WarSclerotic

‘Israel will respond to Burgas attack at the right time,’ vice premier warns | The Times of Israel.

Moshe Ya’alon blames Iran for death of five Israeli vacationers in Bulgarian bombing

Moshe Ya’alon (photo credit: Yehoshua Yosef/Flash90)

Israel will respond at the right time and place to the Iranian-perpetrated deaths of five civilians in Bulgaria, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon warned Friday.

Ya’alon also reiterated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement on Thursday that Wednesday’s terror attack in Bulgaria, in which five Israelis were killed, was carried out by Hezbollah and directed by Iran.

“We have no doubt that Iran and its emissaries stand behind this terrorist attack, in light of their recent attempts of late to harm Israeli targets,” Ya’alon said. “We place full responsibility for the attack on Tehran.”

The vice prime minister also cautioned Israelis to be aware that they are a target while traveling abroad.

Ya’alon’s statements Friday morning followed a statement the evening prior by his counterpart, Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, that Israel will not sit idly by and will respond to the terror unleashed against its citizens.

Syrian borders in rebel hands, battles in Damascus | Reuters.

(Reuters) – Rebels seized control of sections of Syria’s international borders and torched the main police headquarters in the heart of old Damascus, advancing relentlessly after the assassination of President Bashar al-Assad’s closest lieutenants.

The battle for parts of the capital raged into the early hours of Friday, with corpses piled in the streets. In some neighborhoods, residents said there were signs the government’s presence was diminishing.

Officials in neighboring Iraq confirmed that Syrian rebels were now in control of the Syrian side of the main Abu Kamal border checkpoint on the Euphrates River highway, one of the major trade routes across the Middle East.

Rebels also claimed control of at least two border crossings into Turkey at Bab al-Hawa and Jarablus, in what appeared to have been a coordinated campaign to seize Syria’s frontiers.

In Damascus, a witness in the central old quarter district of Qanawat said the huge headquarters of the Damascus Province Police was black with smoke and abandoned after being torched and looted in a rebel attack.

“Three patrol cars came to the site and were hit by roadside bombs,” said activist Abu Rateb by telephone. “I saw three bodies in one car. Others said dozens of security men and shabbiha (pro-Assad militia) lay dead or wounded along Khaled bin al-Walid street, before ambulances took them away.”

The next few days will be critical in determining whether Assad’s government can recover from the devastating blow of Wednesday’s bombing, which wiped out much of Assad’s command structure and destroyed his circle’s aura of invulnerability.

Assad’s powerful brother-in-law, his defense minister and a top general were killed in Wednesday’s attack. The head of intelligence and the interior minister were wounded.

Government forces have responded by blasting at rebels in their own capital with helicopter gunships and artillery stationed in the mountains overlooking it.

Assad’s failure to appear in public for more than 24 hours – he was finally shown on television on Thursday swearing in a replacement for his slain defense minister – added to the sense of his power evaporating. His whereabouts are not clear.

Diplomatic efforts – rapidly overtaken by events on the ground – collapsed in disarray on Thursday when Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have imposed sanctions unless Syrian authorities halted violence. Washington said the council had “failed utterly.”

Activists in Damascus said rebels were now in control of the capital’s northern Barzeh district, where troops and armored vehicles had pulled out.

The army had also pulled out of the towns of Tel and Dumair north of Damascus after taking heavy losses, they said. But they said troops were hitting the western district of Mezzeh with heavy machineguns and anti-aircraft guns overnight.

The reports could not be confirmed. The Syrian government restricts access by international journalists.

A resident who toured much of Damascus late on Thursday said he saw signs the government’s presence was diminishing, with only sporadic checkpoints and tanks in place in some areas. The Interior Ministry at the main Marjeh Square had a fraction of its usual contingent of guards still in place.

Shelling could be heard on the southwestern suburb of Mouadamiyeh from hills overlooking the city where the Fourth Division, commanded by Assad’s brother Maher, is based, he said.

Syrian television showed the bodies of about 20 men in T-shirts and jeans with weapons lying at their sides, sprawled across a road in the capital’s Qaboun district. It described them as terrorists killed in battle.

COORDINATION

The operations to seize the border checkpoints appear to show a level of coordination and effectiveness hitherto unseen from the rebels, who have been outgunned and outnumbered by the army throughout the 16-month conflict.

Footage filmed by rebels at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey showed them climbing onto rooftops and tearing up a poster of Assad.

“The crossing is under our control. They withdrew their armored vehicles,” said a rebel fighter who would only be identified as Ali, being treated for wounds on the Turkish side.

Two officers in the rebel Free Syrian Army said fighters were keeping themselves busy into the early hours of Friday, dismantling border computer systems, seizing security records and emptying the shelves of the duty-free shop.

At least 30 government tanks in the area had not mobilized to try to recapture the border post, according to Ahmad Zaidan, a senior Free Syrian Army commander.

Officials in neighboring Lebanon said refugees were pouring across the frontier: a security source said 20,000 Syrians had crossed on Thursday.

