WarSclerotic

Syria moves chemical weapons before wider offensive: defector | Reuters.

(Reuters) – A senior Syrian military defector said President Bashar al-Assad’s forces were moving chemical weapons across the country for possible use in a military retaliation for the killing of four top security officials.

“The regime has started moving its chemical stockpile and redistributing it to prepare for its use,” said General Mustafa Sheikh, citing rebel intelligence obtained in recent days.

“They are moving it from warehouses to new locations,” he told Reuters in an interview in southern Turkey, close to the Syrian border. “They want to burn the country. The regime cannot fall without perpetrating a sea of blood.”

Syria’s 16-month conflict has been transformed since Wednesday, when a bomb killed four members of Assad’s narrow circle of kin and lieutenants, including his powerful brother-in-law, defense minister and intelligence chief.

Sheikh’s comments could not be independently verified and Syria has denied any such move.

Western and Israeli officials, concerned that chemical stockpiles could fall into the hands of militants, said a week ago that Syria appeared to be shifting weapons from storage sites, but it was not clear whether the operation was a security precaution or a preparation for deployment.

On Friday Israel said it would consider military action if needed to ensure Syrian missiles or chemical weapons did not reach Assad’s allies in Lebanon, the Shi’ite group Hezbollah.

Sheikh, who fled his post in the northern command of Assad’s army in January, said the coming days would see increased shelling of Sunni strongholds in Damascus and Aleppo.

But unleashing a broader and bloodier army assault would fuel an intense backlash by the mostly Sunni rebels, he said.

“The coming phase will witness a phase of bloodshed that is unprecedented and the regime will resort to non-conventional weapons. Every action will trigger a bigger reaction,” he said.

“Assad wants to burn the country. This dictatorial and sectarian regime will not fall without a sea of blood,” said Sheikh, whose military council provides a political umbrella to the armed resistance to Assad’s rule.

REBEL GAINS

Since Wednesday’s attack, rebels have pushed into the heart of the capital and seized control of other towns. On Thursday, they captured three border crossings with Iraq and Turkey, the first time they have held sway over Syria’s frontiers.

Sheikh said the success of Wednesday’s bombing, which Free Syrian Army rebels claimed to have carried out, was the fruit of experience gained from months of conflict, rather than any fresh weapons supply.

“The weapons that are coming from outside are a drop in the ocean and are too trivial to make a difference,” he said.

The success of Wednesday’s attack surprised him, even though he was tipped by rebels over a month ago they were undertaking a top secret operation targeting Assad’s inner circle.

“When I heard of it, I stood in awe that we had reached such a stage inside,” he said.

“I was aware of it, but of course did not plan it, the rebels told me that there would be a qualitative operation that would go after the head of the regime in these days … closer to the holy month of Ramadan,” said Sheikh.

The perpetrator of the attack was “someone who worked with a top official … the Free Syrian Army is present in every corner of the state”, he said, declining to give any further details.

Sheikh said momentum gained by the rebels was prompting faster high-level defections and at least 100,000 soldiers have deserted out of the 320,000-strong military, almost double the numbers of only a few months ago. On Saturday a Turkish official told Reuters two Syrian brigadier-generals had fled to Turkey overnight.

Opposition sources have said thousands more Sunni soldiers have been confined to their barracks, but cannot desert because of the grip of military intelligence and lack of safe areas.

The involvement of the best trained elite forces from the Fourth Brigade to the Republican Army in the widening offensive showed the extent of attrition within the army, he said.

“Every day there is attrition … the collapse of the regime is now accelerating like a snowball,” Sheikh said.

(Editing by Dominic Evans and Louise Ireland)

Jerusalem Post – Breaking News.

Rebels forming unit to secure chemical weapons site – Telegraph.

The opposition Free Syrian Army is creating a special unit of men trained to secure Syria’s chemical weapons sites, a former general in the country’s chemical and biological weapons administration has told the Daily Telegraph.

Demonstrators take part in a protest against Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Sermeen Photo: REUTERS

“We have a group just to deal with chemical weapons. They are already trained to secure sites,” said Gen Adnan Silou, the most senior ranking member of Bashar al-Assad’s regime to defect and join the FSA.

Until 2008 Gen Silou was charged with the task of drafting emergency response plans should any of Syria’s terrifying array of weapons fall out of the government’s control.

Working around Damascus and Latakia he trained thousands of troops in how to secure what analysts believe are the largest chemical weapons stores in the world, consisting principally of sarin, mustard gas and cyanide.

“We trained them in securing stores, in reconnaissance of possible threats, in how to purge supplies and in treatment should Syria come under attack a chemical or biological attack,” said Silou.

“There were two main stores — warehouse 417 in east Damascus, and another, number 419 in Homs area. We had 1,500 soldiers and two or three generals stationed at each base,” he said.

