WarSclerotic

Report: Iran Quds Force Commander Killed – Middle East – News – Israel National News.

Damascus Funeral Procession

Reuters

Va. Army mortuary unit deploys to Middle East – Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq – Army Times.

PETERSBURG, Va. — More than 40 soldiers from Fort Lee are deploying to Kuwait and Afghanistan.

Officials at the Army base near Petersburg say the soldiers from the 111th Quartermaster Company left Wednesday for an at least six-month deployment.

The soldiers are part of one of the Army’s only two active duty mortuary affairs units.

Israel remains wild card amid US bluster – FT Specials News – IBNLive.

Washington: “We are on the same page at this moment,” Hillary Clinton said earlier this week in Jerusalem, shortly after posing for photos with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, at the David Citadel Hotel.

The subject was Iran and its nuclear programme. Just in case that message was not loud enough, the US secretary of state has been getting a lot of back-up from her Obama administration colleagues. A few days before Mrs Clinton arrived in Jerusalem, she was preceded by Tom Donilon, the national security adviser, and before that by her number two at State, Bill Burns.

After she left Israel on Tuesday, the local protocol team started to prepare for the impending visit of defence secretary Leon Panetta. Even in an election year and with Mitt Romney planning his own trip to Israel at the end of next week, that is a lot of official visits.

The flurry of talks with Israel come as tensions between the US and Iran appear to be escalating again, the result of the apparent stalemate in the negotiations between Iran and the leading powers over its nuclear programme and the implementation of tough new sanctions by the US and Europe.

Amid Iran’s repeated threats to close down the Straits of Hormuz, Monday’s incident near Dubai, when the US navy fired on a fishing boat that came close to one of its ships and killed one of the men on board, underscores the nervousness in the region.

Over the past few weeks, the Pentagon has not missed an opportunity to remind Iran of the quiet military build-up it has put in place in the Gulf since the end of last year. An aircraft carrier, the USS Stennis, has been sent to the region four months ahead of schedule – as has the USS Ponce, a 46 year-old transport ship that has been remodelled as a potential floating base for special forces.

The Pentagon said on Tuesday that the US would lead a big minesweeping operation in the Gulf in September, involving about 20 other countries. The choreographed announcements are a clear message to the Iranians not to try anything.

Yet amid all the bluster and troop movements, the contours of the Iran nuclear issue remain little changed. For their own reasons, the US and Iran would both probably prefer to delay difficult decisions until next year.

The Obama administration is acutely aware of the narrow political space in which it is operating over Iran, given the pressure it would come under from Republicans were it to make anything looking like a substantial concession. If President Barack Obama wins re-election, however, he will have more room to pursue a deal with Iran.

And if Iran really is interested in negotiating over its nuclear programme – something which remains disputed – it too might wish to wait until after the election, even with the rising economic pain from sanctions. Not only would a re-elected Obama have a freer hand, but Tehran could worry that a future Romney administration might not accept any deal that is reached now.

That means that the wild-card this year remains the reaction of the Israelis. Although the speculation about an Israeli military strike is nowhere near as intense as it was earlier in the year, it has not disappeared.

The unofficial signals from Israel continue to play down the prospects of an attack. A recent interview by a former military planning chief, Giora Eiland, has attracted a lot of attention in Washington. Echoing the views of former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, he warned of the possibility that an Israeli strike might end up accelerating the creation of an Iranian nuclear bomb if Israel had little international support.

But the unanswered question is whether Mr Netanyahu really believes the US would launch its own military strike if that were the only way to prevent an Iranian bomb. In Jerusalem, Mrs Clinton repeated the familiar promise that “all elements of American power [will be used] to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon”. However, the flurry of visitors from Washington suggests that the Obama administration is still not certain it has convinced Mr Netanyahu. The US and Israel are still not completely on the same page.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012

PM Netanyahu’s Statement about the Terror Attack in Bulgaria – YouTube.

Syria Civil War and Chemical Weapons: Israel will need to deal with Syria before Iran | Full Comment | National Post.

In the aftermath of Wednesday’s suicide bombing of a tour bus full of Israelis in a resort area of the eastern European nation of Bulgaria, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already said that Israel believes that Iran is responsible — perhaps through one of its terrorist proxies, but responsible. Netanyahu has promised strong retribution for the attack, and when the Israelis talk about this sort of thing, they usually mean it.

But before Israel can rain retaliatory hellfire down on Iran or Hamas or Hezbollah, it has other concerns that need addressing first. Syria somehow become even more unstable over the last day or two, and that, combined with concerns that the rebellion is becoming increasingly Islamist and less pro-democratic, threatens to present Israel with a sudden security nightmare along its northern flank that will make five murdered citizens a second-tier issue.

The sudden destabilization of Syria is occurring due to violence in the capital of Damascus. During the 17-month-long rebellion, the Syrian military forces and pro-government militias have battled anti-regime forces in outlaying areas of the country or in cities and towns known for their traditional antipathy to the rule of the Assad family. In recent weeks, however, violence has broken out in the capital.

