WarSclerotic

Syria’s scuds on alert | The Sunday Times.

SYRIA’s Scud missile teams were placed on high alert this weekend and moved to a new base, according to western intelligence sources.

The North Korean-made ballistic missiles, under the control of technicians belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, were spotted by spy satellites at an airbase north of Aleppo.

It is believed that the Scud D missiles, which have a range of 440 miles and are able to carry chemical warheads, were moved from a depot at Al-Safir, south of Aleppo, to act as a warning to any foreign powers contemplating intervention to stop Syria’s bloodshed.

“It’s clear that the Syrians knew that moving the Scuds would be seen by Western satellites,” said a defence source.

The Free Syrian Army, the rebel force, are believed to have made several failed attempts in recent weeks to storm the Al-Safir depot, where the Scuds were stored.

It is not the first time the Assad regime has given a show of military strength to the international community.

In December last year, as the conflict became bloodier and international condemnation of the regime increased, the state news agency announced that the Syrian army had performed missile tests in eastern Syria.

Uzi Rubin, the founder of Israel’s missile defence programme, noted that Damascus had tested several types of missiles, including Scuds and advanced Russian Yakhont land-sea missiles.

He said: “This is the first time the Syrians have launched and made public almost every kind of missile in their arsenal.”

The Revolutionary Guard has been present in Syria since last year under a defence pact between the two countries. The Iranian missile experts arrived only recently.

The Scud D with its VX chemical warheads is regarded by Israeli experts as the “poor man’s response” to Israel’s formidable non-conventional arsenal.

The missile could reach Cairo, Jerusalem and Istanbul.

This entry was posted on June 11, 2012 at 3:22 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.