As the Syrian regime’s iron-fist rule begins to unravel the question of how to maintain the security of these sites has become of central concern to Syrians and foreign governments alike.

The Daily Telegraph was told that British military intelligence chiefs believe that the Assad regime could yet deploy some of the stores in a desperate attempt to regain power.

Gen Silou agrees with the disturbing assessment. In his decades of service to the regime Silou said that he met President Bashar al-Assad and members of his inner circle ‘countless times’.

“I know Bashar al-Assad’s character. It is very possible that he will use the chemical weapons against his own people,” said Gen Silou. “They can deploy them from tanks, from rockets, and from helicopters”.

Gen Silou decided to come out of his retirement and join the FSA leadership in Turkey when the government attacked Homs in February. In addition to the barrages of artillery fired from tanks, the attack increased his concern that Mr Assad could deploy chemical weapons in the future. He is convinced that the regime sprayed pesticides from planes on population areas in Rastan, a hub for the rebel Free Syrian Army close to Homs.

The claims cannot be independently confirmed, but in February and March patients seen by the Daily Telegraph who had led Rasatn and Homs for Lebanon showed signs of hair loss, skin irritation, chronic muscle pain and sickness. Doctors in Lebanon treating Syrian patients from Rastan and Homs who had fled the country reported seeing unusual symptoms.

There are also serious fears that as the security structure in the country unravels these lethal weapons could fall out of government control and into the hands of militia groups, including radical Islamic units that might try to deploy them.

“We are now scanning all Syrian military defectors for people with training on chemical weapons,” said Louay al-Mokdad, an oppositoni activist. “We are putting them in one unit that can work to secure the sites.”

“The weapons used to be to protect Syria. Now they are just to protect Bashar,” said Gen Silou.

Obama administration sends CIA officers to find biological and chemical weapons in Syria | The Times of Israel.

US official tells The Daily Beast that US government seeks to obtain information from military defectors, intercepted correspondences

Syrian President Bashar Assad delivers a speech at the parliament in Damascus, Syria, in June (photo credit: SANA/AP)

The Obama administration has sent CIA officers to Syria in order to assess the country’s weapons program, a US official with access to Syrian intelligence told The Daily Beast on Thursday.

A major task for the CIA at this point is to debrief defecting military officers to obtain as much information regarding Syria’s weapons of mass destruction as possible, the official said.

It was also up to the intelligence agency to sort through caches of intercepted phone calls, emails and satellite images to find the exact locations of the Assad regime’s chemical and biological weapons.

Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, would not comment on whether or not CIA officers had been sent to the region. However he said that the administration had recently deployed “the resources necessary to collect the information that we need to make a good decision on chemical and biological [weapons], opposition groups and leadership transition strategies.”

A CIA spokesman also declined to comment on any mission to Syria.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Channel 10 on Thursday that Israel was watching out for “the possible transfer of advanced weapons systems, mainly anti-aircraft missiles or heavy ground-to-ground missiles, but there could also be a transfer of chemical capabilities from Syria to Lebanon.” Barak said he was worried that such weapons would fall into the hands of Lebanon-based terror organization Hezbollah.

Roni Daniel, of Israel’s most-watched news station Channel 2, said Friday that Israel “will have to strike” at Syrian weapons shipments if they are being transferred to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Daniel downplayed the possibility that such a strike would lead to a wider conflict between Israel and its neighbors.

Syrian activists report heavy fighting in Aleppo – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Clashes continue between government, opposition groups; Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: Death toll over 550 in 48 hours
News agencies

Activists and opposition groups say Syrian troops and rebels have clashed for a second day in the northern city of Aleppo.

They say the overnight clashes with heavy machine guns were some of the fiercest to date in the heart of Syria’s northern commercial hub.

Aleppo has been largely shielded from the violence that has plagued other Syrian cities over the course of the uprising against President Bashar Assad, now in its 17th month.

Aleppo-based activist Mohammad Saeed said dozens of rebels from the Free Syrian Army were now in the city. He said fighting was mostly in the Salaheddine district in the city center.

Funeral of Assad’s security chiefs (Photo: AFP, HO, SANA)

The Local Coordination Committees activist network and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday’s fighting forced many residents to flee to safer areas.

Overnight Saturday, Syrian government forces pounded rebels in Damascus, battling to reverse opposition gains in the aftermath of the assassination of Assad’s security chiefs.

Army helicopters and tanks aimed rockets, machineguns and mortars at pockets of rebel fighters who have infiltrated the capital this week in an operation they call “Damascus Volcano”.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group which monitors the violence in the country, said 240 people had been killed across Syria on Friday, including 43 soldiers.

The Observatory’s combined death toll over the past 48 hours stands at 550, making it the bloodiest two days of the 16-month-old uprising against Assad.

