As Obama ponders his options on Syria and is increasingly abandoned by allies, Putin pushes supplies of heavy weapons to the Syrian army, along with high-class intelligence for Assad and his high command and a cooperation deal with Hizballah.

President Barack Obama faced a tough decision Friday, April 26, after warning that Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons would be “game changer.” His failure to take firm action would render the US president’s red lines meaningless. Israel is concerned by the application of this loss of credibility to a nuclear Iran.

The Free Syrian Army commander informed Secretary of State John Kerry this week that the rebels have not chance of standing up to the superior firepower of the Syrian army and Hizballah.

In a striking reversal, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in Abdu Dhabi Thursday, April 25, that US intelligence now believes the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against its own people.

Red lines have been flattened by Iran’s rapid progress toward a nuclear weapon and by Bashar Assad’s mockery, backed by Tehran, of US President Barack Obama’s warning that “proof of chemical weapons use would be a game changer.” Two Israeli ex-intelligence chiefs Tuesday, April 23 underlined Israel-US differences.

Although Obama has approved the deployment of 200 US troops to Jordan, no one knows whether he will order enough military strength to save King Abdullah if his kingdom comes under Syrian attack.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Wednesday, April 17, that 200 troops of the US 1st Armored Division had been sent to Jordan to give the United States the ability to "potentially form a joint task force [with Jordan] for military operations, if ordered" by the President.  debkafile’s military sources report that they are ranged on the Jordanian-Syrian border to counter a potential Syrian attack. In a potential war between Syria and Jordan backed by US troops, Israel would almost certainly become involved.

After the Damascus units, the Syrian army has distributed protective suits to units in southern Syria and the Golan, amid evidence that chemical weapons have already been used in the Damascus region. As signs abound of both sides’ readiness for chemical warfare, Israeli troops have started handing out atropine injections and IVs against sarin and VX nerve agents to rebels fighting Syrian troops on the Golan and along the Israel-Syrian border - Israel’s first intervention in the Syrian conflict to date.

Jabhat al-Nusra operated in Syria for years as a clandestine movement, the brainchild of the notorious Jordanian master terrorist Musab Abu-Zarqawi of Iraq who used Syria as his logistical hub. Al-Nusra is now revealed It now emerges as a part of al Qaeda of Iraq - The Islamic State ...

Islamist fighters enlisted from many countries to fight with the Syrian rebels are beginning to return home. With their combat experience and training, they may serve al Qaeda as ticking bombs in Western cities.

The Syrian army’s 4^th Division-Republican Guard cleared most of the rebels out of the eastern suburbs of Damascus Monday, April 8, debkafile reporst. Bashar Assad’s brother Maher at the head of the 4^th Division, executed a surprise pincer movement spearheaded by tank and artillery fire, in time to impede the rebel advance on the center of Damascus and the international airport. This major operation is assumed to have been designed by Assad’s foreign advisers, Iranian or Russian, and averted a chemical attack.

The rebel fighters’ newly-acquired antitank guided missiles-ATGM (of both Russian and American manufacture) are knocking over the T-72 tanks of the 4^th Republican Guard Division and the 3^rd Division, the backbone of the capital’s defenses, while their portable MANPAD air defense systems have brought practically all takeoffs and landings ...

Officers and troops of the loyal 4^th and 3^rd army divisions are outfitted with gas masks and protective suits for continuous combat in a contaminated atmosphere. Assad is planning a short, sharp offensive to break the deadlock in the war with rapid victory, even if it can only be ...

Iran and Russian step up their cooperation for boosting Assad’s army with continuous airlifts of war materiel, landed close to the war arenas against a prospective Western invasion of Syria. This could bring US and Israeli troops into direct confrontation with Iranian combatants.

NATO commander Adm. James Stavridis’s Plan B for Syria would aim straight at Bashar Assad’s ouster but would not require the participation of US forces – only NATO units led by the Turkish military and supported by small special ground contingents from Britain, France, Holland, Poland and the Czech ...

After sustaining a succession of setbacks and rejections in the Arab Revolt, Hizballah faces its most agonizing debacle at the hands of its sworn enemies, Israel and the United States, if they go ahead with an operation against Assad’s chemical weapons.

The US and Israel have agreed on the circumstances that would warrant their intervention in Syria’s use of chemical weapons. For now, they are holding off even though Assad promises more air attacks on Lebanon to bully President Michel Sleiman into expelling Syrian rebels.

debkafile reports from western military sources that present in the rocket which exploded in the Aleppo neighborhood of Khan al-Assal Tuesday March 19 were phosphorus, chlorine and Agent 15 or BZ. Although the Assad regime and the Syrian rebels charged each other with firing the rocket, which killed 15-31 people and injured more than a hundred, it was not possible to verify which side was responsible. The White House denied it was the rebels, while Moscow backed Damascus by insisting that it was.

The Syrian conflict spread in earnest Monday, March 18, when the Syrian Air Force conducted bombing runs over Syrian rebel jumping-off bases inside Lebanon and border valleys used for smuggling men and arms into Syria. debkafile reports exclusively: Syrian ruler Bashar Assad Saturday gave Lebanese President Michel Suleiman 48 hours to sack his chief of staff – or else face air attack. The ultimatum expired Monday. Assad may now be preparing similar treatment for Jordan, timing it for President Barack Obama’s visit this week.

Shiite forces, Iranian, Lebanese and Iraqi, are mustering their strength in Syria to head off al Qaeda’s Syrian momentum carrying over into Iraq and Lebanon.