In ancient times watchman would mount the city walls in times of stress to survey the scene outside the fortifications. He was situated on a spot from which he could monitor the approaches to the town. If a threat appeared, he would sound a warning and the town would shut its gates and prepare for battle.
Ahead of a US
strike against Syria, the IDF Wednesday installed two Iron Dome missile
interceptors in the northern “Valleys” region and Safed in addition to
Haifa. Another Iron Dome battery was posted in the heavily populated
central district. Arrow, Patriot anti-missile missiles, as well as Iron
Domes, have been deployed more widely across Israel than ever before.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Israel’s Arrow and Patriot
interceptors are linked to the US missile shield with which their
operation is synchronized.
Syrian opposition activists reported between 200 and
650 dead in a poison gas air strike by government forces on rebel-held
areas of eastern Damascus Tuesday, Aug. 21. This has not been verified.
The regime denied the accusation. debkafile
reports the first major incursion Saturday, Aug. 17 of Syrian rebels
from Jordan into southern Syria, after receiving US training in special
operations. Bashar Assad has said that if Damascus was in danger, he
would resort to chemical warfare and the entire Middle East including
Israel would go up in flames. More>
Yep, and even David Cameron seems to agree. Islam has absolutely nothing to do with all of the death, wars, revolutions, lawlessness, conflicts, terrorism etc. that is taking place on a daily basis in the Islamic world. It's those Jews again ... Friday Sermon, Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, 6/28/2013 - "Let us take a look at the history of mankind. which has recorded the true nature of the Jews, the slayers of prophets and violators of agreements. It shows how they have tried, since pre-Islamic times, to fragment, divide, and rip apart the Arab and Islamic nation..." Only those time-tr...more »
Let me remind the people in Damascus that your city will soon be a heap of ruins...God says so Isaiah 17!!! His wrath will overcome you like a thief and if you do not repent it will be to late!!!
Damascus will ‘bear consequences’ of further gunfire, says Gantz, after cross-border shooting; tensions ‘several times more explosive than they were this morning,’ says top Israeli analyst
Israel’s military chief issued a severe warning to Bashar Assad on Tuesday, saying the Syrian leader would “bear the consequences” of any more attacks on Israeli forces near the Syrian border.
Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz issued his threat hours after an Israeli jeep came under fire during a patrol in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
Syria claimed it destroyed an Israeli vehicle that crossed the ceasefire line in the Golan Heights overnight. A statement issued by the Syrian Armed Forces said its troops destroyed the vehicle “with those in it.” It did not elaborate, but said any attempt to infiltrate Syria’s territory will face “immediate and firm retaliation.”
Strong blasts have hit the Syrian capital, according to media and eye witness reports. According to state TV a military research center was targeted. It also says that the explosions have been caused by an Israeli rocket attack.
The blasts reportedly occurred in the area around Mount Qasioun in Damascus in the early hours of Sunday.
DAMASCUS, Syria, April 28 (UPI) -- The Free Syrian Army says Israeli air force jets flew over President Bashar Assad's palace and bombed a chemical weapons site near Damascus, Maariv reported.
The report said Israeli jets entered Syrian airspace close to 6 a.m Saturday and flew over Assad's palace in Damascus and other security facilities before striking a chemical weapons compound near the city.
The Hebrew language daily said a Syrian army air defense battery positioned in the city fired at the Israeli jets, but the aircraft left Syrian airspace unscathed. FSA rebels posted a video showing smoke rising from the headquarters for chemical weapons.
There were no reports of the extent of damage or casualties.
Neither Damascus nor Jerusalem responded to the report.
Israeli forces shot two Tamuz rockets at the Syrian position in Tel Fares, in the southern Golan, after establishing the source of the gunfire which damaged Israeli military patrol vehicles Saturday night and Sunday morning. The position was razed. Some casualties reported on the Syrian side. Israel has suspended work on the new border fence for now.
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s powerful military is showing signs of growing impatience with the country’s Islamist leaders, indirectly criticizing their policies and issuing thinly veiled threats that it might seize power again.
The tension is raising the specter of another military intervention much like the one in 2011, when generals replaced longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak after they sided with anti-regime protesters in their 18-day popular uprising.
The strains come at a time when many Egyptians are despairing of an imminent end to the crippling political impasse between President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group on one side, and the mostly secular and liberal opposition on the other.
The tug of war between the two camps is being waged against a grim backdrop of spreading unrest, rising crime and a worsening economy.
“In essence, the military will not allow national stability or its own institutional privileges to come under threat from a breakdown in Egypt’s social fabric or a broad-based civil strife,” said Michael W. Hanna, an Egypt expert from the New York-based Century Foundation.
“This is not an ideological army or one that seeks to destabilize civilian governance. … But it is also not an army that will sit by while the country reaches the tipping point on the path to civil strife.”
