; "Israel troops return fire on Syrian Golan position")
Tuesday, May 21, after an exchange of fire on the Golan, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said: “Last night we destroyed a Syrian army position which fired on an Israeli patrol.” Damascus earlier took responsibility for the attack and threatened to strike back for Israeli reprisals. IDF chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz ordered Golan positions to return any fire coming from the Syrian side. debkafile: Bashar Assad is signaling readiness for a war of attrition on Israel from the Golan border, first predicted by our sources on May 15.
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; "Syrian forces seize al-Qusayr")
May 19, 2013, 10:08 PM (IDT)
Shortly after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pledged Sunday, May 19, to maintain Israeli operations in Syria against the passage of advanced Iranian weapons to the Lebanese Hizballah, Syrian troops and their Hizballah comrades captured Al-Qasayr, the northwestern town which commands the high road from Syrian Homs to Lebanon’s Hermel Mountains. This was a major victory: Iranian arms for Hizballah can now go through from Syria to destination unobstructed. debkafile: To stop them, Israel would be reduced to simultaneous strikes against Syria and Lebanon.
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The Syrian war is set for its next stage, the spillover of hostilities from Syrian Golan into Israel. debkafile: This is the consequence ... More>
Binyamin Netanyahu left his meeting with Vladimir Putin Tuesday certain that Moscow had given Assad the go-ahead for his threat to make the Syrian Golan the platform for a war of attrition against Israel with the help of Hizballah armed with advanced weapons and other proxies.
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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spent three hours with President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Tuesday, May, 14, trying to head off advanced Russian anti-air S-300 missile systems sales to Syria. Instead, the Russian leader issued a warning relating to Israel’s air strikes against Damascus.
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Russian Navy Admiral Viktor Chirkov said Sunday, May 12, that a permanent staff of 20 officers is in place to run Russian fleet operations in the Mediterranean Sea. debkafile: Russia’s step aims at safeguarding the Assad regime and securing its Hizballah and Iranian allies. It also signals Moscow’s Middle East comeback.
More>Apr 24, 2013, 8:53 PM (IDT)
Tamerlan Tsarnaev established links with al Qaeda’s Caucasian networks for terrorist attacks in America, starting with the Boston bombings. In 2011, Russian intelligence notified the ... More...
Feb 26, 2013, 3:42 AM (IDT)
Syrian peace talks are set to open in Moscow on March 5 between the Syrian opposition and Assad regime representatives, debkafile reveals. The ... More...
Jan 18, 2013, 7:04 PM (IDT)
Neither France nor the US has learned from the Afghanistan War that aerial warfare won’t defeat al Qaeda – certainly not when they are highly-trained ... More...
Dec 19, 2012, 11:28 AM (IDT)
debkafile Exclusive: The Russians have given Bashar Assad his most sophisticated weapon thus far – the Iskander cruise missile which has a hypersonic ... More...
The Obama administration’s slowcoach policy on Syria has given Iran and Hizballah unfettered access to intervene in the Syrian civil war, magnifying its lethality and prospects of its spilling over into Israel, Turkey and Jordan, says debkafile. It will further deteriorate when Washington’s expectations of an international conference are not recprocated by Moscow.
Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu, while in Shanghai, faced a sharp dressing-down from President Vladimir Putin Monday, May 6 and a warning that further Israeli attacks on Damascus would not be tolerated. Putin said highly advanced Russian weapons, including S-300 air defense systems, would be supplied at speed to Syria.
As the Syrian army makes further gains against rebel forces, debkafile reports Hizballah and Israel appear to be in the process of relocating their lines of confrontation from Lebanon to Syria. An Israeli enclave is forming around the IDF medical facilities on the Golan, while Hizballah is taking command of three pockets.
Syria's Faisal Mekdad said the strike at Syria overnight Sunday, May 5, represented a "declaration of war" by Israel. Russia Today claimed killed at least 300 members of the Syrian Army’s 501st Unit. debkafile: This unit operates the Mt. Qassioun chemical weapon facility.
