Bharat Rakshak

Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital overnight, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be on their way to Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists have claimed.

The attack, the second in three days, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war. Syria's state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific research center near the Syrian capital and caused casualties.

An intelligence official in the Middle East, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to disclose information about a secret military operation to the media, confirmed that Israel launched an airstrike in Damascus early Sunday but did not give more precise details about the location.

The target was Fateh-110 missiles, which have very precise guidance systems with better aim than anything Hezbollah has in its arsenal, the official told The Associated Press.

The airstrikes come as Washington considers how to respond to indications that the Syrian regime may have used chemical weapons in its civil war. President Barack Obama has described the use of such weapons as a "red line," and the administration is weighing its options — including possible military action.

Israel has said it wants to stay out of the brutal Syria war, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated the Jewish state would be prepared to take military action to prevent sophisticated weapons from flowing from Syria to Hezbollah or other extremist groups.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in mid-2006 that ended in a stalemate.

Syria's state news agency SANA reported that explosions went off at the Jamraya military and scientific research center near Damascus and said "initial reports point to these explosions being a result of Israeli missiles." SANA said there were casualties but did not give a number.

Israel has said it will not allow sophisticated weapons to flow from Syria to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and a heavily armed foe of the Jewish state.

An airstrike in January also targeted weapons apparently bound for Hezbollah, Israeli and U.S. officials have said. The White House had no immediate comment on Sunday's reported missile strikes.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group, also reported large explosions in the area of Jamraya, a military and scientific research facility northwest of Damascus, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Lebanese border.

Hezbollah's al-Manar TV said the research center in Jamraya was not hit. It added that an army supply center was targeted by the strike.

Al-Manar quoted unnamed Syrian security officials as saying that three sites including military barracks, arms depots and air defense center were targeted by the strike.

Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen TV, that has several reporters around Syria, said one of the strikes targeted a military position in the village of Saboura, west of Damascus and about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the Lebanon border.

An amateur video said to be shot early Sunday in the Damascus area showed fire lighting up the night sky. The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting.

Uzi Rubin, a missile expert and former Defense Ministry official, told the AP that if the target were Fateh-110 missiles as reported then it is a game changer as they put almost all Israel in range and can accurately hit targets.

Rubin emphasized that he was speaking as a rocket expert and had no details on reported strikes.

"If fired from southern Lebanon they can reach Tel Aviv and even (the southern city of) Beersheba." He said the rockets are much five times more accurate than the scud missiles that Hezbollah has fired in the past. "It is a game changer because they are a threat to Israel's infrastructure and military installations," he said.

Israel's first airstrike in Syria, in January, also struck Jamraya.

At the time, a US official said Israel targeted trucks next to the research center that carried SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles. The strikes hit both the trucks and the research facility, the official said. The Syrian military didn't confirm a hit on a weapons shipment at the time, saying only that Israeli warplanes bombed the research center.

Israeli lawmaker Shaul Mofaz, a former defense minister and a former chief of staff, declined to confirm the airstrike but said Israel is concerned about weapons falling into the hands of the Islamic militant group amid the chaos of Syria's civil war.

"We must remember that the Syrian system is falling apart and Iran and Hezbollah are involved up to their necks in Syria helping Bashar Assad," he told Israel Radio. "There are dangers of weapons trickling to the Hezbollah and chemical weapons trickling to irresponsible groups like al-Qa'ida."

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 28, 2013, 11:22 PM (IDT) Tags: Israel-Turkey, Intelligence, Patriots, Jordan, US Middle East, Hizballah, Iran,

