Germany sends its military to the border of Turkey and Syria

Turkey intends to ask the NATO command to deploy the system Patriot air defense on its border with Syria.If approved by NATO, Germany will send its military to perform maintenance on Saturday said the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.

According to the newspaper, Berlin plans to send about 170 people in Turkey. Official confirmation of this information has not been obtained. The German Foreign Ministry declined to comment, and the Ministry of Defence said that if NATO

Saudis Line Up Against Syrian Regime

Following their ruler's lead, public turns anger on Assad over bloody conflict, but kingdom continues to grapple with how far its support for rebels should go

 

When King Abdullah announced a national fundraising drive to aid Syrian refugees in late July, Saudis quickly donated nearly $150 million.

Saudi national television hosted a telethon, with banks of men in traditional robes manning phone lines and computers. Donations came by text, by direct deposit into special bank accounts, or from families stuffing crumpled Riyal notes into collection boxes or donating their cars and even their watches.

Abdullah, normally a discreet behind-the-scenes conciliator, has denounced the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with rare royal rage, and his people have joined in with gusto.

Beyond humanitarian concerns, Abdullah sees an opportunity to strike a key strategic blow against Iran, Syria’s key ally and Saudi Arabia’s main rival for power in the Middle East, analysts and government officials said in interviews across this oil-rich kingdom.

Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran each claim to be the world’s true center of Islam. Both nations are struggling to expand their influence in a region upended by popular revolts that are shifting governments and long-standing alliances.

Assad’s government serves as Tehran’s key pipeline for transferring money and arms to Hezbollah, the Shiite militia in Lebanon. Abdullah sees Assad’s potential ouster as a way to choke off that flow and diminish the influence of an increasingly belligerent Iran, officials and analysts said.

“Syria is Iran’s entry into the Arab world,” said one Saudi official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Take down Assad and you inflict a strategic blow on Iran.”

The official said Iran is “really on the ropes” because of international sanctions over its nuclear program. He said removing an ally as pivotal as Assad would make Iran “more vulnerable to sanctions.”

A Picture That Captures The Brutality Of Syria's Civil War

The Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, an al Qaeda-linked jihadist group that is fighting Bashir al Assad's regime in Syria, has released two photographs of the execution of Syrian soldiers reportedly captured in Aleppo [one of the photographs is reproduced above]. The soldiers were "from the Hanano barracks" according to the statement that was released by the group. The short statement was released on Sept. 3 and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group on Oct. 3.
The photos of the execution are eerily similar to video footage of al Qaeda in Iraq's execution of Iraqi policemen in Haditha in March 2012. In that video, the captured Iraqi policemen are tied up and placed in a line. An al Qaeda fighter then walks down the line and executes the policemen with a pistol. To watch the video of the Haditha executions, see LWJ report, Al Qaeda in Iraq video details deadly raid in Haditha.
Al Nusrah's tactics, operations, and propaganda are nearly identical to those of al Qaeda in Iraq. Al Nusrah has now claimed credit for 26 of the 33 suicide attacks that have taken place in Syria since December 2011.

Turkey / Syria: the reasons for the anger

Wednesday, facing the shelling of the army Bashar Assad, Ankara bombing response and Syria.The Turkish parliament authorized the government to intervene even if Damascus apologized.Tensions between the two countries date back yesterday and yet not reappear intensely in these times of crisis. 

Syrian bombing Wednesday, October 3, in the border village of Alçacale Turkey has killed 5 people: 1 woman and 4 children. 5 dead too. Ankara could not pass up. This is not the first time on September 26, shell fire destroyed a house in the same locality. Not to mention the Turkish fighter, an F-4 shot in full flight on June 22. This time the Turks had "hit the mark" to prevent Damascus feels omnipotent.Half an hour after the shelling of Syria, Ankara began bombing targets in Syria.

This escalation of violence between the two countries is dreaded for months by the UN. Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN international mediator for the Syrian crisis, suggests a situation potentially"catastrophic for the region."  However, tensions between Turkey and Syria are rooted in history and relate to very susceptible.

The territory of Hatay, better known as the Sanjak of Alexandretta name, is the first bone of contention between Ankara and Damascus. Until 1939, it is part of the current Syrian territory, then under French mandate. Upon his departure, France gives way to Turkey. Upon independence in 1936, Syria claimed the Sanjak of Alexandretta in vain. Damascus continues to consider that the territory granted to the Turks who rightfully.

