakfast. The Free Syrian Army might not run to such luxuries. Its fighters literally count their bullets and struggle to buy equipment in marked contrast to the well-funded, well-armed Islamist groups.

Luay Mukdad, political and media coordinator for the Free Syrian Army, admitted some FSA groups were “short on weapons, short on money and communications, so that’s what’s forced them to cooperate” with extremist fighters. “Let me be honest, as long as Jabhat al-Nusra is holding their ground against Bashar Assad, there’s no problem,” he said. Al-Nusra was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. in December and formally announced its alliance with al Qaeda in Iraq last month. Mukdad said the Islamists fighters’ strength had been exaggerated in the media, but he warned that unless the West helped the FSA they would become stronger and more dangerous -- for Syria and the Middle East.

While the Islamists hate the West and shun their support, the FSA believes it cannot win without its aid. “We want Syria to be a civil country and we want to build our democracy,” he said, envisioning a country with “respect for all people” after the downfall of Assad. Mukdad said the FSA would not allow extremists to take over the country. “If Jabhat al-Nusra choose to be like al Qaeda or something and start trying to force people to do all the extremist things, like to force … the girls to put on the hijab or to do anything, the Free Syrian Army will protect the Syrian people,” he said. “Make us stronger. We want to protect our country and not let these people steal our future.”

Nadim Shehadi, a Middle East expert at the U.K.-based Chatham House think tank, said... that most ordinary Syrians now believed that the U.S. was on their side and the idea of Taliban-style rule was “not something that would fly” in ethnically diverse Syria. “America used to be unpopular on the Arab street, when it used to support dictators. What’s emerging now is … an indication of American soft power,” he said. “[Syrians] want to be more like America than they want to be like Iran, Gaza or North Korea.”

Professor Peter Neumann, director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Police Violence at King's College London, carried out a study that estimated there were 5,500 foreign fighters in Syria, most from the Middle East and North Africa. Like Mukdad and Shehadi, he said the West should arm the FSA to provide a counter to the hard-line Islamist or Salafist groups and accept this would mean some weapons would fall into their hands. "We're so afraid of funding the wrong people ... but the absence of our funding has actually made that more likely because the only money that comes through right now is this hard-core Islamist money," Neumann said.

"...funding from Kuwait."

Link (NBC News)

[TonyTiger]

'Israel may be behind Syrian chemical weapons use'

By JPOST.COM STAFF05/04/2013 23:30

Former Bush administration official says Syrian chemical weapons use might've been "false flag operation" of Israel.



Retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson. Photo: Screenshot

A former senior official in the Bush administration said on Thursday the use of chemical weapons in Syria might have been a "false flag operation" of Israel, meant to implicate Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"We don’t know what the chain of custody is. This could’ve been an Israeli false flag operation, it could’ve been an opposition in Syria... or it could’ve been an actual use by Bashar Assad. But we certainly don’t know with the evidence we’ve been given. And what I’m hearing from the intelligence community is that that evidence is really flakey," retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff, told Cenk Uygur in an interview with Current TV.

Given this "flimsy evidence," Wilkerson doesn't believe a red line has been crossed in Syria, and that the US should not base its intervention in the war-torn country based on such evidence.

Wilkerson criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu harshly, saying there is a "geostratigically, geopolitical inept regime in Tel Aviv right now."

"We saw really startling evidence of that in the fact that [US] President [Barack] Obama had to tell Bibi Netanyahu, 'pick up the phone, you idiot, and call Ankara and get yourself out of this strategic isolation you're in right now, do a reconciliation with Turkey, the most powerful country in the region,' otherwise Bibi probably wouldn't have done it," he said.

He also said the prime minister was "clueless" as to the grave security situation Israel is in.

...

Link (The Jerusalem Post)


====================

I'm sure the Israelis are going: WTF? 

[TonyTiger]

Israeli Airstrike in Syria Targeted Missiles From Iran

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and JODI RUDOREN - Published: May 4, 2013 - New York Times

WASHINGTON — The airstrike that Israeli warplanes carried out in Syria was directed at a shipment of advanced surface-to-surface missiles from Iran that Israel believed was intended for Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese organization, American officials said Saturday.