On Wednesday a bomb killed four members of the president’s narrow circle of kin and lieutenants, including his powerful brother-in-law, defense minister and intelligence chief.

“The regime has been rudderless for last three days. But the aerial and ground bombardment on Damascus and its suburbs shows that it has not lost the striking force and that it is re-grouping,” opposition activist Moaz al-Jahhar said by phone from Damascus.

In the days since, rebels have pushed deep into the heart of the capital and seized control of other towns. On Thursday, they captured three border crossings with Iraq and Turkey, the first time they have held sway over Syria’s frontiers.

Assad nowhere to be seen as fighting continues in Damascus – Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper.

Report: Rebel army forms special unit trained to secure Syria’s chemical weapons sites.

Aide to Iranian leader threatens increased uranium enrichment – Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper.

As next round of nuclear talks set to begin this week, close aide to Ayatolla Ali Khamenei threatens Iran could enrich uranium at levels higher than 20%.

Barak: Israel may seize advanced weapons in Syria – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Defense minister tells Channel 10 IDF ordered to step up intelligence preparations in case it needs to prevent chemical weapons from reaching Hezbollah

Reuters, Roi Kais

Tensions mounting: Israel is preparing for a possible military intervention in Syria in case the Syrian government hands missiles or chemical weapons to Hezbollah, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Friday.

“I have instructed the military to increase its intelligence preparations and prepare what is needed so that… (if necessary)… we will be able to consider carrying out an operation,” Barak said in an interview on Channel 10 News.

“We are following… the possible transfer of advanced munitions systems, mainly anti-aircraft missiles or heavy ground-to-ground missiles, but there could also be a possibility of the transfer of chemical means (weapons) from Syria to Lebanon,” he added.

“The moment (Syrian President Bashar Assad) starts to fall we will conduct intelligence monitoring and will liaise with other agencies,” Barak said.

Rebels in Aleppo (Photo: EPA)

Hezbollah, which has in the past received military and financial support from Syria and Iran, launched thousands of mainly short-range rockets into Israel during the Second Lebanon War, but some longer-range rockets reached central Israel.

Their border has largely remained quiet since then.

Israel and the United States are closely monitoring any movement concerning Syria’s chemical weapons’ stockpiles, as concerns are growing that terror groups are taking advantage of the chaos in the country to seize them.

US intelligence services estimate that Syria’s nonconventional weapons arsenal – considered the biggest in the world – includes stockpiles of mustard gas, VX and Sarin gas, as well as the missile and artillery systems to deliver them.

On Thursday, Barak toured the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau from which Israel can monitor movements inside the territory of its northern foe.

Barak said Israeli troops were also preparing to handle a possible influx of refugees: “They (refugees) have not chosen to come close to us, but in the event of the regime’s downfall, which could happen… (Israeli forces) here are alert and ready, and if we have to stop waves of refugees, we will stop them,” he said.

Battles have been raging in Damascus and Aleppo since noon Friday. Regime troops were able to regain control of the district of Midan in the southern part of Damascus on Friday. But rebels launched new fighting in several other districts of the capital, activists said

At least 100 people were killed in clashes across Syria on Friday, activists said.

Syrian forces launch all-out Damascus assault amid heavy death toll.

Saturday, 21 July 2012

Tanks have been bombarding Damascus, to try to reverse relentless gains by rebels since much of President Bashar al-Assad’s entourage was assassinated. (Reuters)

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Syrian forces have launched an all-out assault on opposition strongholds in Damascus, after rebels seized crossings on the Iraq and Turkey borders amid a heavy death toll.

Rebel fighters also clashed with troops in several neighborhoods of Aleppo on Friday in what the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said was the fiercest fighting so far in Syria’s second city.

At the United Nations, the Security Council voted unanimously to give a “final” 30-day extension to a troubled observer mission that was charged with overseeing a peace plan for Syria but which suspended its operations on June 16 in the face of mounting violence.

Friday’s vote followed emergency consultations just hours before the expiry of the 300-strong mission’s mandate, after Russia threatened to use its veto powers as a council permanent member for the second time in as many days.

In Syria, state television trumpeted the news of the military’s Damascus offensive.

“Our brave army forces have completely cleansed the area of Midan in Damascus of the remaining mercenary terrorists and have re-established security,” it said, using the regime term for rebels.

The counter-offensive by the army came after a Wednesday bombing killed four senior members of the regime, including the national security chief, who died on Friday.

General Hisham Ikhtiyar had been wounded along with Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar in the National Security headquarters bombing, which was claimed by the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Defense Minister General Daoud Rajha, President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and General Hassan Turkmani, head of the regime’s crisis cell on the uprising, were all killed in the explosion.

A state funeral was held for the three in Damascus on Friday ahead of their burials in their native provinces, the official SANA news agency reported, adding that Vice President Faruq al-Shara had attended but not Assad himself.