The issue of sharing the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is not to be overlooked either. The administration of two rivers in Turkey, where they find their sources, has been at the expense of its neighbors Syrian and Iraqi. Along the Euphrates, Turkey has established five large dams for irrigation or power generation. Result: very little water actually happening in Syria and Iraq, which called for the establishment a status  "international" of these water resources.

Turkey strikes targets in Syria after mortar attack

Turkey's military struck targets inside Syria on Wednesday in response to a mortar bomb fired from Syrian territory which killed five Turkish civilians, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's office said in a statement.

"Our armed forces in the border region responded immediately to this abominable attack in line with their rules of engagement; targets were struck through artillery fire against places in Syria identified by radar," the statement said.

"Turkey will never leave unanswered such kinds of provocation by the Syrian regime against our national security," it added.

There were no immediate details of the Turkish strikes against Syria, nor was it clear who had fired the mortar into Turkish territory.

He added that Syria was investigating the source of the mortar bomb that killed five civilians and urged restraint after Turkey's military struck targets inside Syria.

CCTV footage of bomb attack on Syrian army command HQ

Asian Defence News

How Saudi Arabia Is Turning Syria's Rebels Into An Effective Army

Saudi millions and special forces expertise turn Syria's rebels into a fighting force

Syria's ragtag rebel army is being turned into a disciplined military force, with the help of tens of millions of dollars of funding from the Middle East and under the watchful gaze of foreign former special forces.

Hidden under olive groves in the rolling countryside of Syria’s northern Idlib province, of which a vast swathe is now in opposition hands, more than a dozen training camps have been set up in which young men prepare for the fight against President Bashar al-Assad’s military.

In one camp seen by The Daily Telegraph this week, recruits were put through their paces on an arduous obstacle course. Timed to the shouts of Commander Abdel Kadr, a military officer who has defected, the men vaulted walls, scrambled under razor wire mesh and swung along ropes in the tree tops.

Two men looked on from the tented sleeping quarters nearby. Tall with shaven heads, fair skin, bulging pectoral muscles, and biceps covered in tattoos, they were incongruous among the scrawny young fighters. They could not speak Arabic and were extremely unhappy in the presence of The Daily Telegraph.

The men, who use the code names Radwan and Mohammed, come from Scandinavia, but have requested that the country not be disclosed.

Rebels Announce Move Of Headquarters From Turkey To 'Liberated' Syria Territory

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Commanders of the Free Syrian Army, the main umbrella group for fighters opposing President Bashar al-Assad, said Saturday that they had moved their headquarters from Turkey into "liberated areas" inside Syria, in what they portrayed as a major step forward in their efforts to aid, coordinate and control disparate groups of rebels.

In a video titled “Free Syrian Army Communiqué No. 1 From Inside,” Col. Riad al-Assad, the leader of the Free Syrian Army, declared: “To our free Syrian people and to all free revolutionaries in Syrian towns, villages and suburbs and to all armed factions of the revolution: We announce the entry of the leadership of the Free Syrian Army into liberated territories in Syria.”

The goal, analysts said, appeared to be as much political as military, a bid to win legitimacy and edge out competing exile groups seeking to position themselves as governments in waiting. Fighters and opposition activists in Syria have derided the F.S.A. leaders and other exiles as opportunists, removed from the battle and lacking credibility among the Syrians directly involved in the fighting.

In the video, Colonel Assad sought to assuage those concerns. He emphasized that the move was made “in collaboration with battalions inside Syria.”

UN Chief Says No Military Solution to Syrian Crisis

The solution to the Syrian crisis should not be military, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.

"Government and opposition forces seem to be determined to see the end by military means," Ban said as quoted by the BBC as he was addressing a press conference to mark the UN General Assembly’s new session.

"I think military means will not bring an answer. That should be resolved through political dialogue,” he said as fighting continued in the Syrian capital Damascus and the country’s northern city of Aleppo.

The Syrian conflict has claimed up to 20,000 lives according to estimates by various Syrian opposition groups. The UN estimates the death toll at over 18,000 people. The Syrian authorities say 8,000 were killed.

