The Syrian Crisis

[nrupatunga]

One more source on usage of chemical weapons in syria.
'Suffocating in the streets': Chemical weapons attack reported in Syria

So we may very well see NATO flexing it's might in west asia soon. Just in recent past Iraq was "civilised" now it maybe turn of syria.

 

[nrupatunga]

MJ Akbar in his book "Shade of swords" says that in late 19th century/early 20th Century UK was always pushing US to take up white man's burden, He says something like "US has taken up the burden but how do they now take it off from their shoulders as this burden is taking them down as well".

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Syria: regime accuses rebels of killing 25 in chemical weapons attack - Telegraph

Experts in biological warfare said the incident was likely to have been a "chemical leak" in which a store of industrial or agricultural chemicals was hit by a missile. The type and scale of injuries did not indicate that a sophisticated, highly-engineered device had been used by the regime.

 

[sesha_maruthi27]

If this information is not properly scrutinized there are possibility that more fire may pour into SYRIA and even RUSSIA may get to support the SYRIAN government and this may turn into a cause of the THIRD WORLD WAR........

 

[Armand2REP]

Looks like RT got over hyped Intel sources


But article comes from Russian Foreign Ministry Published by RT

It is Russian response to NATO chatter over intervention.

 

[SajeevJino]

U.S. military considers its options in Syria​

Seven months ago, President Barack Obama warned the use of chemical weapons in Syria could bring direct U.S. involvement in that country's raging civil war. While the administration's interest in U.S. military involvement in Syria remains low, planners still have been preparing for the possibility U.S. forces would have to step in and neutralize Syria's military or safeguard chemical weapons stockpiles.


It's not a pretty picture, NATO commander Adm. James Stavridis said Tuesday, a day after unconfirmed reports emerged that chemical weapons may have been used.

"The Syrian situation continues to become worse and worse and worse," he said.

The mere possibility of U.S. involvement comes at a bad time for the military, which is preparing to ground some aircraft, scrap some naval deployments and cut back on training to meet budget cuts mandated by forced spending cuts that went into effect last month.

Depending on what the administration might decide to do - and no decisions have yet been made to do anything - military intervention also could meet with resistance from a public weary of war after the long conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Several NATO countries are working on contingency plans for military action in Syria, including imposing a no-fly zone, providing lethal military assistance to rebel groups and imposing an arms embargo on the Syrian government, Stavridis said. NATO hasn't discussed any such options as a whole, he said.

In Washington, military commanders continue to advocate strongly for a diplomatic solution rather than a military strike, a senior U.S. official said.

The top U.S. military officer said this week that Syria poses the most complex set of issues he could conceive.

"About six months ago we had a very opaque understanding of the opposition," said Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "And now I would say it's even more opaque."

Dempsey has said he favored arming the rebels last year, when the Pentagon had discussions on the subject with the White House.

But Obama decided to limit U.S. assistance to nonlethal aid, and Dempsey now seems more averse to arming groups that may be influenced by extremist elements.

"I don't think at this point I can see a military option that would create an understandable outcome. And until I do, it would be my advice to proceed cautiously," he said.

Obama has not yet asked to see an action plan, senior military officials say.

Here's a look at some of the options under consideration by NATO officials and Washington:

Targeting Syria's air defenses

NATO has installed Patriot missile batteries in Turkey, near its border with Syria, which could be aimed to shoot down Syrian aircraft, Stavridis said

But Turkey only allowed the missile batteries to be placed there for defensive purposes, and NATO nations would have to agree before they could be used for offensive strikes against Syria.

That's not something under immediate consideration, Stavridis said.

Airstrikes

The U.S. military has enough airpower in the region to take action against Syria, according to officials. That includes fighter jets and bombers spread out across air bases in the Middle East and nearby aircraft carriers. The U.S. Navy also has warships equipped with Tomahawk missiles, which could be used to hit chemical weapons supplies.

But such strikes pose a danger of releasing chemical agents into the air around civilian populations in Syria, the officials said.

Other options include bombing runways to prevent Syrian aircraft from taking off, or disrupting communication between the regime leaders and ground commanders.

Ground troops

The United States has no plans to put "boots on the ground" in Syria. But the Pentagon is a planning machine, so the Defense Department last year came up with a military analysis of a ground option should the president request it.

According to the analysis, it would take up to 75,000 troops to secure Syria's chemical weapons facilities if they were in danger of being looted. An actual deployment would likely involve far fewer ground troops, and from various nations, but it underscores the scope of the challenge.

Before ground troops would go in, weeks of airstrikes would be needed to destroy Syria's air defenses.

The military believes Syria has about 50 weapon production sites around the country, as well as some storage areas and research centers.

