'Reprisals planned'

Here is an excerpt from a WSJ article from today – you can read the rest if you want to subscribe (I do not)

Iran Plots Revenge on U.S. Officials Say Intercepted Message to Militants Orders Reprisals in Iraq if Syria Hit

WSJ,

6 September, 2013

The U.S. has intercepted an order from Iran to Shiite militants in Iraq to attack the U.S. Embassy and other American interests in Baghdad in the event of a strike on Syria, officials said, amid an expanding array of reprisal threats across the region.

Military officials have been trying to predict the range of possible responses from Syria, Iran and their allies. U.S. officials said they are on alert for Iran's fleet of small, fast boats in the Persian Gulf, where American warships are positioned. U.S. officials also fear Hezbollah could attack the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.

While the U.S. has positioned military resources in the region for a possible strike, it has other assets in the area that would be ready to respond to any reprisals by Syria, Iran or its allies.

Those deployments include a strike group of an aircraft carrier and three destroyers in the Red Sea, and an amphibious ship, the USS San Antonio, in the Eastern Mediterranean, which would help with any evacuations.

The U.S. military has also readied Marines and other assets to aid evacuation of diplomatic compounds if needed, and the State Department began making preparations last week for potential retaliation against U.S. embassies and other interests in the Middle East and North Africa.....[ ]

Syria Conflict: Opposition Leader Haytham Al-Manna Criticises Plans For US Military Intervention As 'Satanic'

Western military action in Syria would be a "satanic intervention against a satanic regime", a leading Syrian opposition figure has warned.

Huffington Post,

2 September, 2013

Speaking to the Huffington Post UK, Haytham al-Manna, the Paris-based spokesman of the National Coordination Committee (NCC), said: "Our position is against any [western] aggression against Syria. There is no [option of] military aggression against the regime, it will be against.. the population."

The NCC, which consists of a dozen or so secular, leftist political parties inside Syria, is not a member of the Syrian National Council (SNC), the coalition of opposition groups recognised as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people by several western governments. The latter has long supported western military intervention against Assad; the former does not.

The NCC's Manna, a veteran human-rights activist whose brother was killed by the Assad regime, said US ordnance won't "make the distinction between military and civilian targets. I saw what happened in Iraq..and all the [previous] American interventions."

Manna's brother was killed by the Assad regime but he doesn't support military intervention

Manna added: "We are against the intervention in Syria of Hizbollah [and] of foreign fighters from al Qaeda. We cannot build democracy in Syria with others."

Criticising the United States, Turkey, Israel and other regional powers, he said: "We are not in favour of a satanic intervention against a satanic regime."

Several other opposition groups have criticised the NCC for being too soft on the Syrian government, with the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) dismissing it as "just the other face of the same coin". But Manna insisted that the "political opposition outside Syria" is a "minority inside the country". The NCC spokesman claimed that "the majority of Syrian society is against any [foreign military] intervention".

Referring to the proposed 'Geneva II' UN-backed peace conference in Switzerland, Manna warned that "we have now the opportunity.. to push all parties, the regime and the opposition, to go to Geneva.. Up to now, [the Assad regime] accepted it had to go to Geneva.. I am not sure [Assad] will go at the end of the year.