A Syrian missile behind the Turkish plane crash in June (report)

The Turkish reconnaissance aircraft, whose wreckage was found last June in Syrian territorial waters, was shot by a Syrian surface to air missile, wrote Wednesday in the Turkish daily Hurriyet reference to the report of the investigation conducted by the military prosecutor of Turkey.

"Without knocking the plane, the missile exploded right under his left. Following the explosion, the pilots have been unable to continue a flight stable. Aircraft began to lose altitude before s crush on the water, "we read in the report cited by the newspaper.

Experts say the prosecution that the plane was in good technical condition, and that the crash occurred in international airspace.

Syrian jets bomb farm fields in north Lebanon

BEIRUT: Two Syrian warplanes bombed farm fields belonging to a border town in northeast Lebanon Monday, high-ranking Lebanese security sources told The Daily Star, in an unprecedented aerial shelling by Syria of Lebanese territory since the end of the 1975-90 Civil War. The farm fields of Khirbet Dawoud, 10 kilometers inside Lebanese territory, were the target of the aerial attack by the MiG-type aircrafts, the sources said. Following the aerial bombardment, Syrian reconnaissance planes and helicopters flew over the area for a brief period of time. Khirbet Dawoud is part of the Arsal region which shares 50 kilometers of border with Syria. The area is also described as the main point for arms smuggling between Arsal and Syrian territory. Security and official sources in the area said no casualties have been reported. The security sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said three rockets were fired in the incident and that the Lebanese Army headed to the site immediately following the attack, which took place at around 10.30 a.m. The raid comes following an attack by rebels on a Syrian Army checkpoint near that border area Sunday night which left four soldiers and one officer dead. Earlier this month, Syrian warplanes and helicopters flew at low altitudes over the northern region of Wadi Khaled. North Lebanon border villages have also come under shelling from the Syrian side of the border on several occasions. Some of the attacks have led to deaths and material damage.

US Sends More Spies, Diplomats To Syrian Border

The U.S. is ramping up its presence at Syria's Turkish border, sending more spies and diplomats to help advise the rebel forces in their mismatched fight against the better armed Syrian regime, and to watch for possible al-Qaida infiltration of rebel ranks.

U.S. officials briefed on the plan said the modest surge in U.S. personnel in the past few weeks — estimated at fewer than a dozen people — has helped improve rebels' political organizing skills as well as their military organization. The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the plans publicly.

It's part of a two-pronged effort by the Obama administration to bolster the rebels militarily without actually contributing weapons to the fight, and politically, to help them stave off internal power challenges by the well-organized and often better-funded hardline Islamic militants who have flowed into the country from Iraq and elsewhere in the Persian Gulf region.

Special Forces from France United Kingdom and United States are deployed near borders of Syria

he Daily Star reported that “nearly 200 elite SAS (Special Air Service) and SBS (Special Boat Service) British troops are in or around Syria” looking for weapons of mass destruction in the country. British special forces, along with troops from France and the United States, are poised along the borders of Syria to secure and destroy the country’s arsenal of chemical weapons if the regime in Damascus collapses.

The news comes after Syrian information minister Omran al-Zoubi denied allegations made by the UK and US that Syria possessed chemical weapons and warned them against any thought of military interference in Syria.

“We have never said we have them…coming to Syria is not a picnic. But Syria does not want a war with anyone," al-Zoubi said after British Prime Minister David Cameron and US president Barack Obama accused the Syrian government of planning to deploy chemical weapons.

August 23, 2012, United States had announced that the Pentagon has made contingency plans to send small teams of special operations troops into Syria if the White House decides it needs to secure chemical weapons depots now controlled by security forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, senior U.S. officials said.

Rebels down Syrian helicopter over Damascus

Rebels shot down a Syrian army helicopter on Monday while it was bombarding the Damascus neighborhood of Jobar, as heavy fighting broke out in the district between rebels and troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, witnesses said.

Syrian state television said in a news flash a helicopter had crashed in Damascus, but offered no further details.
Witnesses said the helicopter was engulfed in flames after it was hit by a projectile during a burst of gunfire and then came down in the nearby district of Qaboun.
Video footage from activists showed the burning helicopter falling to the ground in a trail of smoke, as rebels on the ground could be heard shouting "God is greatest".
The helicopter crashed in a narrow residential street in the northeastern neighborhood of Qaboun, which is on the outskirts of the capital.

