WarSclerotic

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.

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.