It was the second time in four months that Israel had carried out an attack in foreign territory intended to disrupt the pipeline of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah, and the raid was a vivid example of how regional adversaries are looking after their own interests as Syria becomes more chaotic.

Iran and Hezbollah have both backed President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war, now in its third year. But as fighting in Syria escalates, they also have a powerful stake in expediting the delivery of advanced weapons to Hezbollah in case Mr. Assad loses his grip on power.

Israel, for its part, has repeatedly cautioned that it will not allow Hezbollah to receive “game changing” weapons that could threaten the Israeli heartland after a post-Assad government took power.

And as Washington considers how to handle evidence of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government, a development it has described as a “red line,” Israel is clearly showing that it will stand behind the red lines it sets.

“The Israelis are saying, ‘O.K., whichever way the civil war is going, we are going to keep our red lines, which are different from Obama’s,’ ” said Ehud Yaari, an Israel-based fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The missiles that were the target of the raid had been sent to Syria by Iran and were being stored in a warehouse at Damascus International Airport when they were struck, according to an American official.

Two prominent Israeli defense analysts said military officials had told them that the targeted shipment included Scud Ds, which Syrians have developed from Russian weapons and have a range up to 422 miles — long enough to reach Eilat, in southernmost Israel, from Lebanon.

But an American official, who asked not to be identified because he was discussing intelligence reports, said they were Fateh-110s.

The Fateh-110 is a mobile, accurate, solid-fueled missile that represents a considerable improvement over the liquid-fueled Scud missile. American officials have said it has the range to strike Tel Aviv and much of Israel from southern Lebanon.

A Pentagon official said in 2010 that Hezbollah was believed to already have a small supply of Fateh-110s. Additional missiles could increase Iran’s ability to threaten Israel through its Lebanese proxy if Israel ever mounted airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear installations.

Syrians with knowledge of security and military matters confirmed the strike, which took place overnight Thursday, saying that Iran had sent arms and rockets to the airport intending to resend them to Hezbollah.

...

Link (New York Times)

[billisonboard]

May 4, 2013 18:41:49 GMT -5 TonyTiger said:

'Israel may be behind Syrian chemical weapons use'

...

Biting at the leash?

[mmhmm]

Israel strikes Syrian military research center, US official says

Israeli jets bombed a military research facility north of Damascus early Sunday, a senior official told NBC News -- the second Israeli attack on targets in Syria in recent days.
Heavy explosions shook the city, and video shot by activists showed a fireball rising into the sky after Sunday's strikes, according to Reuters.
Syrian media also reported that the target was the Jamraya military research center, which Israel hit in January, Reuters said. The center is about 10 miles from the Lebanese border.

link (NBC News)

[TonyTiger]

Looks like that second airstrike was against multiple targets rather than just a military research center, and one of the focal points of the sortie was more missiles being shipped by the Iranians to Hezbollah in Lebannon, crossing through Syria in the process - in this case, these may have been anti-aircraft missiles as well as the surface-to-surface stuff...

[Deleted]

May 5, 2013 6:53:08 GMT -5 TonyTiger said:

Looks like that second airstrike was against multiple targets rather than just a military research center, and one of the focal points of the sortie was more missiles being shipped by the Iranians to Hezbollah in Lebannon, crossing through Syria in the process - in this case, these may have been anti-aircraft missiles as well as the surface-to-surface stuff...

 To get from Iran to Syria by land, one has to travel through Iraq... or else take a circuitous route north and pass through Turkey.

 Funny, none of our satellites or surveillance drones have been reported to have captured evidence of such a transit... remarkable.

[Spellbound454]

Well supposedly they were shipped in.

The Syrian government have said extremists for the FSA are in allegiance with extreme Zionists.
...and they are helping each other over the battle for Syria

As if....They can't stand each other. Theres a lot of bullshit being banded about at the moment.
Might take a while to get to the truth.