The latest friction began when a rumor circulated that Morsi planned to replace Lt. Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, his defense minister and the army chief, because of his resistance to bringing the military under the sway of the Brotherhood-dominated government.
Egyptian Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, left, meets with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in Cairo, Egypt, last August (photo credit: AP/Egyptian Presidency/File)
El-Sissi may have angered Morsi last month when he signaled the military’s readiness to step in, warning that the state would collapse if no solution was found to the political crisis. Pointedly, he also spoke of how the military faces a dilemma in marrying the task of protecting state installations in restive locations with its resolve not to harm peaceful protesters.
In another provocative comment earlier this month, el-Sissi was quoted as saying he would never allow the armed forces to be dominated by the Brotherhood, or any other group, stressing the military’s national identity.
A Brotherhood spokesman, Yasser Mehrez, dismissed claims that the group sought to bring the military under its sway. “This is old talk that has been repeated over and over again,” he said.
The rumor about el-Sissi’s dismissal was widely suspected to be a trial balloon floated by the Muslim Brotherhood to gauge military and public reaction.
The military did not officially respond. But widely published comments attributed to an anonymous military source threatened that any attempt to remove the military’s top commanders would be “suicide” for the government and spoke of widespread anger within the armed forces.
The source was quoted as saying the public will not accept any meddling in the military and will close ranks to counter any pressures or challenges.
The military distanced itself from the comments on a statement posted on its official Facebook page. But the situation was deemed serious enough for Morsi’s office to issue a statement late Monday that appeared aimed at calming the military.
It reassured commanders of the administration’s appreciation of the armed forces and said the president had confidence in el-Sissi.
But the statement, which blamed media for spreading “lies and rumors,” may have done little to ease the tension.
“The two sides may be publicly dismissing reports of tension, but the army is making it very clear to the presidency that any attempt to dismiss el-Sissi would backfire,” said military analyst and retired army Gen. Mohammed Qadri Said.
“They claim mutual love and respect, but what is happening is not indicative of this.”
The military also handed Morsi a public humiliation when army commanders chose not to enforce a night curfew he imposed on three restive Suez Canal cities in riots last month.
In a direct challenge to the president, several top field commanders said they would not use force against civilians in the three cities. Residents openly defied Morsi by staging demonstrations during the curfew hours, playing soccer in the streets and setting off fireworks.
El-Sissi’s top lieutenant, Chief of Staff Sedki Sobhi, delivered another implicit warning to Morsi and the Brotherhood this week.
While the military was not currently involved in politics, he said: “It keeps an eye on what goes on in the nation and if the Egyptian people ever needed the armed forces, they will be on the streets in less than a second.”
Significantly, Sobhi made his comments in the United Arab Emirates, whose government accuses Egypt’s Brotherhood of meddling in its affairs and has arrested 11 Egyptian expatriates there for their membership of the group.
Morsi and the Brotherhood have made it clear that they do not want the military to play any political role.
But that did not stop el-Sissi from extending an invitation to the opposition and Islamist leaders loyal to Morsi to sit down informally over lunch to defuse a crisis over presidential decrees issued in November that gave Morsi near absolute powers. The decrees have since been rescinded.
Under pressure from the Brotherhood, el-Sissi withdrew the invitation just hours before the meeting was to start.
Morsi appointed el-Sissi less than two months after taking office as Egypt’s first freely elected president. The Aug. 12 appointment followed Morsi’s bold decision to retire the nation’s two top generals, restoring the full powers of the president’s office and ending a months-long power struggle between the two sides. Before Morsi’s move, the military had the power to legislate since the legislature was dissolved in June by a court ruling. The military also held veto power over a panel that was drafting a new constitution at the time.
Still, few ever took el-Sissi to be the president’s man. And there were doubts that six decades of de facto military rule had come to an end or that the military had been relegated to playing second fiddle to civilians.
Morsi and his Islamist supporters passed up a major opportunity to curb the military’s power — something that would have meant a major confrontation with the generals.
The new constitution drafted by Islamists enshrined the military’s near-complete independence and kept its vast economic interests above oversight, against the wishes of many who participated in the 2011 revolt.
With chaos in the country deepening, chants calling for military intervention during street protests, last heard en masse during the uprising, are making a timid comeback.
“Millions of Egyptians want the army to come back and deliver us from chaos,” Ibrahim Issa, host of a political talk show on television, said this week.
“This is the sentiment on the Egyptian street, and ignoring it is stupid,” said the popular Issa, a harsh critic of Morsi, the Brotherhood and the military when it was in power.
Since taking office in June 2012, Morsi has made little progress in tackling Egypt’s pressing problems — steep price increases, surging crime, deteriorating services and fuel shortages.
The Brotherhood, which dominates parliament and the government after winning every election since Mubarak’s ouster, is accused of monopolizing power. And Morsi has been criticized for failing to deliver on a promise of an inclusive government representing the Christian minority, liberal and secular political factions, and women.