U.S. military considers its options in Syria – CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs

 

[SajeevJino]

Shelling from Syria spills into Lebanon​

At least two shells and one missile fired in fighting in Syria landed inside Lebanon on Wednesday, residents and security sources said, but there were no reports of damage or injuries.


"Around 9:00 am (0700GMT), two shells and a rocket fell on the outskirts of the village of Sahlet al-Ma" near the border with Syria, a local security services official said.

The area, in the northern part of Lebanon's eastern Bekaa province, is adjacent to Syria's Homs province, the scene of heavy fighting in recent months between rebels and regime forces.

Residents said the missiles had fallen near a stone mill, causing no damage or injuries.

Lebanon's official news agency said that five missiles had hit Lebanese territory, in the latest incident in which fighting over the border in Syria has spilled over.

On Tuesday, President Michel Sleiman slammed as "unacceptable" a series of Syrian air raids a day earlier that targeted sites inside Lebanese territory. Syria denied launching the attack.

Shelling from Syria spills into Lebanon : Voice of Russia

 

[W.G.Ewald]

West stalls Syria chemical attack probe in U.N.: Russia

Russia clashed with Britain and France at the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday over the scope of an investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria, accusing Western powers of trying to torpedo a potential U.N. probe.

Syria asked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday to investigate an alleged chemical weapons attack by "terrorist groups" near the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday, Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said. Russia supports that request.

Britain and France cited Syrian opposition claims that there were two chemical weapons attacks, one in Damascus and another in Aleppo, on Tuesday and demanded that both be investigated. Russia's U.N. envoy disagreed strongly with the idea of focusing an urgently needed U.N. investigation on multiple incidents.

The dispute highlighted the chasm between Russia's position toward the Syrian government, its ally, and that of the Western powers who support the opposition trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad. The deadlock on the 15-nation council has left it powerless to act on Syria's two-year-old civil war.

"The Syrian government has requested the Secretary-General of the United Nations to form a specialized, independent and a neutral, technical mission to investigate the use by the terrorist groups operating in Syria of chemical weapons yesterday against civilians," Ja'afari told reporters.

Syria's government and rebels accused each other of launching a deadly chemical attack, but U.S. and European officials say there is no evidence to suggest there was such an attack. If confirmed, it would be the first use of such weapons in the conflict.

 

[nrupatunga]

UN probes 'chemical weapons' in Aleppo

The UN is to investigate the possible use of chemical weapons in an attack in Syria, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has announced.

The investigation will focus on an incident in Khan al-Assal, Aleppo province, when Damascus says rebel forces used chemical weapons.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Preliminary results indicate chemical weapons not used in Syria - CNN.com

 

[Armand2REP]

I don't think rebels even have access to such delivery systems.

 

[asianobserve]

Besides, I keep saying this that the biggest problem for the rebels is not Assad but American open support. To be more specific air cover or direct actions against Assad's air and command and control assets. Until now America has not shown willingness to do this and certainly will not have an interest at all if the rebels use such illegal weapons as chemical weapons. So why would the rebels blow away most most important strategic asset by such silly actions as gassing civilians?

The party in Syria that has the means and motive to use chemical weapons is Assad. Again, this is just a matter of basic logic.

 

[pmaitra]

Suicide bomber kills Syria's most senior Sunni cleric

A suicide bomber yesterday killed dozens, including the most senior pro-government Sunni Muslim mufti, Sheikh Muhammad al-Bouti, when he penetrated the regime's ring of steel in Damascus.

The health ministry said at least 42 people had been killed in the blast at the Iman Mosque, with 84 wounded.

State television said "terrorists", a term often used to describe the rebels, were behind the attack.

But rebel spokesman Loay Maqdad said units associated with the opposition's Free Syrian Army were not behind the attack.

Source: Suicide bomber kills Syria's most senior Sunni cleric - Telegraph

 

[pmaitra]

Syria: David Cameron backs down from saying he wants to arm rebels

David Cameron has backed down from earlier statements that he wants to arm Syria's rebels, with Britain and France isolated from the rest of Europe.

Source: Syria: David Cameron backs down from saying he wants to arm rebels - Telegraph

 

[SajeevJino]

UN to launch Syria chemicals weapons probe​

THE United Nations will investigate whether chemical weapons have been used in the Syria conflict, says UN leader Ban Ki-Moon.

Mr Ban said the "difficult mission" would focus on a Syrian government allegation that opposition rebels fired chemical weapons missiles in an attack this week.

But France, Britain and the United States called on Mr Ban to widen the inquiry to include allegations made against President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

The Syrian government has accused opposition rebels of using chemical weapons in Khan al-Assal near Aleppo on Tuesday. The opposition said the government staged the attack and also used banned chemical weapons in another incident near Damascus.

