The Syria Analysis Thread

Randall McMurphy Monday 13 May 2013

My theory is that Benghazi and the Boston Marathon bombing were political stunts from "Al Qaeda" interests to prove they were not American lackeys--a recruiting ploy of some sort involving a variety of agendas, which include the direction of the flow in arms and cash in Syria, if not exclusive. Of course, that might have dark to very dark implications...

el greco Wednesday 15 May 2013

http://www.sedmitza.ru/text/3681481.html

Armed extremists who are fighting on the side of opposition units in in Syria have attacked the ancient Orthodox Monastery of Holy Prophet Elias near the town of Al-Qusayr situated 20 kilometers from the Syrian-Lebanese border, reports the ITAR-TASS agency with a reference to the Syrian state news agency.

The gunmen have devastated this Christian monastery, taken away the church vessels, blown up the bell tower, and destroyed the chancel and the font, the Monastery's Abbot Gadir Ibrahim reported on Saturday.

On top of all that, according to the Abbot, they have demolished the statue of the Old Testament Prophet who is venerated in Syria by both Christians and Muslims.

"The desecration of the church and the monastery has been committed by foreign mercenaries," assured Ibrahim. According to him, "Syrians would not have dared to commit such a sacrilege.” The Abbot noted again that the monastery is already more than 1500 years old and it is under protection of the state as an architectural monument.

Cadavre Exquis Wednesday 15 May 2013

Syrian rebel eats heart of regime soldier

Damascus: A Syrian rebel militia leader filmed cutting the heart and organs out of a regime soldier's body and putting it in his mouth has defended his actions as legitimate vengeance.

By mutilating the corpse, Khaled al-Hamad, known by the nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, handed an instant propaganda victory to the Syrian government, which accused the West of ignoring rebel atrocities.

"If the international media has just discovered this now, then they are coming to it very late": Ali Haider, the minister for reconciliation.

The video purported to show him cutting the lungs out of a soldier's corpse before apparently eating a small piece of the organ. "I swear to God we will eat your hearts, Alawite soldiers of Bashar the dog," he said, referring to supporters of President Bashar al-Assad from the minority Alawite sect.

Still image of video of Khaled al-Hamad cutting heart and organs out of dead Syrian soldier.

Speaking to Time magazine, he said he had no regrets about taking revenge - "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" - after finding images of regime abuses on the dead soldier's mobile phone.

"We opened his cell phone and I found a clip of a woman and her two daughters fully naked, and he was humiliating them," he said. "Hopefully, we will slaughter all of them [the Alawites]."

He said that he possessed another video of himself "sawing" a member of the pro-regime Shabiha militia with a "saw we use to cut trees". Mr Hamad added: "I sawed him in small pieces and large ones."

In Damascus, Ali Haider, the minister for reconciliation, said this was only one of many atrocities carried out by the regime's enemies.

"If the international media has just discovered this now, then they are coming to it very late. These type of atrocities have been happening in Syria since the beginning of the crisis. The international community just didn't want to admit it," he said.

"We have documented hundreds of acts that are equally as horrific as the one documented in this video. We have seen one of our pilots' heads cut off and cooked on a grill. We have seen rebels toasting their success by drinking the blood of their victims."

The latest video is one of many circulating on pro-government websites. In the capital, supporters of Mr Assad's regime voiced their revulsion over the behaviour of his enemies.

"Did you see what these animals do?" asked one woman who declined to give her name. "They are devils. How can any human being do this? How can the West support these extremists?"

Human Rights Watch said Mr Hamad should be brought to justice. "The desecration and mutilation of a killed person is definitely a war crime," said Peter Bouckaert, the emergencies director. "This one is particularly disturbing because of the sectarian nature of the language used."

He described the rebel as a "very significant commander" adding: "The danger is that extremists on both sides will feel the need to respond in kind."

Opposition leaders united in their condemnation of Mr Hamad, with the Syrian National Coalition saying that his behaviour "contradicts the morals of the Syrian people, as well as the values and principles of the Free Syrian Army".

The rebels' military council issued a "wanted" poster for Mr Hamad, demanding that he face punishment. The brigade he runs is an offshoot of the Farouq Brigade, which is backed by the official opposition but operates independently.

Crush these beasts.