The highly charged political climate and the collapsing economy could make a military takeover seem like a welcome development in some corners of Egypt — or at least a necessary evil that could salvage the nation.
But the military may not be willing to insert itself directly again in politics or governance. Its prestige was badly tarnished by scathing criticism of its handling of the post-Mubarak transition period.
A few days into the uprising, Mubarak ordered the army into the streets to replace a police force that melted away when confronted with massive public outrage over decades of abuse.
With the country in chaos and paralyzed, the military later sided with protesters who demanded that Mubarak leave office. A council of ruling generals took over the reins of power, but the relationship soon turned sour.
Activists and pro-democracy groups accused the generals of widespread human rights violations during their rule, including the torture of detainees and the trial of at least 10,000 civilians before military tribunals.
The military later made good on its promise to hand over power to an elected government, although Morsi and his Brotherhood would clearly not have been the generals’ choice if they had to make one.
With that history in mind, there are serious questions about whether a military intervention can even solve any of Egypt’s problems in a time short enough to satisfy a population seething with anger over the chaos and hardships of the last two years.
The military would be risking more vilification if it does not move the country onto firmer ground quickly.
Nevertheless, there may be enough goodwill toward the military and popular discontent to give it another chance.
(Reuters) - A car bomb killed more than 50 people and wounded 200 in central
Damascus on Thursday when it blew up on a busy highway close to ruling Baath
Party offices and the Russian Embassy, state media and activists
said.
Syrian television showed charred and bloodied bodies strewn across the street
after the blast, which it described as a suicide bombing by "terrorists"
battling President Bashar al-Assad. It said 53 people were killed.
Central Damascus has been relatively insulated from almost two years of
unrest and civil war in which around 70,000 people have been killed across the
country, but the bloodshed has shattered suburbs around the capital.
Rebels who control districts to the south and east of Damascus have attacked
Assad's power base for nearly a month and struck with devastating bombs over the
last year.
The al Qaeda-linked rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra, which claimed responsibility
for several of those bombs, says it carried out 17 attacks around Damascus in
the first half of February, including at least seven bombings.
Activists said most of the victims of Thursday's attack in the city's Mazraa
district were civilians, including children, possibly from a school behind the
Baath building.
Opposition activists reported further explosions elsewhere in the city after
the explosion which struck shortly before 11 a.m. (0900 GMT).
One resident in the heart of the capital heard three or four projectiles
whistling through the sky, followed by explosions. At least one of them landed
in a public garden in the Abu Rummaneh district, she said, but no one was
hurt.
EMBASSY DAMAGED
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors
violence via a network of sources inside Syria, said the Mazraa car bomb
was detonated at a checkpoint close to the Baath Party building, located about
200 meters (660 feet) from the Russian embassy.
It said 56 people were killed, of which at least 15 were from Syria's
security forces and the rest civilians. Eight other people were killed by a car
bomb in the Barzeh district of northeast Damascus, one of several explosions
which followed the Mazraa attack.
Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted a diplomat as saying the Mazraa blast
blew out windows at the Russian Embassy, but no employees were wounded. "The
building has really been damaged ... The windows are shattered," the diplomat
said.
The vehicle was carrying between 1 and 1.5 metric tons (1.65 tons) of
explosives, Damascus Governor Bishr Sabban told Reuters.
A correspondent for Syrian television said he saw seven body bags with
corpses at the scene. He counted 17 burnt-out cars and another 40 that were
destroyed or badly damaged by the force of the blast, which ripped a crater 1.5
meters deep into the road.
Syrian TV said security forces had detained a would-be suicide bomber with
five bombs in his car, one of them weighing 300 kg (440 pounds).
In the southern city of Deraa, where the uprising against Assad erupted in
March 2011, warplanes bombed the city's old district for the first time in
nearly two years of conflict, killing 18 people, activists said.
A rebel officer in the Tawheed al-Janoub brigade which led a rebel offensive
this week in Deraa said there were at least five air strikes on the city on
Thursday.
"The (rebel) attacks on several major checkpoints in the Hay al-Saad
neighborhood and its declaration as a liberated area have prompted this
response," said Abdullah Masalmah, an activist from the city, via
Skype.
Fighting has intensified in southern Syria in recent weeks, leading to a
sharp increase in refugee flows to neighboring Jordan, according to officials. A
Jordanian military source said 4,288 refugees arrived in the last 24 hours
alone.
Nayef Hawatmeh, head of the Damascus-based Democratic Front for the
Liberation of Palestine, was lightly wounded by an explosion in a mosque next to
his office, a DFLP official said.
Talal Abu Tharifa told Reuters in Gaza that glass fragments had caused a
slight wound to Hawatmeh's hand.
