Syria

[American Patriot]

Syrian Rebels 'Steal' Credit from Israel for Attack

Syrian rebels said that Syria was wrong to condemn and threaten Israel; it was they, not the IDF, that carried out an attack Wednesday
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By David Lev First Publish: 1/31/2013, 1:19 PM



A rebel fighter throws a handmade hand grenade towards pro-Syrian government troops
AFP/Philippe Desmazes



While Russia, Hizbullah, Syria and Lebanon condemned Israel and threatened retaliation over the attack early Wednesday on a convoy carrying Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles, and/or of Israel's alleged attack against a military research center, Syrian rebels said that they were condemning and threatening the wrong guys; it wasn't Israel that bombed the convoy, the rebels said. Instead, the credit belongs to them.


While Syria said that there had been an Israeli attack, it disputed the target. Western media reported that Israel had attacked a convoy carrying Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles from Syria to Hizbullah terrorist bases along the border with Lebanon. The US later said that Israel had confirmed this. But in a statement, Syria denied that Israel had struck the missiles, but that it had hit a military research center in a Damascus suburb.


At least in the latter case, the rebels said, Syrian officials got it wrong. In a statement, a coalition of rebel groups in the Damascus area said that a statement by Syria attributing the attack to Israel was incorrect. “The attack was carried out by the Sheikh Ahmed Yassin special forces unit, together with the A-Sham Martyrs Brigades. They destroyed the science center at Jumharriya, on the outskirts of Damascus.”


According to the rebels, they fired six 120mm rockets and destroyed a large part of the building, which they said was a center of chemical weapons research. The statement added that the building had housed research teams from Russia and Iran, along with large numbers of Hizbullah terrorists.

[American Patriot]

Syria Vows to Hold Israel Accountable for Air Strike




An Israeli F-16 jet fighter flies near the city of Ashdod, Nov. 18, 2012 (file photo).



January 31, 2013

Syria has vowed to hold Israel and its allies accountable for a suspected Israeli air strike on a Syrian military target near Damascus.

The Syrian foreign ministry sent a letter to the United Nations Thursday, stressing what it called Syria's right to defend its sovereignty and territory. It also filed a complaint about the alleged Israeli attack with a U.N. peacekeeping commander in the Golan Heights.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied launching any military operation in Syria.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed "grave concern" about the reports of an Israeli air strike but said the world body cannot independently verify what happened. He called on all parties in the region to prevent tensions from escalating and respect each other's territorial integrity.




​​​A U.N. spokesman said the Golan peacekeepers did not observe any Israeli planes flying into Syria. He also said weather conditions were bad at the time of the suspected air strike.

Conflicting accounts

U.S. and regional security sources say Israeli aircraft on Wednesday hit a Syrian convoy heading toward Lebanon and transporting missiles, likely intended for Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The White House has warned Syria not to engage in such weapons transfers.

Syrian state media gave a different account of the purported Israeli air strike, saying it targeted the Jamraya military research facility outside Damascus. People living nearby said several rockets hit the complex, causing a fire. Syrian rebels claimed they had fired mortar shells at the facility.

Syrian ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul-Karim Ali said Damascus has the "option" of carrying out a "surprise" response to the Israeli attack. He did not elaborate in his remarks to Lebanese website Al-Ahad.

Syrian government allies Iran and Hezbollah also condemned Israel.

Iranian news agencies quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian as saying the attack will have "serious consequences" for Israel's commercial capital of Tel Aviv.

Hezbollah said the strike on Jamraya was part of a plot to "destroy" Syria and prevent Arabs from developing military capabilities for "resistance" against Israel.

Russia, another Syrian ally, expressed serious concern about the incident. A Russian foreign ministry spokesman said that if the reports of an Israeli air strike are confirmed, it would be an "unacceptable" action against a sovereign nation, in violation of the United Nations charter.

Hezbollah connection

Despite its political arm, Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by some nations and has among its goals the destruction of Israel.