Self-propelled SA-17 anti-air interceptor
Israeli Air Force jets were reported flying over Damascus in the last few hours by foreign sources. According to DEBKAfile’s Iranian and intelligence sources, Iran has been pushing Bashar Assad hard to let Hizballah have sophisticated weapons, including self-propelled SA-17 interceptor missile systems. Tehran is reminding the Syrian ruler of the debt he owes Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah who was ready to deploy 5,000 out of Hizballah’s 8,000 combat-ready fighters to Syrian battlefields to fight rebel forces and keep the Assad regime in power.
Assad is therefore in no position to spurn Tehran’s demand.
And so, preparations for sending those weapons systems across to Lebanon have been sighted in the last few days at Syrian military bases. Israeli Air Force are said to be overhead monitoring these movements after Israel repeatedly warned Damascus any attempts to make such transfers would draw a reaction.
On Jan. 30, Israel bombed a convoy passing through Jamraya near Damascus on its way to Lebanon with a consignment of sophisticated weapons systems for Hizballah.
The drone launched on April 25 from Lebanon, which Israeli fighter planes shot down opposite Haifa, is seen now as a counter-warning from Tehran that if Israel strikes another arms convoy on its way from Syria to Lebanon, the next drones flying over Israel would be armed and come in numbers.
The Israeli security cabinet held a long session on the Syrian question Sunday, April 28, headed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. They reached a number of decisions on how to handle the latest developments on the Syrian front, including evidence of the use of chemical weapons.
Earlier Sunday, DEBKAfile ran the following exclusive report:
Israel and Turkey agreed last week to start pooling their incoming intelligence on the Syrian civil war, DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report exclusively. Exchanges will take place at the highest level between Mossad Director Tamir Pardo and Hakan Fidan, head of Turkey’s MIT.
The United States will also provide additional security for Syria’s southern neighbor by the relocation of US Patriot missile interceptors from West Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to northern Jordan opposite the Syrian border.
US Patriots were deployed on the Turkish-Syrian border last year.
The new Patriot deployment indicates that the Obama administration is now treating the peril to its allies from Syria as greater than the Iranian menace.
Things are also on the move in the Turkish-Israeli arena.
Advantage was taken of the Israeli delegation’s visit to Istanbul Monday, April 22, for negotiations on the amount of compensation to be paid out to the families of the nine Turks who died in a clash of arms with Israeli naval commandoes in May 2010, when their ship, the Mavi Marmara, was stopped from completing its mission to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.
As first reported by the last DEBKA-Net-Weekly, the negotiating session was brief. Criteria for determining the amounts of the payouts were settled in less than an hour. A joint Israeli-Turkish group is to calculate the sums and refer their estimates back to the delegations for approval.
The two delegations then got down to the brass tacks of the most pressing issues of interest to them both.
A day earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry had urged Turkey to hurry up and restore its relations with Israel because of the urgent security interests they shared with one another and the United States in the Middle East:
The turbulence in Syria and Iran’s drive for a nuclear bomb posed extreme perils to all three nations.
The delegations responded by launching into an intense discussion of ways to further their military and intelligence cooperation for the common benefit.
One immediate decision was for Turkey and Israel to set up a joint mechanism for sharing intelligence on the Syrian conflict.
Turkey and Israel are reputed to have the best Syrian intelligence in the business, but their methods of gathering information, its content and their sources vary.
The Turks use Syrian rebels and Lebanese informants operating in Syria. They don’t command the electronic resources which Israel possesses. The two agencies also maintain contact with different rebel militias.
It was quickly recognized that both agencies have much to gain from a arrangement for sharing their input without further delay.

s US and European sanctions cripple its economy, Iran today offered India a new production sharing regime for oil exploration in an attempt to keep its third largest buyer of oil engaged.The offer was made by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi during his talks with visiting External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid at the India—Iran Joint Commission Meeting where energy was a subject of co—operation.India has in the year to March 31 cut import of oil from Iran by 26.5 per cent as US and European sanctions made it difficult to ship oil from the Persian Gulf nation.
Iran traditionally offers only service contract to foreign companies, giving them a pre—fixed rate of fee for their effort in exploring and producing oil.In contrast, a production sharing contract will give the foreign country ownership of the oil explored and produced as also the freedom to ship it wherever they want.Indian state—run firms led by ONGC’s contract for exploring the gas—rich Farsi block too is a service contract which if converted into a production sharing regime would mean that New Delhi can get close to 13 trillion cubic feet of gas.While making the offer Salehi said Iran should be considered a reliable source of energy for India, sources said.India imported about 13.3 million tonnes of crude oil from Iran in 2012—13 fiscal, down from 18.1 million tonne in the previous year. It now pays Tehran only in rupee in an Indian bank after US and European sanctions blocked dollar and euro routes.On the rupee payment issue, Iran said that the excess accumulated in India could be routed to other projects in India, including infrastructure.

UN human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria's civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday.

The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.

"This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities," she added, speaking in Italian.

Dubai - Islamist-ruled Egypt is open to visitors who drink alcohol and wear bikinis as it sets out to boost numbers by at least a fifth this year, the tourism minister said.

pentaiah wrote:just a pooch, what can Indian FM solve in SYria that he can not solve in India vs PRC dispute? Does he command any credibility?
or that is that this is this

Assad has very few options, much less weapons, the constant battles and choking of supplies has de

Lalmohan wrote:i cant imagine that israel would favour a sunni takeover in syria? must be worse outcome for them than keeping assad?

