Before and after images show Israeli strike on Iranian base
New satellite images of Damascus International Airport near the Syrian capital showed extensive damage following Israeli airstrikes against Iranian targets earlier in the week.
The images, an intelligence analysis provided by ImageSat International (ISI), show the complete destruction of a 30x15m storage structure located close to the main terminal, as well as the abandonment of a facility known as “the Glasshouse.”
Israel struck 50 Iranian targets in Syria early Thursday morning after 20 rockets were fired towards Israel’s front defensive line in the Golan Heights by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Quds Force.
The targets all belonged to IRGC’s Quds Force and included intelligence sites, logistics headquarters, a military compound and logistics complex in Kiswah near the Syrian capital of Damascus, weapons storage sites belonging at Damascus International Airport, intelligence systems and installations, as well as observation, military posts and military hardware in the buffer zone.
According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 11 Iranians were among the 46 killed in Israel’s strikes.
In a report published on The American Interest news site, the “Glasshouse” at the Damascus International Airport was used by the IRGC as its headquarters under the command of General Hussein Kaani to supervise operations closer to the border with Israel.
Israeli officials have repeatedly voiced concerns over the growing Iranian presence on its borders and the smuggling of sophisticated weaponry from Tehran via Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon, stressing that both are red lines for the Jewish State.
Two years ago, the IDF noticed a shift by the Iranians and the IRGC’s Quds Force commander Maj.-Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who began to consider Syria, then falling again under the control of President Bashar Assad, as a platform providing the Islamic Republic strategic depth and increased regional hegemony.
Accordingly, in the past year, the IDF has noted an increasing Iranian presence in Syria, with Soleimani sending from Iran advanced air defense systems, with a maximum range of 110 kilometers, that could threaten Israel’s freedom of action in the country.
On Friday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi condemned the Israeli strikes, saying that "the Zionist regime cannot stand peace and stability in the region, and sees its own safety in making the region all the more unstable.”
Israel had been preparing for a direct attack from the Quds Force since mid-April, in response to a strike carried out by the Jewish State against an Iranian-operated airbase in Syria that killed seven IRGC soldiers.
Earlier in the week, the IDF instructed local governments to open bomb shelters to residents of the Golan Heights following the identification of “abnormal movements of Iranian forces in Syria.”
While some bomb shelters in the area had been opened prior to Tuesday’s announcement, shift in Iranian activities in Syria led to authorities' decision to open all bomb shelters and to inform residents of the increased tension in the area.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Islamic State (IS) militants had seized nearly 700 hostages in part of Syria controlled by U.S.-backed forces and had executed some of them and promised to kill more.
Speaking in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Putin said the hostages included several U.S. and European nationals, adding that Islamic State was expanding its control in territory on the left bank of the River Euphrates controlled by U.S. and U.S.-backed forces.... “They have issued ultimatums, specific demands and warned that if these ultimatums are not met they will execute 10 people every day. The day before yesterday they executed 10 people”
The TASS news agency reported on Wednesday that IS militants had taken around 700 hostages in Syria’s Deir-al Zor province after attacking a refugee camp in an area controlled by U.S.-backed forces on Oct.13.
TASS said the militants had kidnapped around 130 families and taken them to the city of Hajin.
KGB Reportedly Gave Arab Terrorists a Taste of Brutality to Free Diplomats
JERUSALEM — The KGB has adopted novel, brutal and apparently effective methods of dealing with terrorists who attack Soviet interests in the Middle East, an Israeli newspaper reported Monday.
The Jerusalem Post said the Soviet secret police last year secured the release of three kidnaped Soviet diplomats in Beirut by castrating a relative of a radical Lebanese Shia Muslim leader, sending him the severed organs and then shooting the relative in the head.
The incident began when four Soviet diplomats were kidnaped last September by Muslim extremists who demanded that Moscow pressure the Syrian government to stop pro-Syrian militiamen from shelling rival Muslim positions in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.
The militiamen, the Jerusalem paper said, did not cease their attacks, and the body of one of the Soviet diplomats, Arkady Katkov, was found a few days later in a field in Beirut.
The KGB then apparently kidnaped and killed a relative of an unnamed leader of the Shias' Hezbollah (Party of God) group, a radical, pro-Iranian group that has been suspected of various terrorist activities against Western targets in Lebanon.
Parts of the man's body, the paper said, were then sent to the Hezbollah leader with a warning that he would lose other relatives in a similar fashion if the three remaining Soviet diplomats were not immediately released. They were quickly freed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_siege
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia failed to protect the hostages of the Beslan school siege in which about 330 people died in 2004.
In the siege, Chechen rebels took more than 1,000 hostages, mostly children. The operation by Russian forces to end it used disproportionate force, the court added.
No Russian official has been held responsible for the high number of deaths, which included 186 children.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/ ... ya.russia3
... As snow fell, the lifeless figures of theatregoers still wearing their evening dress were piled up on the concrete terrace of the foyer.... 'You need to send buses for the bodies,' screamed one policeman as ambulances and coaches flooded into the car park, 'not ambulances.'
Last night, as the number of hostages to perish in yesterday's early morning armed assault to free them from their Chechen captors nudged towards 100, President Vladimir Putin appealed for 'forgiveness' from the relatives of those who died... 'We have not been able to save them all. Forgive us,' he said in a national televised address, although he did not comment on how and why so many died.
His dramatic comments came as evidence emerged that many of the hostages may have perished after Russian special forces unleashed a toxic gas to render the hostage takers helpless.
FWIW, I don't object at all to the frequency of Armageddon's posts -- it's the blatant bias and cherry picking, tantamount, IMO, to willful misrepresentation to try to make a fast crash doomer "case". Not that this behavior by fast crash doomers generally, is anything new or unusual.
shortonoil wrote:Speaking of, if Syria attacks Israel we will be somewhere near that place; Armageddon that is.
Syria's upgraded Russian ground to air defense system must be running.
And last about ten minutes.
This led to the development of more advanced ARMs such as the AGM-78 Standard ARM and AGM-88 HARM missiles, which have inertial guidance systems (INS) built-in. This allows them to remember the radar's direction if it is turned off and continue to fly towards it. ARMs are less likely to hit the radar if the radar is turned off shortly after the missile is launched, as the longer the radar is off (and assuming it never turns back on), the more error is introduced into the missile's course. The ALARM even has an added loiter mode, with a built in parachute, enabling it to descend slowly until the radar lights up, when the rocket motor will re-ignite. Even a temporary shut down of the enemy's missile guidance radar can be of a great advantage to friendly aircraft during battle.
JuanP wrote:Obama bombed Syria, Trump bombed Syria, Biden bombed Syria. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, and the boss before that!
JuanP wrote:Obama bombed Syria, Trump bombed Syria, Biden bombed Syria. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, and the boss before that!
The US-led coalition against the Islamic State group will build a new base in the northern Syrian province of Raqqa, sources close to a coalition partner force have said... Plans for the new base come as coalition forces began a few weeks ago to equip a base just south of the city of Raqqa, the source told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
Currently, the largest base housing US troops in Syria is the Al-Omar field. There are currently at least 24 US-led coalition military sites spread throughout Syria’s northeast.
ALBAWABA - Saudi Arabian delegation arrived on Saturday in Syria to discuss reopening the country's embassy in Damascus. In April, the Saudi foreign ministry announced resuming diplomatic ties with Syria after years of severing relations following the start of the Syrian war.
Saudi Arabia also welcomed Syrian President Bashar Assad at the 32nd Arab League which was held on May 19 in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
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