[TonyTiger]

May 5, 2013 13:15:41 GMT -5 @patiencetried said:

May 5, 2013 6:53:08 GMT -5 TonyTiger said:

Looks like that second airstrike was against multiple targets rather than just a military research center, and one of the focal points of the sortie was more missiles being shipped by the Iranians to Hezbollah in Lebannon, crossing through Syria in the process - in this case, these may have been anti-aircraft missiles as well as the surface-to-surface stuff...

 To get from Iran to Syria by land, one has to travel through Iraq... or else take a circuitous route north and pass through Turkey.

 Funny, none of our satellites or surveillance drones have been reported to have captured evidence of such a transit... remarkable.

[Jaguar]

Tony I think it's North through Turkey that patience said. Your image is going South through the Suez Canal, Red Sea etc.

Or am I not getting it.

[TonyTiger]

The graphic simply illustrates that there are more ways to ship various sizes and volumes of weapons from Iran to Syria, rather than just the overland route(s)....

Including sea and air...

Under the Iranian flag, or otherwise...

Direct shipments...

Multiple-stop-and-hop shipments...

Much of it never coming up on the scope of a Western surveillance mechanism of any kind...

Unbelievably easy...

[Jaguar]

I find it strange that Western surveillance can't see or has never seen this.

[Spellbound454]

I find it strange that Western surveillance can't see or has never seen this.

They have...Thats how Israel have known where to strike.

Female doctor on Al Jazeera saying this morning that its the rebels who have used sarin gas.....not the government.

All we seemed to be getting is a lot of gruesome video which cannot be verified.
Activists, subterfuge and downright lies.

No wonder western governments are stalling....just what is going on isn't exactly clear.

[djAdvocate]

May 5, 2013 17:00:57 GMT -5 TonyTiger said:

May 5, 2013 13:15:41 GMT -5 @patiencetried said:

 To get from Iran to Syria by land, one has to travel through Iraq... or else take a circuitous route north and pass through Turkey.

it is not that circuitous from Tehran.

[Spellbound454]

If shipped.... it would have to be up the Red Sea and through Suez.

You can't ship from the Caspian Sea....though you might be able to get a barge through via the Volga.... and into the Black Sea.

[Robert not Bobby]

Sorry, but the last thing this country needs is to get involved in another ground war in the cesspool that is the Middle East.

I understand and appreciate the Israeli’s fears about chemical weapons falling into the wrong hands (Hezbolla), but this is their back yard and their problem.

They have one of the best equipped militaries in the world for a speck of a country, and Israelis, real Israelis, are tough as nails.

Let them fight, let them die, let them succeed. Stop the tail wagging the dog.

Honestly, I really don’t care about Ireland and Italy (well of course I care to an extent), and I can trace my roots there…I absolutely don’t give a ratz ass about Israel. Maybe I care about Israel as much as I care about Nigeria, Slovakia or Cambodia. Don’t get me wrong, I do care about people in general…really I do. It is just not something that should involve us directly, with so-called boots on the ground. Besides, I have two sons who in years to come, so it is a little bit selfish of me…yes I know there is no draft, but…

The Prez gave that stupid and naïve ultimatum…bad move on his part. He will have to back tack, equivocate and eat his words, or bankrupt the country.

[Spellbound454]

The Prez gave that stupid and naïve ultimatum

The "game changer" one?
It isn't even clear who the game changer is. We are being played by people who want to force the West to intervene.. imo
...but Obama won't go and nor will we.....though he will support Israels right to defend itself.

...besides the FSA appear to be increasingly jihadis and are involved in some pretty nasty stuff.
Can we really support this?

Assad hasn't used chemical weapons........yet.........at least he hasn't sanction them if they did come from his side.
but if he starts to lose....he almost certainly will use them.

We can't go anywhere, there is no appetite for war....We don't have any clear objectives or exit strategy, we don't know who the good guys are because there don't appear to be any.

and why should we send our soldiers into a cesspit of a country to face nerve gas?

[Deleted]

 ...it's not as if Syria had extensive petroleum or Rare Earth deposits... right?

[Spellbound454]

We intervened in Libya.....We (the UK) have a vested interest because we have an oil agreement.....but the US doesn't get oil from Libya.
Afghanistan doesn't have any oil deposits....nor does Northern Pakistan.