Austin wrote:CNN says what was hit was a republican HQ of elite syrian army and a top secret research facility , Syria admits after this hit it has significantly weakened

http://edition.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_t2 ... osions.cnn

The PM is sending a pacifying message to Assad, hoping this will make it easier for the president to avoid responding to the strikes.
By Barak Ravid | May.06, 2013 | 1:57 AM | 12

The diplomatic-security cabinet met in Jerusalem for more than three hours Sunday afternoon to discuss tensions on the northern border in the wake of reported Israeli airstrikes in Syria. According to two senior Israeli officials briefed on the outcome of the meeting, the main decision was to send as pacifying a message as possible to Syrian President Bashar Assad, in order to prevent further escalation in the north.

Though Israel has been careful not to formally claim responsibility for the airstrikes, officials in Jerusalem were pleased by the international community’s response. U.S. President Barack Obama stressed that Israel has the right to defend itself, as did British Foreign Secretary William Hague. Russia and China said nothing, while even the condemnations in the Arab world were few and half-hearted.

As part of its effort to send a pacifying message, Israel will continue to maintain official silence about the two airstrikes reported in foreign media outlets over the past few days. A senior Israeli official said the goal is to make it clear to Assad that Israel’s sole interest is in preventing advanced weaponry from reaching Hezbollah: It isn’t interested in intervening in Syria’s civil war or helping the rebels topple his regime.

Sunday’s meeting of the diplomatic-security cabinet, which consisted mainly of briefings by the heads of the intelligence agencies and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, was the second in three days. The previous meeting took place Thursday night, a few hours before the first reported airstrike. A few hours before the second reported airstrike, on Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a secret visit to the headquarters of the IDF’s Northern Command.

Despite the weekend’s tensions, Netanyahu decided to depart for China as planned on Sunday. The fact that he did so indicates the intelligence community views the chances of either Syria or Hezbollah responding to the reported Israeli airstrikes as low. Moreover, going ahead with the visit is part of Jerusalem’s effort to send a pacifying message to Assad.

Netanyahu and his advisors concluded that canceling the visit at the last minute would be interpreted by Syria and Hezbollah as a sign of Israeli intentions to escalate the situation. The prime minister also wanted to avoid sparking a crisis with Beijing, after he had already offended the Chinese leadership by canceling a visit at the last minute in November 2010. Still the diplomatic-security cabinet meeting did cause Netanyahu to delay his flight by almost three hours.

In a conversation with the reporters accompanying him to China after boarding the plane, Netanyahu declined to comment on the situation in Syria, focusing instead on the importance of his state visit to China. “I know what you want, but I’m barred from talking about it,” he said. “In any case, I never considered canceling my trip to China.”

Netanyahu will return to Israel on Friday. In his absence, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon will serve as acting prime minister. Netanyahu will receive regular updates on the security situation while in China, and also in the air. But if an escalation occurs requiring the convening of the diplomatic-security cabinet in order to make decisions, it would take him many hours to return to Israel.

The prime minister has had bad luck with previous trips abroad at moments of high security tension. In May 2010, for instance, he was in Canada during the navy’s botched interception of a Turkish-sponsored flotilla to Gaza. He and his aides had thought the chances of the raid turning into a diplomatic crisis were low, and therefore decided against canceling the visit. But in fact, it turned into a major crisis.

Hopefully, current assessments of the likelihood of escalation in the north aren’t similarly flawed. But if they are, Netanyahu is liable to find himself flying back to Israel mid-week instead of having a comfortable chat with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

A United Nations inquiry into human rights abuses in Syria has found evidence that rebel forces may have used chemical weapons, its lead investigator has revealed.

Carla Del Ponte, a member of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said that testimony gathered from casualties and medical staff indicated that the nerve agent sarin was used by rebel fighters.

“Our investigators have been in neighbouring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated,” Ms Del Ponte said in an interview broadcast on Swiss-Italian television on Sunday.

“This was used on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities,” she added.

Ms Del Ponte said the inquiry has yet to see any direct evidence suggesting that government forces have used chemical weapons, but said further investigation was required before this possibility could be ruled out.

The UN commission, which is investigating human rights abuses in Syria since the start of the civil war, later released a statement distancing itself from the allegations. It said that investigators had “not reached conclusive findings as to the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any parties to the conflict”.