And that violence has sharply escalated, striking at the heart of President Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle. On Wednesday, a bomber — believed to be a high-level security guard — detonated an explosive during a meeting of the country’s war cabinet. (The Free Syrian Army, an umbrella organization for the disparate rebel groups, insists that it was not a suicide attack, but a time bomb). The defence minister was killed. So was a senior military commander, who was also the president’s brother-in-law. Other regime officials, including the interior minister, were wounded in the attack. And, interestingly, President Assad himself has not been heard or seen since. His whereabouts — indeed, his status — are unknown.

In the aftermath of this bombing, the situation in Damascus has deteriorated. Clashes between rebels and security forces began weeks ago, but the military has now begun using heavy weapons in its own capital. Artillery has been firing into the city. Helicopter gunships have conducted strafing runs. And it’s not working. Fighting is gradually moving into the centre of town.

It’s hard to say with any certainty when the regime will fall. The media has been declaring “turning points” almost from the very beginning of the rebellion in the winter of 2011. But things certainly don’t look good for Syria’s rulers. And that means very real trouble for all of its neighbours — including, most especially, Israel.

Israel has existed in a state of high tension, but general peace, with Syria for decades. It now must worry about its northern frontier at the Golan Heights, which Israel controls but Syria claims. The issue is not so much that Syria will suddenly invade it — their military is plenty busy enough, and has actually been pulling troops away from Israel to use against the rebels. But Israel is worried about refugees crossing the border, given that there is every reasonable chance that those who would enter Israel, under the guise of fleeing violence, would in fact intend to commit violent acts once inside the Jewish state.

There are certainly many genuine refugees trying to escape the fighting in Syria, but Israel can’t just throw its doors open to people from a country that has been hostile to it for generations. And they won’t. Israel has said that the will use the military to stop any flow of refugees into Israeli territory, if necessary.

But these refugees are not the main threat. Syria possesses enormous stockpiles of chemical weapons, including highly portable and extremely lethal nerve gasses. It also has long-range rockets capable of carrying these weapons into Israel.

Israeli officials are reported to be working with U.S. military planners on possible options for a pre-emptive attack on the weapons. Syria has been reported to be moving them around, which would make a strike difficult. There are also risks that any attack on the weapons could end up releasing a giant cloud of poison that would kill anyone downwind of it, not to mention that risks of Israeli military intervention setting off a regional war.

These are real concerns, which is probably why Israel has been content to sit back and do nothing up until now. But the prospect of loose gas canisters is real, and extraordinarily dangerous. Israel can’t afford to take its eye off that ball. And that may buy the perpetrators of Wednesday’s attack in Bulgaria some time.

National Post
mgurney@nationalpost.com

Bulgarian press names bomber: Mehdi Ghezali | The Times of Israel.

Terrorist said to have been a Swedish citizen with a history of Muslim extremist activities

Mehdi Ghezali (screen capture, Channel 10)

Bulgarian media on Thursday named the suicide bomber who blew up a bus full of Israeli tourists, killing five, in Burgas on Wednesday as Mehdi Ghezali.

There was no independent confirmation of the veracity of the information. The reports surfaced soon after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had publicly accused Hezbollah, directed by Iran, of responsibility for the bombing.

Ghezali was reportedly a Swedish citizen, with Algerian and Finnish origins. He had been held at the US’s Guantanamo Bay detainment camp on Cuba from 2002 to 2004, having previously studied at a  Muslim religious school and mosque in Britain, and traveled to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

He was also reportedly among 12 foreigners captured trying to cross into Afghanistan in 2009.

Earlier on Thursday the Bulgarian police released a brief video clip that claimed to show the suicide bomber responsible for Wednesday’s terror attack on a tour bus full of Israeli citizens at Burgas International Airport.

The Bulgarian news agency Sofia reported that the bomber was carrying an American passport and Michigan driver’s license, both believed to be forgeries.

Sofia also reported that the Bulgarian Interior Ministry managed to recover the fingerprints of the bomber, which they submitted to the FBI in the United States and the international police organization Interpol. The FBI and CIA joined Israeli and Bulgarian officials in investigating the attack.

Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov told Sofia that DNA tests would be run to determine the identity of the Caucasian man, who the minister described as casually dressed with nothing suspicious about his appearance to set him apart from the crowd of people at the airport.

The ministry did not indicate how the police came to the conclusion that the man was the suicide bomber.

Assad reportedly flees to Syria coastal town as regime forces strike back against rebels | Fox News.

BEIRUT –  As Syrian forces retaliate against rebels in Damascus a day after a deadly bombing attack that killed three regime leaders, reports Thursday suggest President Bashar Assad has fled to the coastal city of Latakia.

Assad, who was noticeably absent after Wednesday’s bombing, is directing the government response to his top lieutenants’ deaths from the Mediterranean sea resort, Reuters reports, citing opposition sources and a Western diplomat.

“Our information is that he is at his palace in Latakia and that he may have been there for days,” a senior opposition figure told Reuters.

The whereabouts of his wife and their three young children were not known.

Thousands of Syrians streamed across the Syrian border into Lebanon, fleeing as fighting in the capital entered its fifth straight day, witnesses said. Residents near the Masnaa crossing point — about 25 miles from Damascus — said hundreds of private cars as well as taxis and buses were ferrying people across.