In recent days, Israeli officials have expressed increasing concern about what they see as a threat of Assad transferring sophisticated arms or chemical weapons to Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006. Those officials warned that Hezbollah's acquisition of surface-to-air missiles from Syria would be a “game changer."

Israeli lawmaker Tzahi Hanegbi said Thursday that Israel's preference is for Western powers to control those weapons. But he said the international community is not prepared to take such action, leaving Israel in a "dilemma" that only it knows how to resolve.

Middle East Analyst Riad Kahwaji, director of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, said Wednesday's attack was a warning to Damascus from Israel.

“What we witnessed is the Israeli implementation of a self-declared red line," he said.

[American Patriot]

Surprise!

All your tourists are belong to us!


Syrian revenge: Hackers attack Israeli tourist sites

Assad-affiliated hackers attack '50 Zionist entity websites,' guesthouses in north, online furniture retailer; say ready to take on anyone who threatens Syria's 'pure' lands
Roi Kais

Published: 01.31.13, 22:06 / Israel News

What damage is caused to Israeli security by downing the website of an online furniture retailer? The connection between the two seems vague, however that was one of the targets of an Assad affiliated hacker group, who attacked Israeli websites in response to the alleged attack on their country.
A number of hours after Damascus admitted that an attack took place, the organization, which calls itself the Syrian Electronic Army, claimed: "We have hacked into 50 central Israeli websites."
Syrian officials were quick to claim that the attack would not go unavenged, however it is doubtful whether this is what they meant.

"After 'Israel' attacked (our) Center for Scientific Research in Rural Damascus (sic), we decided to respond, but in our way, (the) Syrian Electronic Army hacked dozens of the Zionist entity websites," the hacker group's website said.


Syrian Electronic Army website: Revenge 'our way'

The hackers, who are affiliated with President Bashar Assad's regime, claimed on their Facebook page that additional attacks can be expected, and that they will prove to the world that the Syrian Electronic Army is ready to take on anyone who threatens Syria's "pure" lands.
Despite the harsh wording of its statements, a small review of the websites attacked revealed that any connection between them and Israeli security is minimal at best.
In a list published by the hackers, they cited attacking websites affiliated with guesthouses in the north, the website of a northern moshav, sites offering diet and nutrition workshops, a site offering a course in online advertising, a portal for alternative medicine and even a site that shows the time in foreign countries.

[American Patriot]

Syrian WMD Facility Affected in Israeli Attack, U.S. Officials Say

Feb. 4, 2013

Syrian Defense Minister Ehud Barak, shown on Sunday in Munich, strongly suggested that his nation last week carried out an airstrike on a Syrian weapons convoy (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader).



A suspected key Syrian site for development of biological and chemical arms seemingly sustained some level of destruction last week during an Israeli airstrike on a nearby transport of antiaircraft weapons, the New York Times reported on Sunday.


Previous reports have indicated the Jan. 30 strike was focused on vehicles believed to be carry weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon. However, Syrian television footage also suggests that the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center was also affected to some degree.


Data going back more than 10 years indicates the four-decade-old facility close to Damascus has been used to prepare engineers for development of biological and chemical arms. It has been subject to U.S. economic penalties and is suspected of connections to North Korea, according to U.S. intelligence sources.


The site's “efforts concentrated first of all in upgrading chemical and biological war agents and, second, upgrading dispersal and delivery systems for those agents," said issue specialist Dany Shoham of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.


“It’s a very large compound,” he said. “You can imagine that it’s the principal facility of the whole Syrian army that is responsible for developing, testing, upgrading, pilot production of a vast variety of weapons.”


Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Sunday the airstrike was "another proof that when we say something we mean it. We say that we don't think it should be allowable to bring advanced weapons systems into Lebanon to Hezbollah from Syria when [Syrian leader Bashar] Assad falls," the Wall Street Journal reported. Israel had previously not discussed the matter publicly.


Syria's Foreign Ministry has in writing called on the U.N. Security Council to denounce the attack, RIA Novosti reported.