UTTER FAILURE

Diplomacy has been largely ineffective throughout the crisis, with Western countries condemning Assad but showing no stomach for the sort of robust intervention that saw NATO bombers help blast Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi from power last year.

Thursday’s failed U.N. Security Council resolution, which would have extended a small, unarmed U.N. monitoring mission, was the third that has been vetoed by Russia and China.

With the mandate for the mission set to expire at 0400 GMT on Saturday, Western states that pushed the resolution to renew the operation under a threat of sanctions against Damascus reacted angrily to the vetoes.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said the Security Council had “failed utterly”, and Washington would look outside the body for ways “to bring pressure to bear on the Assad regime and to deliver assistance to those in need.”

The Security Council was set for another showdown on Friday over new rival resolutions intended to simply extend the mission. Pakistan, with the support of Russia, is proposing a 45-day extension, while Britain has put forward a 30-day extension.

After negotiations late on Thursday, it was unclear if either measure had enough backing to pass – at least nine votes and no vetoes by the United States, Britain, France, Russia or China. The Security Council is scheduled to vote on Friday.

(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes, Samia Nakhoul and Dominic Evans in Beirut, Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Cilvegozu, Turkey, and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Andrew Roche and Peter Cooney)

Hundreds flee Damascus as military gives residents 48 hours to get out |.

Hundreds of Damascus residents fled from clashes and army shelling of several districts of the embattled Syrian capital Thursday, a rights watchdog reported, as the military gave them two days to get out.

The military said residents have 48 hours to leave areas where clashes are taking place between security forces and rebels, a security source told AFP.

“These extremely violent clashes should continue in the next 48 hours to cleanse Damascus of terrorists by the time Ramadan begins” on Friday, the source said, referring to the Muslim holy fasting month.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said “hundreds of people” fled several areas.

In the western district of Mazzeh, hundreds of people were on the move, “fearing a large-scale operation by regime troops,” the Observatory said.

Residents also fled the southern district of Tadamon and the Palestinian refugee camp Yarmuk for an unknown destination, it added.

The latest developments come a day after a bombing in Damascus killed three top officials, including the defence minister and President Bashar Al Assad’s brother-in-law, in a severe blow to the very heart of the regime.

“The army has so far exercised restraint in its operations, but after the attack, it has decided to use all the weapons in its possession to finish the terrorists off,” the security source said.

The source also said that “the army has told residents to stay away from combat zones, as the terrorists are trying to use residents as human shields.”

Yesterday, at least 214 people were killed, including 124 civilians, across Syria. That included 38 in Damascus on the fourth day of unprecedented clashes in the city between rebels and troops, the Observatory said.

The toll did not include the three top regime officials.

“From today onwards, we turn a new page… and Syrians now believe they are at a turning point,” the official Al Thawra newspaper said today.

“The traitors, agents and mercenaries are deluding themselves if they think that Syria will bow to this strike, even if it hurts,” said the ruling party’s mouthpiece, Al Baath newspaper.

Wednesday was one of the bloodiest days in Syria since the outbreak of the revolt in March last year, second only to the relentless bombing of Homs on February 4, in which 230 people were killed.

Source: AFP

Hezbollah Is Blamed in Attack on Israeli Tourist Bus in Bulgaria – NYTimes.com.

By NICHOLAS KULISH and ERIC SCHMITT

BURGAS, Bulgaria — American officials on Thursday identified the suicide bomber responsible for a deadly attack on Israeli vacationers here as a member of a Hezbollah cell that was operating in Bulgaria and looking for such targets, corroborating Israel’s assertions and making the bombing a new source of tension with Iran.

One senior American official said the current American intelligence assessment was that the bomber, who struck Wednesday, killing five Israelis, had been “acting under broad guidance” to hit Israeli targets when opportunities presented themselves, and that the guidance had been given to Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group, by Iran, its primary sponsor. Two other American officials confirmed that Hezbollah was behind the bombing, but declined to provide additional details.

The attacks, the official said, were in retaliation for the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, for which Iran has blamed Israeli agents — an accusation that Israel has neither confirmed nor denied. “This was tit for tat,” said the American official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way.

The bombing comes amid heightened tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes but Israel and the West say is a cover for developing weapons. The United States and Europe imposed sanctions this month aimed at crippling Iran’s vital oil industry, while Iran has sworn to exact revenge for the assassinations, as well as for cyberattacks on its nuclear industry.

A senior Israeli official said on Thursday that the Burgas attack was part of an intensive wave of terrorist attacks around the world carried out by two different organizations, the Iranian Quds Force, an elite international operations unit within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, as well as by Hezbollah.

“They work together when necessary, and separately when not necessary,” the Israeli official told reporters on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss national security issues.

While the Burgas attack fit the modus operandi of Hezbollah, the Israeli official said, it was not clear whether the bomber intended to blow himself up or had suffered what the official called a “work accident,” adding, “We will never know.”

The bomber had a fake Michigan driver’s license, but there are no indications that he had any connection to the United States, the American official said, adding that there were no details yet about the bomber like his name or nationality. He also declined to describe what specific intelligence — intercepted communications, analysis of the bomber’s body parts or other details — that led analysts to conclude that the bomber belonged to Hezbollah.

