Damascus Places Scud Missiles on Turkish Border, Orders 3 Million WMD Masks

Syria has rushed Scud surface missile launchers to its Turkish border and is augmenting the armored units strung out along its border with Jordan.
These military movements were disclosed Thursday night, Dec. 15 by DEBKA-Net-Weekly's exclusive military and intelligence sources as US special operations forces continued to stream in from Iraq to the Jordanian-Syrian frontier.
This is the first time since the outbreak of the uprising against Bashar Assad nine months ago that American troops stand face to face opposite Syrian military forces (as debkafile first disclosed on Dec. 13).
Our sources also report that Syria has deployed 21 missile launchers in firing positions on its northern border opposite the Turkish town of Hatai (Alexandretta). They include five Scud D missiles with chemical warheads.
The missiles were moved into position in broad daylight to make sure they were spotted by Western satellites and Turkish military surveillance.
As this issue closed Thursday night, Syria continued to direct more missiles of unknown types to the Turkish frontier.
On arrival in Jordan, the US units are settling in at the King Hussein Air Base of al-Mafraq, 10 kilometers from the Syrian border. This week they started building positions and watchtowers in the Jordanian villages of Albaej, Zubaydiah and al-Nahdah Houshan, as well as alongside the Sarhan Dam of the Yarmoukh River which marks a section of the border,
Since last Saturday, Dec. 10, Syrian tank forces have been piling up opposite the Jordanian town of Bura Al Harir.
Our sources also revealed Thursday night that Russia has been airlifting to Syria supplies of face masks for protection against chemical and biological weapons and quantities of medical supplies. So far three million gas masks have arrived, equivalent to the membership of the ruling Alawite sect.
It looks very much that if war break out the Syrian ruler will be concerned to protect the members of his own sect and leave the rest of the population to fend for itself.