WarSclerotic

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.

The Nature of the Enemy – The Daily Beast.

There are explanations for why Iran (the most likely suspect), perhaps in conjunction with Hezbollah (a plausible suspect as well), yesterday murdered seven Israeli tourists and wounded 33 more in Bulgaria.

Iran may be retaliating for Israel’s assassination of its scientists. Hezbollah may still be seeking revenge for Israel’s assassination of master-terrorist Imad Mugniyah, the man reportedly responsible for Hezbollah’s 1994 attack on a Buenos Aires Jewish Community Center.

There are explanations in the same way that Osama Bin Laden offered explanations for Al Qaeda’s murder of Americans: He was furious over the stationing of American troops on Arabia’s sacred soil. But such explanations don’t help us fully understand.

They don’t help us understand why certain regimes, and certain movements, intentionally kill civilians, people who just happen to be in the wrong office building or tourist bus. In this case, the only way to understand such horrors is to understand the character of the Iranian regime, a regime willing to torture, murder and rape its young in order to keep itself in power. What Tehran did yesterday in Bulgaria was export its fundamental disregard for the dignity and sanctity of human life.

Yes, democracies can act barbarically abroad as well. In the 1950s, Britain murdered tens of thousands of Kenyans during the Mau Mau rebellion. The United States killed even more during Vietnam. But democracy also fosters certain habits, inclinations and patterns of thought that restrain government abuse. That’s why the United States never dominated Western Europe, or even Latin America, with the brutality that the Soviet Union dominated Eastern Europe. It’s why Turkey didn’t respond to the deaths of its citizens on the Gaza flotilla by sinking an Israeli merchant ship. And it’s why Israel, even if severely provoked, would never blow up a bus in an attempt to kill scores of innocent civilians.

Reinhold Niebuhr spent the early cold war reminding the left that America really was morally superior to the Soviet Union and reminding the right that America would only remain morally superior if it honored the fragile system of democratic constraints that checked its capacity for evil. At Open Zion, we spend a lot of time echoing Niebuhr’s latter imperative, and decrying the erosion of democratic norms in Israel. But on certain days, it is Niebuhr’s first insight that constitutes the most relevant truth. Seven Israelis are dead and 33 are wounded not simply because Israel is locked in a geopolitical struggle with Iran, but because it is struggling against a regime fundamentally different from itself. It is a struggle Israel and the United States must win. And in the process, hopefully, Iran’s leaders will be called to account for the evil they committed in Bulgaria yesterday.

IDF on alert, cancels weekend breaks over Syri… JPost – Defense.

( Over Syria?  Really?  The first concrete indication that “something” may actually be up.  – JW )

Photo: IDF Spokesman’s Office

‘US, Israel discuss destroying Syrian weap… JPost – Middle East.

Iran denies responsibility for Bu… JPost – Diplomacy & Politics.

Photo: REUTERS

Iran’s embassy in Bulgaria denied on Thursday Israeli accusations that Tehran was behind a bomb attack on an airport bus in the city of Burgas that killed five Israeli tourists.

“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 Islamic Republic’s mission in Sofia said in a statement.

The attack targeting Israelis killed at least seven people in the city of Burgas, soon after a charter plane, Air Bulgaria flight 392 arrived from Ben-Gurion Airport. The seven included five Israelis, the driver, and the suicide bomber, the Foreign Ministry said.

Since the explosion, Israel’s highest officials have accused Iran and Hezbollah of perpetrating the attack, and vowed a powerful retaliation.

In unusually tough remarks, President Shimon Peres on Thursday said that Israel will hit terror nests around world.

“We were witnesses to a deadly terror attack coming out of Iran … we know there were other attempts, and this time they succeeded,” the president stated.

“It [Israel] has the means and the will to silence and paralyze terror organizations,” Peres asserted.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday that Hezbollah was responsible for the terror attack in Burgas under the auspices of Iran.

Echoing his comments from Wednesday evening, Barak told Israel Radio that Israel would do everything in its power to to find the perpetrators, and bring them to justice.

In response to Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev’s statement that Mossad did not warn Bulgaria of an expected attack, Barak said that Israeli intelligence services transfer all information of this nature that it receives. However, he said he did not think that intelligence services had accurate information such as the information it obtained in order to thwart the terror attacks in Cyprus and Thailand earlier in the year.

Reinforcing Barak’s comments, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman told Israel Radio on Thursday that Israel has solid information that Hezbollah, in close cooperation with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) carried out the terror attack in Burgas.