"I have decided to conduct a United Nations investigation into the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria," Mr Ban told reporters in his office. "I intend for this investigation to start as soon as practically possible."

The UN leadership is working with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversees the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the World Health Organisation to set up the inquiry.

Mr Ban said the mission would "look into the specific incident brought to my attention by the Syrian government."

"I am, of course, aware that there are other allegations of similar cases involving the reported use of chemical weapons," he added, while refusing to take questions on whether the inquiry could be extended.

"Full cooperation from all parties will be essential. I stress that this includes unfettered access," Mr Ban said, calling the investigation "an unequivocal reminder that the use of chemical weapons is a crime against humanity."

"The international community needs full assurance that chemical weapons stockpiles are verifiably safeguarded," Mr Ban said.

Diplomats and UN officials have stressed that there is still no formal proof that chemical weapons have been used by either side.

Britain and France called for a wider inquiry that includes accusations that chemical weapons were also used at Ataybah near Damascus and another incident at Homs on December 23.

"Given the gravity of these allegations, we judge it essential that all the pertinent facts concerning these allegations are swiftly investigated," said a letter sent by the French and British missions to the UN leader. It called for "an urgent investigation into all allegations".

US ambassador Susan Rice said the United States also "supports an investigation that pursues any and all credible allegations of the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria."

US President Barack Obama has said the use of chemical weapons in the conflict could be a "game-changer".

"We demand the full cooperation of the Assad regime in particular, as well as Syrian authorities throughout the country, including by providing full and unfettered access to all relevant individuals and locations," Ms Rice said in a statement.

The Security Council is bitterly divided over the Syria war and Russia has insisted that the inquiry should be limited to the Syrian government allegation.

Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin welcomed the announcement made by Mr Ban, calling it "a very good, courageous decision."

Russia and China have blocked three western-proposed UN resolutions that would have stepped up pressure on Assad over the conflict in which the UN says well over 70,000 people have died.

Mr Ban said "the horrors" of recent months "prove beyond doubt: the military solution in Syria is leading to the dissolution of Syria."

The OPCW said in a statement released at its base in The Hague that the inquiry would require "careful planning" because of the security dangers.

"While allegations of this nature are not new to conflict situations, they are nonetheless serious, especially in the context of Syria which is not a state party to the Chemical Weapons Convention. This remains a matter of serious concern."

Cookies must be enabled. | The Australian

 

[W.G.Ewald]

I don't think rebels even have access to such delivery systems.

Maybe not rockets, but certainly artillery shells, don't you think?

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Bam's chemical test - NYPOST.com

President Obama's fast-fading Syrian red line is raising eyebrows across the Mideast, where he completed a mostly successful visit yesterday.

Was an American line crossed this week? Were chemical weapons used in Syria? Obama says America is still studying it, but for now he seems to trust the case to the United Nations.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he'll investigate. Obama, who clearly doesn't want to get involved in the Syrian bloodbath, is plainly praying the UN will get him off the hook.

On Wednesday, Syria's UN ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, asked Ban to form a team of experts to investigate if "armed terrorist groups" used chemical weapons in the outskirts of Aleppo a day earlier. The Syrian opposition contends that it was Bashar al-Assad's army that used the weapons of mass destruction.

Ban has said that he'd send a team as soon as possible. And while he's moving fast (at least for the UN), no one expects his experts to arrive in Syria very soon. Damascus will hold them off until it can alter the crime scene to "prove" that, as they contend, the rebels used chemicals to provoke outside intervention.

At a Wednesday news conference in Israel, Obama said that we don't have conclusive evidence of chemical use — but that it would be a "game changer." This in fact is a bit softened from his past threats, which more clearly hinted at intervention if Assad were to go chemical.

Israeli officials, including Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, said in TV interviews that Israel has evidence of a chemical attack. But later in the week, Washington officials indicated that no chemical weapons were used.

Where's the confusion?

According to some reports, US intelligence has determined that chlorine indeed was used in Aleppo, but chlorine may not technically be a chemical weapon, like nerve gas or blistering agents.

It depends what the meaning of "is" is.

Let's look back a bit: Last August Obama first defined his Syrian red line as a point when "we see a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized."

Since then, Syria has moved a lot of chemical weapons. Yes, the Assads claim that they're only moving the arms to ensure they stay secure — and we chose to believe them. But some analysts believe the tyrant is moving his most dangerous weapons to prepare them for use.

Either way, Obama conspicuously dropped the "moving around" part, redefining the red line as chemical "use."