A top official with Assad ally Iran said: "Just as it regretted its aggressions after the 33-day, 22-day and eight-day wars, today the Zionist entity will regret the aggression it launched against Syria," the Associated Press reported.

[Ryan Ruck]

Russian Warships Head To Syria In Show Of Power

February 19, 2013

Russian warships are returning to the waters near Syria in a new demonstration of the Kremlin's interest in the outcome of the crisis there.

The Russian Defense Ministry told the RIA-Novosti news agency on Tuesday that four large landing vessels were on their way to the Mediterranean near Syria, three weeks after the Russian navy conducted its biggest maneuvers in the region since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

"Based on the results of the Navy exercises in the Black and Mediterranean seas from Jan. 19 through Jan. 29 ... the Ministry leadership has taken a decision to continue combat duty by Russian warships in the Mediterranean," the ministry said in its statement. “In the future the number of warships in the group and types of vessels acting in the said region will be defined in accordance with the given situation."

Russia has been a close ally of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad and has strategic and economic interests in the country.

The Defense Ministry said the landing ships Kaliningrad and Alexander Shabalin are en route to the region from the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. Two other big landing ships, the Saratov and the Azov, are scheduled to join them by the end of February.

"The continued presence of Russian warships close to Syria demonstrates the Kremlin's desire to keep up the Russian navy colors in the area to indicate that Russia stands by its attitude that the Syrian crisis should be resolved within the country by the country's existing political forces," Igor Korotchenko, editor in chief of the National Defense monthly journal said in an interview.

He added that he did not foresee the vessels taking part in any evacuation of the many Russian citizens in Syria.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has been talking about the possibility of such an evacuation. At the end of January, a contingent of 77 people, mostly women and children, were evacuated from Syria via Beirut by two Russian emergency flights.

"Should such a need arise," Korotchenko said, "Russian citizens will be evacuated to the Emergency Ministry's planes."

[American Patriot]

Nuclear bombers, nuclear missiles and now this huh?

Button pushing commies... we need to slag 'em.

[vector7]

Companion Thread:

• Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Libya crisis: Benghazi

Kerry Confirms Obama training Syrian Rebels



March 4, 2013: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks during a news conference with Prince Saud al-Faisal, not pictured, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (AP)

Secretary of State John Kerry appeared to confirm Tuesday that the U.S. is training anti-Assad forces in the Syria conflict, saying the hope is to convince President Bashar Assad to "change his current calculation."

Kerry, speaking to Fox News in Doha, Qatar, became the first U.S. official to acknowledge the off-site training on the record. He would not go into detail about the training, describing it as "one part" of the U.S. effort and something that "a lot of countries" are doing.

"I think what President Obama is hoping is to build on what has already happened. The president put in place sanctions and that helps to strip some of President Assad's ability to fuel his war machine," Kerry said.

A senior State Department official, though, later said Kerry was not confirming which specific countries were involved.

"In discussing the training of opposition fighters, the Secretary was referring to the totality of effort by Allies and partners who attended the Rome conference. He explicitly declined to say which countries are involved in that aspect of our joint effort," the official told Fox News.

The New York Times previously reported on the effort to train Syrian opposition forces, quoting unnamed officials, but this is the first time the State Department has spoken openly about it.

"There are a lot of nations working at this," Kerry said of the effort to pressure Assad. "And so I think President Assad needs to read the tea leaves correctly."

Kerry, who is on his maiden international tour as secretary of state, cited last week's meeting in Rome where European nations joined the U.S. in offering support to the Syrian opposition. This included an additional $60 million in aid from the Obama administration and a commitment to provide non-lethal aid.

Kerry described the international sentiment as a "conviction that no nation is going to stand by while he slaughters his people with SCUD missiles, and his jets dropping bombs. And ... we've ratcheted up yet another level with the hope of convincing him and his allies that the time has come to really negotiate with the transitional government."