According to Liberman, Israel’s information identifies with certainty and beyond all doubt the Iranian fingerprint on the attack, but did not specify further. Iran and Hezbollah have not stopped operating against Israel for a moment, he added.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Iran was likely behind the attack on Israeli civilians in Bulgaria, and vowed a powerful Israeli response.

“All the signs lead to Iran. Only in the past few months we have seen Iranian attempts to attack Israelis in Thailand, India, Georgia, Kenya, Cyprus and other places,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

“This is an Iranian terror campaign that is spreading throughout the world,” Netanyahu said. “Israel will react powerfully against Iranian terror,”

“Eighteen years exactly after the blast at the Jewish community center in Argentina, murderous Iranian terror continues to hit innocent people. This is an Iranian terror attack that is spreading throughout the entire world.”

Opposition leader Shelly Yechimovich responded to the “murderous terror attack” in Bulgaria on Wednesday, saying “there is no doubt that the instability in the region is spawned by Iran aiming especially for Israelis and Jews throughout the world.”

“Israeli security forces have succeeded to prevent several attempted attacks targeted at traveling Israelis in recent months,” Yechimovich added. “Unfortunately, today in Bulgaria we were forced again to cope with terror operations.”

Herb Keinon contributed to this report.

Ex-Revolutionary Guard member: Iran ready with terror plans to hit U.S. if Israel attacks – CBS News.

(CBS News) Eight people were killed Wednesday and dozens injured when a bomb went off inside an Israeli tourist bus in Bulgaria.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah carried out the terrorist attack.

What we saw Wednesday in Bulgaria is part of the escalating tensions between Iran, Israel and the West.

A former Iranian agent from that country’s feared Revolutionary Guard corps – a man who’s been on the inside – tells CBS News that a surrogate, stealth war, carried out in the shadows by both sides, has been going on for more than a year.

It began with the targeted killings of Iranian scientists working on that country’s nuclear program.

Then a computer virus was covertly deployed against Iranian nuclear sites. The virus was designed to make the sites self-destruct. Iran publicly accused the U.S., Great Britain and Israel of being behind the plots.

And now, it appears Iran is striking back.

“They’re looking at this saying, ‘We’ve got to respond. Aggression has been taken against us,”‘ says former CIA analyst Phil Mudd. “So that’s the first factor. The second factor is, in the background, they’re hearing the drumbeats of war.”

That drumbeat is the continued discussion over if or when Israel might launch airstrikes against more than a dozen underground suspected Iranian nuclear sites.

But Iran hasn’t backed away.

Since the killing of the last Iranian scientist, Iran has been linked to a series of plots:

— A bomb attached to the car driven by the wife of an Israeli diplomat in India

— A plan to use local organized crime hit men in a sniper attack in the U.S., and Israeli targets in Azerbaijan and the nation of Georgia

— A plot using a Mexican drug cartel to kill the Saudi ambassador in a crowded restaurant in Washington, D.C.

— And just days ago, in Kenya a suspected plot to attack a synagogue in Nairobi and Israeli-owned hotels in the coastal city of Mombasa

The two suspected Iranian agents captured in Kenya on July 3 are believed to be members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard force.

Reza Khalili was once a member of that force himself and for years, he says, a double agent who supplied information to the CIA.

He says these attacks are Iran’s version of a warm-up, in the event of a full conflict with Israel.

“They’re just sending signals that they are capable of, and the order is by Ayatollah Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader that, should war break out, then all terror cells will become activated and attack major interests of America, Israel, European countries and even within America,” Khalili warns.

But, given the number of alleged plots by Iran against Israeli targets, some analysts wonder why Iran would seem to keep provoking the very attack they say they want to avoid.

“The mindset of this organization that is the Iranian intelligence service and this government is not a Western mindset,” Mudd observes. “We see stability as a goal. They see instability and revolution as a goal.”

Khalili says, in the event of an Israeli airstrike, Iran is prepared to up the ante, not by responding militarily, but with a global campaign of terror attacks.

“Should it become an all-out war, then they will definitely respond on the world stage by terrorist attacks within the U.S., in Europe, and against America’s interests, against Israel’s interests,” Khalili says.

Intelligence officers believe Iran has already done the pre-operation surveillance for a series of terrorist attacks.

There’s plenty of evidence that Tehran has scoped out targets, taken photos and written plans for terrorist strikes in the Mideast, Europe, South America, and even the United States.

Israel Hayom | Eyes peeled to the north, on alert for a casus belli.

Israel’s defense establishment has explicitly proclaimed that the transfer of chemical weapons, advanced anti-aircraft systems and long-range missiles from Syria to Lebanon would be cause for war. Yoav Limor