More on israeli attack

This is what the hard-line, zionist newspaper Jerusalem Post, is saying.

If these reports are true then it looks pretty bad – and western media are really not keeping us informed on this.

Report: IAF strike in Syria hit Iranian Guards

Iraqi paper quotes source as saying alleged Israeli strike caused heavy casualties among Iranian Guards stationed at Syrian facility.

Jerusalem Post,

1 February, 2013

Iraqi daily Azzaman quoted a Western diplomatic source as saying Thursday that the alleged Israeli attack on Syria reported on Wednesday caused heavy casualties among special Iranian Guards stationed at the Syrian facility. The source also said that the attack took place more than 48 hours before it was reported, eventually being leaked by Israel.

The source for the story, who was interviewed by the paper in London, said that the report about a strike on a convoy to Lebanon was probably meant to divert attention away from the main objective of the operation, which used F-16 aircraft to fire at least eight guided missiles at the facility.

The source also said that the base was heavily fortified and contained experts from Russia and at least three thousand Iranian Revolutionary Guards, who have been guarding the site for years. Many of these Iranian Guards suffered casualties.

Israel most likely got its intelligence, said the source, from penetrating deep inside Iran and from other operations meant to penetrate Hezbollah.

The report came as outgoing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday that there are signs that Iran is sending growing numbers of people and increasingly sophisticated weaponry to support Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"It appears that they may be increasing that involvement and that is a matter of great concern to us," she told reporters as she prepares to step down on Friday. "I think the numbers (of people) have increased ... There is a lot of concern that they are increasing the quality of the weapons, because Assad is using up his weaponry. So it's numbers and it's materiel."

Iran, Syria vow retaliation for attack

Tehran and Damascus on Thursday threatened an unspecified, “surprise” retaliation against Israel in response to the reported Israeli air strike on a Syrian weapons center the day before.

The Iranian regime’s English-language mouthpiece, Press TV, quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as saying that the “strike on Syria will have serious consequences for Tel Aviv.”

Syria issued its threat to retaliate through the country’s ambassador to Lebanon.

Ali Abdul Karim Ali told a Hezbollah-run news website on Thursday that Damascus had the option of a “surprise decision” to respond to what it said was an Israeli air strike on a research center on the outskirts of the Syrian capital on Wednesday.

“Syria is engaged in defending its sovereignty and its land,” he added, without spelling out what the response might entail.

According to foreign sources, in 2007 Israeli jets bombed a suspected Syrian nuclear site, and no retaliation was forthcoming despite Syrian threats.

Last week, the Associated Press quoted a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader as saying that any attack on Syria would be seen by Tehran as an attack on itself.

The official, Ali Akbar Velayati, said the regime of Syrian President Assad was a central component of the “resistance front.”

Report: Syrian regime transferred nonconventional weapons to Hezbollah

Also on Thursday, the Saudi-based Al-Watan newspaper reported that the Syrian regime had transferred nonconventional weapons to Hezbollah.

Al-Watan, quoting unnamed sources from the Syrian opposition, reported that Assad had been transferring weapons to Hezbollah since the beginning of 2012, including 2 tons of mustard gas and long-range missiles, capable of carrying chemical warheads and traveling 300 kilometers.

Syrian opposition sources also claimed that the transfers to Hezbollah took place over 40 days, from mid-February to March 2012, the Saudi daily reported.

The chemical weapons transfer to Hezbollah was carried out under the supervision of Syrian Brig.-Gen. Ghassan Abbas. The Syrian source said that it observed these transfers since the beginning of last year.

The tankers drove through Damascus and Zabadani, and then through Sirghaya on the Lebanese border, carrying the chemical weapons in blue barrels labeled “Chlorine Acid.”

They took the material to “Hezbollah warehouses and delivered it to a person nicknamed ‘Abu Talal,’ who was subordinate to the party leadership.”

The report also said that some of the chemical weapons were stored in a warehouse at the Mezze military airport, as well as at other locations around Syria.

The Syrian SANA news agency released a statement by the General Command of the Armed Forces, which sought to link the supposed strike to Israel’s support – and that of other countries – for the Syrian rebels.

“Warplanes violated Syrian airspace on Wednesday at dawn and bombarded a scientific research center responsible for raising our levels of resistance and self-defense. This attack came after Israel and other countries that oppose the Syrian people utilized their pawns in Syria to attack vital military locations,” the statement said.