But this week the British and French UN ambassadors wrote to Ban: "We wish to bring to your attention allegations of use of chemical weapons in Homs" on Dec. 23. Did the Syrian army, in addition to this week's suspected incident, use chemical arms as early as three months ago?

Chemical arms, often described as "the poor man's nuke," are very effective at mass killing in urban areas. With so many shady players on all sides of the Syrian civil war, the fear is that these toys, amassed by the Assad family for decades, may fall in the hands of the world's worst terrorists.

But Obama says that it's a problem "for the entire world," even as the Security Council remains divided over Syria, and will likely debate Ban's conclusions (when he finally forms them) forever.

Obama's Mideast trip was a shiny diplomatic success. Yesterday, he even managed to score a major coup by getting Prime Ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Recep Tayyep Erdogan to talk on the phone and renew ties between Israel and Turkey, which broke off three years ago.

But when a well-orchestrated welcome event at Ben Gurion Airport Wednesday called on him to follow a red tape on the ground to a nearby mic, Obama joked, pointing to Netanyahu: "He's always talking to me about red lines."

Obama may not like it, but when he repeats, in Israel and Jordan, his promise to the world that America won't allow Iran to go nuclear and stresses that he never "bluffs," he draws an American red line.

But the "pinker" his Syrian line gets, the less anyone in the region will trust him on Iran. And as trust fades, all of Obama's rhetoric and diplomatic skills will fade with it.

 

[Armand2REP]

Maybe not rockets, but certainly artillery shells, don't you think?

You can't just load it into an artillery shell and be effective. It needs fuses for air burst and a dispersal canister. Hitting the ground has little effect.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

You can't just load it into an artillery shell and be effective. It needs fuses for air burst and a dispersal canister. Hitting the ground has little effect.

I believe there are artillery rounds in Syria's inventory which already have chemical contents.

Syria and weapons of mass destruction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[SajeevJino]

Israel retaliate Syria with Missile after cross border Shooting

IDF fires missile into Syria after more cross-border shooting​

Syrian outpost completely destroyed, leaving two wounded; defense minister warns of no-tolerance approach to attacks

IDF soldiers on Sunday morning fired a Tammuz missile at a Syrian army position in Tel Fares, from which shots were fired both that day and the previous day across the border into the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. The missile destroyed the Syrian post and reportedly wounded two gunmen there.

A military spokesman said the soldiers responded with "accurate fire toward the Syrian post from which they were fired upon." He could not say whether regular Syrian forces or rebels fired. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Later reports suggested the gunfire at Israel had come from Syrian army forces, but that it was not clear whether it had been deliberately aimed at Israel.

On Saturday, an IDF patrol convoy in the Golan Heights came under rifle fire from the same Syrian army post as fighting continued along Israel's borders with Israel and Jordan. No one was hurt, but the rounds caused damage to several IDF patrol vehicles.

It was unclear, in that incident too, whether the rifle fire was deliberately aimed at the IDF vehicles.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said Israeli was implementing a no-tolerance policy in response to any Syrian fire.

"We deplore the shooting attack on IDF forces inside Israeli territory," Ya'alon said in a statement. "In response, the IDF retaliated according to the policy instated by the government: Any breach of Israeli sovereignty from the Syrian side will immediately precipitate the suppression of the sources of fire."

The defense minister added that Israel held the Syrian government responsible.

The rebel effort to overrun the Quneitra region along the ceasefire line separating Syria and Israel has heightened worries that Islamic extremists among those fighting Assad could take over the frontline with Israeli troops and gain a potential staging ground for attacks on the Jewish state.

The frontier has largely been calm in the nearly four decades since the two countries fought a war over the Golan Heights that ended with a UN-monitored ceasefire. But Israeli military officials have expressed concern that a rebel takeover could upset the calm maintained by Assad and his predecessor and father, the late Hafez Assad.

Those fears have been compounded by increasing influence wielded by extremist groups over the divided rebels and the increasing international isolation of the regime.

"We are seeing terror organizations gaining footholds increasingly in the territory," said Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, Israel's military chief at a conference in Israel last week. "For now, they are fighting Assad. Guess what? We're next in line."

Israel says it is trying to stay out of Syria's civil war, but it retaliated for sporadic Syrian fire that spilled into Israeli communities on the Golan Heights on several occasions over the past few months.

An Israeli military official this week said the entire border area has become a "playground" for skirmishes between rebels and the Syrian army.

The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, known as UNDOF, was established to monitor the ceasefire in May 1974 by a UN Security Council resolution.

Last month, members of the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade held 21 Filipino UNDOF peacekeepers hostage for four days, raising concerns about the future of UN operations in the area.


IDF fires missile into Syria after more cross-border shooting | The Times of Israel