“This looks like he was hanging out for a local target, and when this popped up he jumped on it,” the official said, referring to a bus carrying Israeli tourists outside the airport in Burgas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a news conference on Thursday in Jerusalem that the attack in Burgas was carried out by “Hezbollah, the long arm of Iran.”

Iranian officials condemned the attack and all acts of terrorism. “Terrorism endangers the lives of innocents,” said a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Ramin Mehmanparast, according to Iran’s state Arabic-language television channel, Al Alam.

The Bulgarian authorities released a security video Thursday showing the suspect wandering into the arrivals hall at the airport here, for all appearances just a tourist in his plaid shorts, Adidas T-shirt and baseball hat.

But it is his oddly bulky, oversized backpack that, in terrible hindsight, stands out the most. This bag, investigators believe, contained the bomb that the man is suspected of detonating next to a bus outside the airport, killing the five Israeli tourists, a Bulgarian bus driver and himself in a fireball that upended this city on the Black Sea.

The suicide attack, the country’s first, sent police and intelligence officers from Bulgaria, Israel and the United States racing to identify the bomber and to look for possible accomplices and evidence that would connect him to Hezbollah or Iran.

Officials here have said they have the man’s fingerprints and his DNA, and are trying to identify a man roughly 36 years old, who they suspect was in the country between four and seven days before the blast.

The Bulgarians are still trying to figure out how the bomber entered the country, how he traveled around and where he stayed.

The police released the video in the hopes that the man would be recognized. Beyond that, investigators had more questions than answers.

“We’re not pointing the finger in any direction until we know what happened and complete our investigation,” Nickolay Mladenov, Bulgaria’s foreign minister, said in an interview. He was speaking in front of the airport on Thursday, where three giant flags, one for Bulgaria, one for Burgas and one for the European Union, flew at half-staff.

Israeli officials were swift to blame Iran on Wednesday in the immediate aftermath of the bombing, and Mr. Netanyahu did not let up on Thursday. “The time has come for all countries that know the truth to speak it,” he said at the news conference. “Iran is the one behind the wave of terror. Iran is the No. 1 exporter of terror in the world.”

Mr. Netanyahu added, “A terrorist state must not have a nuclear weapon.”

Bulgarian authorities said they were working with the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the Israeli intelligence services and Interpol. Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said that the F.B.I. determined that the driver’s license was a fake and that the person described on the card did not exist. He said the Bulgarian government had spoken with John O. Brennan, President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, overnight.

Speaking at the Central Synagogue in Sofia, home to most of Bulgaria’s 5,000 Jews, James Warlick, the United States ambassador, expressed his “outrage and horror at the terrorist incident that happened yesterday in Burgas.”

The speaker of Iran’s Parliament, Ali Larijani, criticized the United States for not condemning the bombing in Damascus on Wednesday that struck at President Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle, killing three senior defense officials. “By not condemning the assassination in Syria, the Americans show that they believe in good assassinations and bad assassinations,” he said, according to the Fars news agency.

An Israeli Defense Force plane carried 33 of the wounded back to Israel from Burgas on Thursday morning, dispersing passengers to hospitals around the country, a military spokesman in Jerusalem said. The dead were flown back Thursday evening after a ceremony at the airport, which had reopened several hours earlier.

Gloating Ahmadinejad hints at Iranian responsibility for Burgas terror attack | The Times of Israel.

Israel has suffered ‘a response’ far greater than its ‘blows against Iran,’ says president

Image capture of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from a France 24 interview.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gloated publicly on Thursday over the deaths of Israelis in a terror bombing in Bulgaria, and hinted that Iran was responsible for the attack.

Speaking hours after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had publicly blamed the bombing Wednesday at Bulgaria’s Burgas airport on “Hezbollah, directed by Iran,” Ahmadinejad described the attack as “a response” to Israeli “blows against Iran.”

“The bitter enemies of the Iranian people and the Islamic Revolution have recruited most of their forces in order to harm us,” he said in a speech reported by Israel’s Channel 2 TV. “They have indeed succeeded in inflicting blows upon us more than once, but have been rewarded with a far stronger response.”

He added: “The enemy believes it can achieve its aims in a long, persistent struggle against the Iranian people, but in the end it will not. We are working to ensure that.

Ahmadinejad’s speech was interpreted in Israel as asserting that the Burgas bombing was a revenge attack for the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists, for which Iran has repeatedly blamed Israel.

His remarks contrasted with a condemnation of the Burgas bombing by the Iranian Foreign Ministry earlier Thursday.

“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 on the TV website called the claims by Netanyahu and others “ridiculous” and “sensational.”

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

Tehran’s mission in Sofia issued a statement saying that “the unfounded statements by different statesmen of the Zionist regime in connection with the accusations against Iran about its possible participation in the incident with the blown-up bus with Israeli tourists in Burgas is a familiar method of the Zionist regime, with a political aim, and is a sign of the weakness … of the accusers.”

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

(Associated Press contributed to this report)

Talking about terror, thinking ab… JPost – Diplomacy & Politics.