Kerry also discussed the ongoing investigation into the Sept. 11, 2012, terror attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Though some in Congress are concerned the investigation has not made measurable progress over the last six months, Kerry voiced confidence in the FBI's work.

"Justice sometimes takes a while when you operate by high standards and when you need the levels of evidence that we do. But we are working at it and we will continue to work at it," he said.

Kerry revealed that he has visited with one of the survivors of the attack, whom he described as "a remarkably courageous person, who is doing very, very well." He said he also talked to the survivor's wife. Kerry could not say why the public has heard so little about the survivors of the attack.

Four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, died in the Benghazi assault.

Kerry, who in 2004 ran for president against George W. Bush largely on an anti-Iraq war message, on Tuesday praised President Obama for "getting our troops out of Iraq."

But, as the U.S. approaches 10 years since the start of the Iraq war, Kerry also said Bush "deserves credit for what the troops did when they went in."

He said the troops "did an absolutely stunning job, an extraordinary job."

[American Patriot]

President Obama is hoping to build on...

That is wrong. Should read: "President Obama is hoping to capitalize on anything he can to make himself look good to Muslims".

[Phil Fiord]

He is such an embarrassment.

Interesting that without a name several faces come to mind.

[American Patriot]

Apparently chemical weapons have been used in Syria.

There is some question as to which SIDE used them.

Nothing further is coming out just yet.

[American Patriot]

Syria state news agency is accusing the Rebels of using the chemical weapons. The RUSSIANS are claiming it was the rebels too.

[American Patriot]

Syria and Activists Trade Accusations on Chemical Weapons

George Ourfalian/Reuters
A man is treated at a hospital in the Syrian city of Aleppo after being wounded in what the government and rebels said was a chemical weapons attack.

By ANNE BARNARD

Published: March 19, 2013

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Syrian government and Syrian rebels and activists traded accusations on using chemical weapons in the northern province of Aleppo on Tuesday.



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George Ourfalian/Reuters

Residents and medics transported a Syrian Army soldier wounded in what they said was a chemical attack on Tuesday.




Whether chemical weapons had been used could not be immediately confirmed.


The Syrian rebel forces are not known to possess chemical weapons, while the government has large stockpiles. There has long been a fear on all sides — in the Syrian government, in neighboring Israel and among the rebels’ western backers — that rebel groups could seize chemical weapons, but it is unclear whether any such weapons have been loaded onto rockets or missiles for use, or whether the rebels would be able to fire them if they were.


The Syrian state news agency, SANA, said “terrorists” fired a rocket “containing chemical materials” into the Khan al-Assal area of Aleppo, and a government official told state television that the episode would be reported to human rights organizations and to countries supporting the rebels.


But a senior rebel commander, Qassim Saadeddine, who is also a spokesman for the Higher Military Council in Aleppo, blamed Assad’s forces for any chemical strike. "We were hearing reports from early this morning about a regime attack on Khan al-Assal, and we believe they fired a Scud with chemical agents," he told Reuters by telephone from Aleppo.


The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based watchdog group, said witnesses heard over walkie-talkies that 26 people were killed, including 16 government soldiers and 10 civilians, after a rocket landed on Khan al-Assal. Activists said the government tried to hit the police academy there, which was recently taken by rebel forces, with a Scud missile, but it accidentally fell on a government-controlled area instead.


Mahmoud Moussa, an anti-government activist, said that activists in Aleppo and Damascus reported that the government had used chemical weapons in Khan al-Assal in Aleppo and in Al Atebah in the eastern countryside of Damascus. None of the reports could be confirmed. President Obama has said that a chemical attack would cross a “red line” that could prompt military intervention by the United States. Israel has said it would intervene to stop chemical weapons from slipping out of the Syrian government’s control and into the hands of either the rebels or Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group allied with the Syrian government.


Rebel factions have accused the government of using chemical weapons many times, but there have been no confirmed cases. The term “chemical weapons” has sometimes appeared to be used loosely to include not just deadly agents like sarin gas but also tear gas and other irritants used for crowd control.