Syria moves fighter-bomber jets closer to cities-opposition

                     

Syria's air force has redeployed 30 Sukhoi fighter-bomber jets closer to cities where the army is battling to crush rebels in the north and east of the country, an opposition group said on Tuesday.
The Soviet-era Sukhoi Su-22 planes, which can drop 400 kg (881 pound) bombs, flew from the Dumair and Sim air bases north and east of Damascus on Monday to bases in the city of Hama Tabaqa and Deir al-Zor, a senior official in the Higher Leadership Council for the Syrian Revolution said.
"This type of Sukhoi is more geared to bombing missions than aerial combat. They are now within a more manageable range to hit the cities of Aleppo, Homs and Deir al-Zor and areas in Idlib province," Mohammad Mroueh told Reuters from Amman.

U.S. Fears for Safety of Syrian Chemical Weapons Stockpiles

The United States is concerned with the issue of safety of chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria and views it as one of the areas of importance in dealing with the conflict-hit country, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said, according to RIA Novosti.

Speaking to journalists in Washington, Panetta said that one of the serious concerns is the “whole threat of chemical and biological weapons. There are sites in Syria. We're concerned about the security of those sites.”

“So we're continuing to monitor those sites and work with Turkey, as well as Jordan and Israel to ensure that none of those weapons fall into the wrong hands,” he added.

CIA Provides Stinger Missiles to Syrian "Freedom Fighters"

The revelation about President Barack Obama’s decision to provide secret American aid to Syria’s rebel forces is a game changer. The presidential order, known as an “intelligence finding” in the world of espionage, authorizes the CIA to support armed groups fighting to overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s government. But it threatens far more than the regime in Damascus.

The disclosure took its first casualty immediately. Kofi Annan, the special envoy to Syria, promptly announced his resignation, bitterly protesting that the UN Security Council had become a forum for “finger-pointing and name-calling.” Annan blamed all sides directly involved in the Syrian conflict, including local combatants and their foreign backers. But the timing of his resignation was striking. For he knew that with the CIA helping Syria’s armed groups, America’s Arab allies joining in and the Security Council deadlocked, he was redundant.

President Obama’s order to supply CIA aid to anti-government forces in Syria has echoes of an earlier secret order signed by President Jimmy Carter, also a Democrat, in July 1979. Carter’s fateful decision was the start of a CIA-led operation to back Mujahideen groups then fighting the Communist government in Afghanistan. As I discuss the episode in my book Breeding Ground: Afghanistan and the Origins of Islamist Terrorism (chapters 7 & 8), the

India, Russia and the Syrian crisis

There are grave security implications for both Russia and India. What happens in Syria holds the potential to impact a wide swathe of the so-called Greater Middle East, stretching from the Levant to the Central Asian steppes – a region that forms the ‘extended neighborhood’ of both Russia and India’s.

If the Russian vote against the resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly over Syria last week was predictable, India’s abstention was fortuitous. This Russian-Indian ‘divergence’ arose because the two countries so far pursued specific interests. For Russia, Syria has been a strategic ally, whereas India took a pragmatic stance imbued with the alchemy of its equations vis-à-vis the protagonists spearheading ‘regime change’ in Syria – the United States, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Syrian Air Force MiG-23 crashes near Iraq border

A Russian-built MiG-23 fighter jet belonging to the Syrian Air Force has crashed near the Iraq border amidst claims it was shot down by the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

State media has refuted the claims made by the FSA, alleging that the aircraft crashed due to technical problems, forcing the pilot to eject. A search for the pilot is currently under way.

Syria state-run news agency Sana has said that the aircraft had been conducting a routine training mission before it encountered a fault with its control mechanisms. The FSA has countered the official account, claiming one pilot to have died in the crash whilst the other has been captured.

Fighting between the Jordanian and Syrian armed forces at the border of the two countries.

Syrian governement forces fired with small arms against refugees trying to cross the border between Jordan and Syria provoking a response from the Jordanian soldiers. Initial reports indicated there were no casualties on their side, said a Jordanian military source.