General Command also said that the attack “martyred” two workers and wounded five others.

The “research center” building was also destroyed. It went on to deny claims that the attack targeted a convoy headed for Lebanon.

In addition, it stated, “The General Command said that it has become clear to everyone that Israel is the motivator, beneficiary and sometimes executor of the terrorist acts which target Syria and its resistant people, with some countries that support terrorism being accomplices in this, primarily Turkey and Qatar.”

An article in the Lebanese Al-Akhbar daily claimed that Syria would probably have to respond against Israel this time around.

Wednesday’s attack on Syria “is very different from all previous raids at every level, and a non-response this time around would mean the acceptance of a new equation that Israel is trying to impose, in the form of shackles on the regime’s freedom of action. It is likely that the regime will be unable to accept these constraints without risking its very survival. Based on this, the more logical question has to do with the manner, nature, and scale of the Syrian response,” the paper said.

Hezbollah called it “a savage attack that carries out the Zionist entity’s policy, which aims at preventing any Arab and Muslim state from developing its technological and military capabilities,” according to its Al-Manar website.

And commentary from Lebanon's al-Akhbar

Israel Intervenes on the Syrian Front

Almost two years into the Syrian crisis, Israel has decided to openly join the effort to bring down the Assad regime with a nighttime attack on a Syrian military research facility near the capital.

An Israeli Iron Dome rocket interceptor battery is deployed near the city of Haifa 28 January 2013. (Photo: Reuters - Baz Ratner)

al-Akhbar,

31 January, 2013

Israel has openly and directly intervened in the Syrian crisis by way of a military strike. The nature, timing, and goals of the attack were carefully chosen to send a series of messages in a multitude of directions.

The primary intended recipients are the Syrian regime, the Resistance axis and their international supporters, and even the West, which has been reluctant to use force against President Bashar al-Assad, who appears to have improved his position, according to many observers.

The nature of the operation: an air raid under the cover of night. The target: a military research facility in Jamraya, northeast of Damascus. The timing: two days after a telephone conversation between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The preparations: deploying Israel’s Steel Dome anti-rocket missile system in the occupied Golan Heights and leaking rumors that Tel Aviv is preparing for a quick strike under the guise of stopping Syria from passing its chemical weapons to Hezbollah.

The context: the failure of year-old Israeli predictions that the Assad regime will fall “within weeks.”

The nature of the target suggests that the Zionist state wants to demarcate the red lines, particularly for the Assad regime, that there are boundaries that Damascus and its backers cannot cross.

The Israelis were also betting that Syria will not respond, as was the case with previous attacks, like the one against a “nuclear” facility in Deir Ezzor in 2007.

This raises a number of questions as to how Syria will respond: Will it fire back openly, or will it carry out some sort of covert operation? Will it target the Zionist state directly or attack its interests abroad? And will it be done in such a way as to make an Israeli response inevitable, thus sparking a regional war? But the circumstances are different this time on a number of levels. At present, a lack of response on the part of Syria means that it is accepting Israel’s terms, something that Damascus may view as intolerable in the current situation.

This raises a number of questions as to how Syria will respond: Will it fire back openly, or will it carry out some sort of covert operation? Will it target the Zionist state directly or attack its interests abroad? And will it be done in such a way as to make an Israeli response inevitable, thus sparking a regional war?

For its part, Israel is treating the matter with complete silence – as is typical with such attacks – and a government-imposed ban on the media. As for Damascus, which has acknowledged the raid, it seems to be taking its time before declaring a final position.

Reuters news agency was the first to report the incident, saying it was an attack on a convoy moving from Syria to Lebanon and that it was struck near the two countries’ border.

Lebanon denied the news of an air raid near its borders and reports of a powerful explosion at a Syrian military facility in the suburbs of Damascus began to emerge.

Due to repeated attacks on the Jamraya facility by the opposition, many thought that the explosions were due to a rebel offensive.

The Syrian armed forces command finally put all speculation to rest, stating that a raid was carried out by Israeli warplanes flying at low elevation against a military facility near Damascus, killing two and wounding five.

This was met by complete silence in Israel as Netanyahu barred government officials from making any statements. Zionist media sources were also prohibited from reporting on the attack, forcing them to limit their coverage to citing the international newswires.

News of the raid rattled residents of Israel’s northern settlements near the border with Lebanon, fearing a possible response from the Lebanese Resistance. Despite reassurances from the government, underground shelters were opened and emergency services were put on alert.