Stubby Wednesday 15 May 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/16/w...s-possibility-of-more-syria-strikes.html?_r=0

Israeli official signals possibility of more Syria strikes

WASHINGTON – A senior Israeli official signaled on Wednesday that Israel was considering further military strikes on Syria to stop the transfer of advanced weapons to Islamic militants, and he warned the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, that his government would face crippling consequences if it retaliated against Israel.
The Israeli official said: “Israel is determined to continue to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah. The transfer of such weapons to Hezbollah will destabilize and endanger the entire region.”
“If Syrian President Assad reacts by attacking Israel, or tries to strike Israel through his terrorist proxies,” the official said, “he will risk forfeiting his regime, for Israel will retaliate.”
The Israeli official, who has been briefed by high-level officials on the Syria situation in the past two days, declined to be identified, citing the need to protect internal Israeli deliberations. He contacted The New York Times on Wednesday.
The precise motives for Israel’s warning were uncertain: Israel could be trying to restrain Syria’s behavior without undertaking further military action, or alerting other countries to another strike. That would ratchet up the tension in an already fraught situation in Syria, where a civil war has been raging for more than two years.
Nearly two weeks ago, Israeli warplanes carried out two strikes, the first hitting bases of the elite Republican Guard and storehouses of long-range missiles, in addition to a military research center that American officials have called the country’s main chemical weapons site.
A more limited strike on May 3 at Damascus International Airport was also meant to destroy weapons being sent from Iran to the Islamic militant group Hezbollah. The Israeli government did not confirm either of the attacks, which followed one earlier this year.
The Syrian government publicly condemned Israel for the assaults, saying it “opened the door to all possibilities.” The Syrian deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, declared in an interview with Agence France-Presse, “We will respond immediately and harshly to any additional attack by Israel.” He described the Israeli strikes as a “declaration of war.”
Mr. Assad and Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, have both said in recent days that the Israeli-Syrian border, which has been relatively quiet despite the more than two years of civil war inside Syria, could become a “resistance front,” in response to Israeli aggression.

Niccolo and Donkey Thursday 16 May 2013

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/9cc-HC1CnJg

link

Agruesome video ( warning: graphic content ) posted Wednesday shows Syrian rebels in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor invoking sharia law as they sentence soldiers loyal to President Bashar Assad to death. The soldiers, kneeling and blindfolded, are then shot in the back of the head by a rebel whose face is hidden by a black balaclava.

The executioners claim to belong to the al-Nursa Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), a Syrian rebel cell associated with al-Qaeda, Reuters reported Thursday.

With the civil war in Syria between Assad’s forces and myriad insurgent groups entering its third year, and as both sides struggle for the upper hand in media coverage, increasingly unpalatable videos have been surfacing that expose the war at its most brutal.

A similar video circled the web on Tuesday, showing rebels from the Raqqa province publicly executing three men purported to be military officers.

The insurgents, who in both cases reportedly belonged to al-Qaeda-sponsored factions, are seen proclaiming that the executions are in retaliation for massacres perpetrated by the Assad regime, in particular the killing of Sunni civilians in the coastal city Bannias earlier in May. The number of dead in the Bannias massacre is approximated at totaling least 145, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition monitoring group.

Stubby Friday 17 May 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/w...th-advanced-missiles.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Russia is sending some very capable weapon systems to Syria, including this supersonic anti-ship missile, the Yakhont. This family of anti-ship missiles is far stronger than the Exocet missiles western navies became familiar with in the Gulf and Falklands, and is far more capable than any equivalent western system (like the Harpoon series). Now all that's needed is the Iskander system of ballistic missiles, and maybe the Israelis will think twice before meddling.

Here's a little technical info.

http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-Rus-Cruise-Missiles.html#mozTocId241813
http://www.ausairpower.net/Analysis-Regional-ASCM.html
http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-Regional-PGM.html#mozTocId24139

Niccolo and Donkey Friday 17 May 2013

Stubby

What about the S-300 missile system?

Stubby Friday 17 May 2013

niccolo and donkey as we speak: http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Russian-FM-Moscow-will-go-ahead-with-S-300-sale-to-Syria-313460

Stubby Friday 17 May 2013

BTW for those who don't know, the common and most plausible theory is that relatively inexpensive supersonic anti-ship missiles beat aircraft carriers, although these ones might need Russian operators.

Niccolo and Donkey Friday 17 May 2013

That's what I was referring to. Lavrov isn't backing down. The S-300 actually frightens the West and Israel so now events are to be sped up in respect to the desire to remove the Ba'athist regime.

The Syria Analysis Thread

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