The White House said it was “highly skeptical” of suggestions that Syrian rebels used chemical weapons. “We find it highly likely that chemical weapons, if they were in fact used in Syria - and there is certainly evidence that they were - that the Assad regime was responsible,” spokesman Jay Carney said.

The allegations come nearly two weeks after the United States said it had “varying degrees of confidence” that sarin gas had been used by Syria’s government on its people.

President Barack Obama declared last year that the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, would cross a “red line” and change US calculations on whether or not it should intervene in the conflict.

Calls for the US to launch military action against the Syrian regime have grown stronger since claims that it used chemical weapons first emerged. Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham are the most prominent among those calling for a no-fly zone in some parts of the country, similar to the one which was introduced in Libya.

Each side in Syria’s two-year-old conflict has accused the other of using chemical weapons – an action that which would constitute a war crime under international law. Two of the alleged attacks took place in Aleppo in March and Homs in December.

An investigation looking specifically into claims of chemical weapons use in Syria was ordered by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, in late March. The Syrian government wants the UN team to investigate only the Aleppo attack, but the UN has insisted that the inquiry cover both incidents.

An official involved with the investigation into chemical weapons in Syria use told The Independent yesterday that a two-person advance team was waiting in Cyprus to enter Syria and perform onsite inspections. But nearly six weeks after Syria initially asked for such an inquiry, investigators have been unable to enter the country.

“The Syrian government wants an inspection of just one site in Aleppo, we have asked for inspections for two places,” the official said.

The official added: “There is no substitute to onsite inspections and that is what we are waiting for.”

The investigation to which Ms Del Ponte referred was launched in August 2011 to look into war crimes and other human rights violations in Syria. It is separate from that which was announced by Ban Ki-Moon into chemical weapons use.

A UN source told The Independent that Ms Del Ponte’s investigation is broader than the one focusing purely on chemical weapons use, but that chemical weapons falls under its remit.

The source said that the commission gathered over 1000 testimonies from those in Syria via Skype, and from those who have fled Syria into neighbouring countries.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office expressed concern yesterday over the claims, but called for more investigation.

A spokesman said: "Use of chemical weapons is a war crime and reports of their use is extremely concerning. Evidence is limited at this time and we are working actively with our allies, partners and the UN to get more and better information.”

The allegations by Ms Del Ponte come after Israel carried out a series of air strikes on Syrian military targets early Sunday. Israeli officials have said the strikes were against long-range missiles being transported to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Syrian civil war, which began with anti-government protests in March 2011, has now claimed an estimated 70,000 lives and forced 1.2 million Syrian refugees to flee.

US secretary of state John Kerry sought Russian help yesterday in ending Syria’s civil war. He told President Vladimir Putin in Moscow that common interest in a stable Middle East could bridge divisions among the big powers.

Mr Putin, however, kept Mr Kerry waiting three hours before their Kremlin meeting, fiddled with a pen while his guest spoke and made no mention in his public remarks of the conflict in Syria, which has generated some of the chilliest exchanges between Washington and Moscow since the cold war.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/mi ... -1.1385409

Pranav wrote:Mr Putin, however, kept Mr Kerry waiting three hours before their Kremlin meeting, fiddled with a pen while his guest spoke and made no mention in his public remarks of the conflict in Syria, which has generated some of the chilliest exchanges between Washington and Moscow since the cold war.http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/mi ... -1.1385409

Austin wrote:

Pranav wrote:Mr Putin, however, kept Mr Kerry waiting three hours before their Kremlin meeting, fiddled with a pen while his guest spoke and made no mention in his public remarks of the conflict in Syria, which has generated some of the chilliest exchanges between Washington and Moscow since the cold war.http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/mi ... -1.1385409

If true its very immature behavior on part of kremlin or Putin or FSB who ever plans such antics , considering these meetings are prescheduled , quite disrespectful behavior even if they dont see eye to eye on Syria issue.

Austin wrote: If true its very immature behavior on part of kremlin or Putin or FSB who ever plans such antics , considering these meetings are prescheduled , quite disrespectful behavior even if they dont see eye to eye on Syria issue.

Brig. Gen. Asaf Agmon, the director of the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies, told The Times of Israel recently that Syria’s air defense system, based on an earlier Russian technology, was already among the most advanced in the world.

Western media reported that the Israeli airstrikes on Iran-Hezbollah weapons transfers in Syria over the weekend were carried out from Lebanon, with pilots using a technique called “lofting” — essentially lobbing the bombs by speeding toward the border and pulling up at the last moment — rather than challenge Damascus’s air defense.