The Syrian information minister, Omran al-Zoabi, was quoted by state television saying that Turkey and Qatar, which have backed the rebels in the conflict, bore “legal, moral and political responsibility” for what he called the chemical weapons attack, Reuters reported. A Turkish government official called the claim baseless, the news agency said.


Last week, Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Israel’s head of military intelligence, warned that the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, was “making advance preparations to use chemical weapons.”


General Kochavi, speaking at a security conference in Israel, said Mr. Assad “did not give the order yet, but is preparing for it.”
An Israeli military official said it was closely monitoring the situation.


Likewise, the director-general of an international anti-chemical weapons organization said it was also monitoring events in Syria. “I don’t think we know more than you do at the moment,” the director-general, Ahmet Üzümcü, was quoted by Reuters as telling a seminar in Vienna.


SANA published photographs of what it said were civilian victims of the alleged attack that showed men, women and children on hospital beds or stretchers, some of them hooked up to drips or under the care of medics. Several of the patients had what appeared to be devices to help them breathe.


The report said that “terrorists” fired a missile containing chemical materials into Khan al-Assal, killing 25 people and wounding 86, most of them seriously.


A Reuters photographer was quoted in a report by the news agency as saying that the victims he had visited in Aleppo hospitals were suffering breathing problems.


"I saw mostly women and children," said the photographer, who Reuters said it could not quote by name out of concern for his safety.


"They said that people were suffocating in the streets and the air smelt strongly of chlorine."


The photographer quoted victims he met at the University of Aleppo hospital and the al-Rajaa hospital as saying: "People were dying in the streets and in their houses."


Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Ramallah, West Bank.

[American Patriot]

'Suffocating in the streets': Chemical weapons attack reported in Syria

George Ourfalian / Reuters
Residents and medics transport a wounded Syrian army soldier to hospital Tuesday after heavy fighting in Aleppo province during which both rebels and government forces said a chemical weapon was used.




By Erika Solomon and Dominic Evans, Reuters


Syria's government and rebels accused each other of launching a deadly chemical attack near the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday in what would, if confirmed, be the first use of such weapons in the two-year-old conflict.


Syria's state news agency SANA said the rebels had launched a missile, while the rebels said the government had fired a long-range missile with "chemical agents."
"Terrorists fired a rocket containing chemical substances in the Khan al-Assal area of rural Aleppo," SANA said.


A Reuters photographer visited two hospitals and saw people with breathing problems, who told him that they saw people dying in the streets and that the air smelled strongly of chlorine.
George Ourfalian / Reuters


A man is treated at a hospital after a chemical weapons attack in Aleppo province, Syria. Rebels and Syrian government forces blamed each other for the attack.



The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a human rights monitoring group with a network of sources on the ground, said 26 people were killed in a "rocket attack" but it could neither confirm nor deny reports of chemical weapons.


U.S. President Barack Obama, who has resisted overt military intervention in Syria's civil war, has previously warned Syria's President Bashar Assad that any use of chemical weapons would be a "red line".


Syria's Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi put the death toll at 16 and said 86 people were wounded, most of them critically.


In a televised news conference, he said the country's armed forces would never use internationally banned weapons. "Syria's army leadership has stressed this before and we say it again, if we had chemical weapons we would never use them due to moral, humanitarian and political reasons," Zoabi said.


Rebels: Assad forces fired Scud

However, a Syrian rebel commander denied the reports, insisting the government had fired the rocket during intense fighting in the area.


"We were hearing reports from early this morning about a regime attack on Khan al-Assal, and we believe they fired a Scud with chemical agents,” Qassim Saadeddine, a senior rebel and spokesman for the Higher Military Council in Aleppo, said.


“Then suddenly we learned that the regime was turning these reports against us. The rebels were not behind this attack,” he added.
The Reuters photographer, who visited the University of Aleppo hospital and the al-Rajaa hospital in Aleppo city, said he saw patients who were suffering from breathing problems.