The next few days will determine whether Assad’s government can recover from the bombing, which wiped out much of his command structure in a single blow and destroyed his clan’s decades-old aura of merciless invulnerability.

Rebels poured into the capital Damascus at the start of the week and have since been battling government forces in what the fighters call operation “Damascus Volcano”.

A security source told AFP the army was now in control of the Damascus neighborhoods of Midan, Tadamon, Qaboon and Barzeh, while fierce clashes were reported in other districts including Jubar, Mazzeh and Kfar Sousa.

The Observatory also reported intense fighting in several neighborhoods of Aleppo and said troops opened fire on a large demonstration in the city, Syria’s commercial center.

It said 177 people were killed nationwide, including 119 civilians, at least seven of them children.

The deaths came after 302 people were killed on Thursday, the deadliest day of the uprising so far.

Amnesty International said the rebels too could be held criminally responsible for the deaths of civilians as they took the fight to residential areas of the large cities.

An AFP photographer reported that FSA fighters fought a raging battle with Syrian troops at the Bab al-Hawa border post with Turkey and that some 150 rebels controlled the crossing on Friday.

Three more generals crossed into Turkey, bringing to 24 the number of generals who have defected to Syria’s northern neighbor, a foreign ministry diplomat told AFP.

On Thursday, Iraq’s deputy interior minister Adnan al-Assadi told AFP that the FSA had seized control of all three crossings along their common border.

Residents on the Iraqi side of the border said that relatives in the town were desperately trying to cross but that they were being turned back by Iraqi troops.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called on the United Nations on Friday to intervene to provide safe passage for Iraqis escaping the escalating violence in Syria.

The Iraqi government also warned it would not be able to assist Syrians looking to escape the bloodshed.

At the United Nations, Security Council permanent members Russia and China both voted in favor of a resolution extending the mandate of the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria for a “final” 30 days, a day after blocking another text that could have imposed sanctions on the regime.

Thursday’s vetoes sparked Western outrage but Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin had threatened to use Moscow’s veto again.

U.S. National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon will head to China on Sunday, in the wake of Beijing and Moscow’s veto, and will also visit Japan, the White House announced.

Russia had wanted an unconditional extension of the mission for a renewable 45 days.

Russia and Western members of the Security Council remained divided over whether the resolution means the end of UNSMIS.

The text says the council renews UNSMIS for “a final period of 30 days” and stresses the “increasingly dangerous security situation” in Syria.

But it adds that the council would be willing to look at a further extension if U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon “reports and the Security Council confirms the cessation of the use of heavy weapons and a reduction in the level of violence sufficient to allow UNSMIS to implement its mandate.”

U.S. ambassador Susan Rice said it would be “unlikely” that the violence in Syria would ease enough to allow a continued U.N. presence.

Review & Outlook: Iran’s War on Israel – WSJ.com.

The world’s leading sponsor of terror strikes again.

The suicide bombing that killed five Israeli tourists and a local Bulgarian bus driver on Wednesday was shocking if all too familiar. The Jewish state has been in a virtual state of war since its birth in 1948, and in recent years the chief threat has emanated from Iran and its terror proxies.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Lebanese group Hezbollah—”the long arm of Iran”—carried out the attack in the Bulgarian coastal city of Burgas. American officials confirm that the bomber belonged to a Hezbollah cell.

The Burgas strike took place on the anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people, and fits—in Mr. Netanyahu’s words—a “consistent pattern” of Iranian-sponsored attacks on Israeli civilians around the world. Particularly of late.

A Hezbollah man was arrested in Cyprus last week, suspected of plotting to attack Israeli tourists at a beach resort. Kenyan officials last month arrested two Iranians who were shipping high explosives into the country and allegedly scoping out U.S. and Israeli targets. In February, Israeli officials were targeted in bombing attacks in India, Georgia and Thailand. As a reminder that Iran also targets non-Israelis, last October the Obama Administration said it foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador at a restaurant in Washington, D.C.

The atrocity in Bulgaria is another reminder about the nature of the Iranian regime. The Islamic Republic was born through terror, starting with the 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, and it has become the world’s leading terror sponsor. A clerical regime hated by its own people and isolated in the world has grown even more brazen and unpredictable.

No wonder Israel is so worried about Iran’s plans to build nuclear weapons and is determined to stop Tehran with a direct military strike if need be. As Mr. Netanyahu said, “A terrorist state must not have a nuclear weapon,” especially when that state pledges to wipe you off the map.

The wonder is that the U.S. and its allies continue to look for ways to reach a diplomatic understanding with the perpetrators of these unending attacks, rather than calling the regime what it is and working to overthrow it. Iran’s killing of innocents will continue until the world decides to stop it.