Al Qaeda’s rocket attack on Eilat from Sinai caught Israeli, US and Egyptian intelligence nappy. Israel is getting its act together with new units to man the three borders facing the new al Qaeda presence in Sinai, Syria and Iraq.

The Al Qods Brigades chief, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, candidly Iran’s hopes and ambitions in a public lecture this week. He indicated that Syria is no longer the focus of Iran’s plans of expansion but rather Iraq, which has been chosen as the main vehicle for exporting the Shiite ...

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.

By beating the Syrian army 17th reserve division for control of the Euphrates, Islamist militias have removed the last gap in al Qaeda’s 1,000-km chain of command from northern Baghdad to eastern Damascus, including Syrian Golan on Israel’s border. Any “conflagration” in Syria could quickly spread to Lebanon, Iraq or the Golan; a violent incident in Egypt could spill back and forth into Libya, Israel or Algeria. “The threats have not gone, only assumed new shapes,” said IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz.

Russia has won from Baghdad the same privilege as Iran for using Iraqi air space as a corridor for delivering military supplies to Bashar Assad in Damascus. The huge arms deal Putin and Maliki signed this month provides Syria with a reserve arsenal across the border in Iraq.

Russia is ready to supply Iraqi Kurdistan with assault helicopters after Obama refused the KRG leader’s request for an air force. Moscow has acquired a stake in the oil of Kirkuk and accepts the Kurds’ need of an air force to protect it. Iraqi prime minister Maliki plands to ...

The US has quietly crafted a new Kurdish state in northern Syria. It is linked to the self-governing Kurdish republic of Iraq and defers to its rulers. Turkey and Iraq feel betrayed by Barack Obama, fearing their own Kurdish minorities like Iran’s Kurds will be swallowed up by the long dreamed-of ...

Iran is satisfied that Washington has made substantial concessions on its nuclear program and more can be squeezed persuaded for the sake of Tehran’s assistance for resolving the crises in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A year after the death of its iconic leader Osama bin Laden at the hands of US special forces, Al Qaeda is making an operational comeback, notably in North Africa and Syria. The suicide bombings hitting Damascus and Idlib in the last 24 hours were the work of Al Qaeda in Iraq – AQI, whose operatives have been pouring into Syria in the last two weeks, debkafile reports. Without US intervention, al Qaeda will be able to use Syria for attacking its neighbors too, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan.

Saudi rulers, to save the Syrian opposition from defeat at Bashar Assad’s hands, are reported by debkafile’s intelligence sources as taking a hand in turning al Qaeda Iraqi cells loose against him. Saudi agents used their pull with Iraqi Sunnis to persuade al Qaeda leaders that Assad and his Alawite regime were their most dangerous foe and their overthrow the first Sunni priority. Al Qaeda’s Pakistan headquarters broadcast the same call-up. Up 1,000 al Qaeda jihadis reported now in Syria.

Bashar Assad, universally hated and despised for his brutality, is confounding predictions of his imminent downfall with the help of tactical, arms and propaganda assistance from Russia and Iran. Al Qods Commander Maj. Gen. Haj Qassem Soleimani directs the Iranian team in Damascus and military advisers attached to Syrian Army riot dispersal units. From Lebanon, Hizballah pumps out emergency reinforcements for the Syrian military.  

By Friday night, Dec. 23, Western intelligence sources were attributing the twin suicide car attacks which claimed 53 lives and injured more than 100 outside the Syrian Security Directorate in Damascus earlier in the day to President Bashar Assad and his security chiefs. His motive? To keep the Arab League team, just arrived for an effort to start brokering peace in Syria, busy in Damascus instead of inspecting Homs where the bloody military crackdown continued during the day.

Gulf rulers led by Saudi Arabia say that by packing up its bags and leaving, the US military abandoned Iraq the country to an Iranian power grab led by Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and released its sectarian demons. They are therefore determined to go it alone against Iran.

Syria has moved Scud missiles, some tipped with chemical warheads, to its border with Turkey, reinforced its tank units on the Jordanian border and airlifted from Russia three million face masks against chemical and biological weapons.

Tehran was galvanized by the capture of the US drone into a spurt for spreading its diplomatic wings and showing the departing Americans who is the boss in Baghdad. An Iranian delegation sought to persuade Riyadh to help stabilize the regime in Damascus by forcing Bashar Assad to co-opt ...

Units of US troops evacuated from Iraq have been diverted to positions in Jordan opposite a Syrian tank concentration building up across the kingdom's northern border, debkafile reports.The incoming US contingents are housed at the King Hussein Air Base of al-Mafraq, 10 kilometers from the Syrian border. They are the first US boots to hit the ground directly opposite Assad's army, brought there by Bashar Assad's threat to set the Middle East on fire if the pressure against him persists.

The US exit from Iraq at year's end leaves in place 30,000 fighters of Iran's Al Qods Brigades trained in elite guerilla warfare. At least half are disguised as private security personnel for Iraqi ministers and politicians in Baghdad, providing Tehran with a strong lever of manipulation. America's Iraq war therefore draws to a close as thousands of Al Qods operatives take up positions in the Green Zone, the Baghdad enclave built at great cost for US headquarters in Iraq.   

Washington seeks a broad give-and-take deal for cooperation with Iran and guarantees of security for US troop units staying in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran wants Syria and Bahrain in the package.

Three Scud missiles flying from Iraq to Kuwait early Friday, Aug. 26 were launched by the Iran-backed Ketaeb Hizballah of Iraq. They exploded harmlessly, but debkafile's sources report that the first such attack since the US 2003 invasion of Iraq carried a warning to Kuwait: Halt construction of the Grand Mubarak Port opposite the Iraqi shore - or else face a destructive barrage. It was also the first time any Middle East terrorist group had used Scud missiles.

Kuwait prepares for war on Shatt al-Arb outlet to Persian Gulf after Iranian proxy threat against mega-port. Al Qaida threatens Paris, tries to hitch a ride on Britain's mob riots. And Saudi Arabia is braced for dangerous Sunni street protests against the throne.