“I saw mostly women and children,” he said. “They said that people were suffocating in the streets and the air smelt strongly of chlorine.''
“People were dying in the streets and in their houses,” he added.


Syrian state TV aired footage of what it said were casualties of the attack arriving at one hospital in Aleppo.
Breathing trouble

Men, women and children were rushed inside on stretchers as doctors inserted medical drips into their arms and oxygen tubes into their mouths. None had visible wounds to their bodies, but some interviewed said they had trouble breathing.


Three boys lay on the floor beside each other with drips in their arms. One man was taken from an ambulance wearing combat trousers. An unidentified doctor interviewed on the channel said the attack was either "phosphorus or poison".






Assad, fighting a two-year uprising against his rule, is widely believed to have a chemical arsenal.


Syrian officials have neither confirmed nor denied having a chemical weapons capability, but have said that if it existed it would be used to defend against foreign aggression, not against Syrians.


The U.S. and Western nations have warned Damascus against any use of chemical weapons and have also expressed concern about stockpiles falling into the hands of militant groups.

A spokeswoman for Britain's Foreign Office said it was aware of the reports, adding that the use of chemical weapons, if proven, would "demand a serious response from the international community and force us to revisit our approach so far."
Russia – one of Syria’s dwindling number of allies - blamed the opposition, saying it was “seriously concerned” that “weapons of mass destruction are falling into the hands of the rebels,” according to a foreign ministry statement reported by Reuters.

[American Patriot]

Imagine this... the US can't tell us day to day who is dying or what is happening in Syria. But they can tell us there's no 'evidence of chemical usage' there.

Amazing.

What? Do we have prognosticators in the cabinet now?

U.S.: No evidence of chemical weapons use in Syria

12:11p.m. EDT March 19, 2013

(Photo: Shaam News Network/AP)

Story Highlights

• Omran al-Zoubi said the missile contained 'poisonous gases'
• 25 people reportedly were killed in the attack
• Rebels deny the accusation, say regime forces fired the weapon

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration has no evidence to back up a claim by Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime that the U.S.-backed Syrian rebels used chemical weapons, the White House said Tuesday.


A U.S. official went further and said there was no evidence either side had used such weapons Tuesday in an attack in northern Syria, disputing a competing claim by rebels that it was regime forces who fired the chemical weapon.


The origin of the attack is still unclear, the official added. But this official noted that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons also is reporting no independent information of chemical weapons use. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.


Syria's state-run news agency said 25 people were killed in the attack on the Khan al-Assad village in northern Aleppo province. It said 86 people were wounded, some in critical condition, and published pictures of children and others on stretchers in what appeared to be a hospital ward.


Russia, which has steadfastly supported Assad in Syria's two-year civil war, backed Assad's assertion Tuesday.


The Russian Foreign Ministry said the rebel use of chemical weapons represented an "extremely dangerous" development in a conflict that has already killed 70,000 people. It said the rebels detonated a munition containing an unidentified chemical agent, but didn't give further details.


White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. is looking carefully at all allegations, but said the Obama administration is "deeply skeptical" of any claims emanating from Assad's regime. He said President Barack Obama believes any chemical weapons use would be unacceptable.


"This is an issue that has been made very clear by the president to be of great to concern to us," Carney said, adding that if the Syrian regime does use such weapons, "there will be consequences."


Syria has one of the world's largest arsenals of chemical weapons and Washington has been on high alert since last year for any possible use or transfer of chemical weapons by Assad's forces. It feared that an increasingly desperate regime might turn to the stockpiles in a bid to defeat the rebellion or transfer dangerous agents to militant groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah, which the Syrian government has long supported.


At the time, officials noted movement of some of the Syrian stockpiles but said none appeared to be deployed for imminent use. Still, President Barack Obama declared the use, deployment or transfer of the weapons to be his "red line" for possible military intervention in the Arab country.