On Thursday, Russia and China vetoed a Western-backed United Nations resolution threatening sanctions against Syria.

The resolution threatened non-military sanctions against Assad’s government if he didn’t withdraw troops and heavy weapons from populated areas within 10 days. It is tied to Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which could eventually allow the use of force to end the conflict.

International envoy Kofi Annan had urged the council to postpone Wednesday’s scheduled vote so members could “unite and take concerted and strong action that would help stem the bloodshed in Syria and build momentum for a political transition,” his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.

In Thursday’s fighting in Damascus, government forces fired heavy machine guns and mortars in battles with rebels in a number of neighborhood in the capital, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Adding to the confusion, Syria’s state-run TV warned citizens that gunmen were disguising themselves in military uniforms to carry out attacks.

“Gunmen are wearing Republican Guard uniforms in the neighborhoods of Tadamon, Midan, Qaa and Nahr Aisha, proving that they are planning attacks and crimes,” SANA said.

Many residents were fleeing Damascus’ Mezzeh neighborhood after troops surrounded it and posted snipers on rooftops while exchanging gunfire with opposition forces.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, said rebels damaged one helicopter and disabled three military vehicles.

Rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades at a police station in the Jdeidet Artouz area, killing at least five officers, the group said.

Activist claims could not be independently verified. The Syrian government bars most media from working independently in the country.

The unarmed observers were authorized for 90 days to monitor a cease-fire and implementation of Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan, but the truce never took hold and the monitors have found themselves largely locked down because of the persistent violence.

Mood said the observers “will become relevant when the political process takes off.”

Syria’s 16-month crisis began with protests inspired by the Arab Spring wave of revolutions, but it has evolved into a civil war, with rebels fighting to topple Assad.

Wednesday’s rebel bomb attack on high-level crisis meeting struck the harshest blow yet at the heart of Assad’s regime. The White House said the bombing showed Assad was “losing control” of Syria.

Syrian TV confirmed the deaths of Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, 65, a former army general and the most senior government official to be killed in the rebels’ battle to oust Assad; Gen. Assef Shawkat, 62, the deputy defense minister who is married to Assad’s elder sister, Bushra, and is one of the most feared figures in the inner circle; and Hassan Turkmani, 77, a former defense minister who died of his wounds in the hospital.

Syria’s state-run news agency says Assad attended the swearing-in of a new defense minister. It is not known where the swearing-in took place.

Also wounded were Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar and Maj. Gen. Hisham Ikhtiar, who heads the National Security Department. State TV said both were in stable condition.

Rebels claimed responsibility, saying they targeted the room where the top government security officials in charge of crushing the revolt were meeting.

Activists say more than 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March 2011, most of them civilians. The Syrian government says more than 4,000 security officers have been killed. It does not given numbers of civilian dead.

Russia and China veto Syria sanctions resolution at U.N. Security Council.

Thursday, 19 July 2012

It was the 3rd time that Russia and China have used their veto power to block U.N. Security Council resolutions designed to put pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. (Al Arabiya)

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Jerusalem Post – Breaking News.

Prime Minister Binyanmin Netanyahu on Thursday said that all the countries of the world that understand that Iran is an exporter of world terror must join Israel in “stating that fact clearly” in order to emphasize the importance of preventing the Islamic Republic from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Speaking at a press conference in the aftermath of Wednesday’s terror attack in Bulgaria in which seven people were killed, five of them Israeli tourists, Netanyahu said that the bus bombing was part of a “world terror campaign” that Iran and its proxy Hezbollah have been waging on five continents over the past year.

The prime minister said that Iran and Hezbollah have tried to carry out terror attacks in India, Thailand, Kenya, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, Greece, South Africa, Cyprus and the US, where they attempted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador.

Netanyahu vowed that Israel would not submit to Iran’s terror, saying Israel was a “strong country with strong people.”

Iran condemns Burgas terror attack, calls Israeli accusations ‘ridiculous’ | The Times of Israel.+

( I wonder whether the Iranian people believe this stuff.  – JW )

Report on state television says ‘sensational’ charges are an attempt to discredit Tehran and its allies

Smoke rises into the sky after an explosion at Burgas airport, Bulgaria, on Wednesday, July 18, 2012 (photo credit: AP Photo/Burgasinfo)

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Foreign Minister condemned “all terrorist acts” on Thursday after a suicide bombing in Bulgaria killed seven people Wednesday.

“The Islamic republic, the biggest victim of terrorism, believes terrorism endangers the lives of innocents… is inhumane and so strongly condemns” it, the Arabic-language television channel Al-Alam cited foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying. “Iran’s position is to condemn all terrorist acts in the world,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Iran’s state TV rejected accusations of Tehran’s involvement in the attack.

A commentary Thursday on the TV website called the claims by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others “ridiculous” and “sensational.”

The website described the Israeli charges as attempts to discredit Iran and its allies such as Syria.

Five Israelis and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed in the Wednesday suicide attack in the Black Sea city of Burgos.

The bombing is the latest in a string of attacks and plots around the world that Israel has blamed on Iran.