U.S. officials say they've been closely monitoring Syria's unconventional weapons stockpiles and coordinating with allies in the region and beyond on possible contingency plans in the event the weapons are no longer secure. They've provided no indication that Syrian rebels seized some of the stockpiles or acquired such weaponry in recent months.

[American Patriot]

Col. North via Skype "doubts" this was a chemical attack too.

[vector7]

Syria chemical weapons: Finger pointed at jihadists...
House Intel Chair: 'Red Line Has Been Crossed'...
RUMOR WILDFIRE: Assad killed by bodyguard...
Did Obama Give Israel Go-Ahead?

http://www.drudgereport.com/

[vector7]

Jules ‏@jhbenespana 2m RT@HasanSari7: #BreakingNews : 250 Assad officers and soldiers defect with their arms from Brigade 52, FSA is currently securing them.#Syria

[vector7]

Obama Concerned #Assad Will Be Replaced with Extremists #Syriahttp://ow.ly/jmBDh

[Phil Fiord]

I noticed the text under the picture in Ricks post. "A Guide to Watching Syria's War"

Is this what it is down to? Get the best coverage of a regime slaughtering citizens?

Syria and Activists Trade Accusations on Chemical Weapons

Multimedia



A Guide to Watching Syria’s War

[vector7]

Assad Confirmed Dead, Iran Attempts To Control Syria Army




By Israel News Agency Staff Jerusalem, Israel --- March 24, 2013 … Russian media sources have confirmed that Syria President Bashar Assad was shot by an Iranian bodyguard Saturday night.

"The lone assassination pumped several bullets at point blank range into Assad," said the source. "Assad was rushed to Al-Shami Hospital in Damascus in critical condition. He died on the operating table from heart failure resulting from massive blood loss."

An Israeli security analyst believes the report to be accurate.

"In the last 24 hours have we seen Assad? Any photographs or video? No. Nor will we see any as loyalists who are closest to Assad have been threatened if any leaked photos or reports reach Western media. Iran is attempting to take control of the Syrian army and its wealth of weapons as Syrian solders are now deserting in mass. I don't believe that the West will allow any Iranian control of Damascus."

"There was a reason why Barack Obama visited Israel. And it was not for a photo op with Miss Israel. I don't think Netanyahu would apologize to Turkey or to anyone. But if it was between a dead Assad and saying sorry to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan I think there was no hesitation in making that telephone call to Ankara."

The Israeli analyst said that several events have taken place in the last 24 hours including the Syrian army shooting at an Israeli border patrol unit. It is believed that this action was coordinated by Assad loyalists who stood outside the dead President's hospital room to deflect the global media from the assassination and to pull Israel into a war with the Syrian army. The leader of the Western-backed Syrian opposition coalition announced he was resigning.

Moaz al-Khatib didn’t detail what motivated his decision, in a status update made on social media Website Facebook.

But he did say that he now had the ability to “work with freedom that cannot be available within the official institutions.”

Al-Khatib also said the international community has failed to adequately support the rebels’ fight against Assad.

Opposition members from Syrian's President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect demanded his overthrow today and urged their co-religionists in the Syrian army to rebel.

"We call on our brothers in the Syrian army, specifically members of our sect, not to take up arms against their people and to refuse to join the army," the delegates said in a news release after two days of meeting in the Egyptian capital.

The Israeli analyst said that the Israeli army is on heightened alert in the North and the US is moving a battle carrier group off the Syrian coast. That the US would not tolerate any further action by Iran inside Syria and has warned Iranians to leave the country.

"Assad had complete and total support from both Iran and Russia. They backed Assad in his bloody campaign which resulted in the loss of over 70,000 Syrian civilians. No one helped those Syrians except for one country - Israel. They have taken in dozens of wounded Syrians across the border who are now being cared for in Israeli hospitals."

"We can expect to see a photo of a dead Assad within 48 hours. There are many phone cameras in the pockets of those guarding his body.

One of those photos would be worth almost a million dollars to the one getting that photo out to the Western media."