July 13, 2012 Briefs:
- Israelis within range of Gaza must stay near shelters
The southern Home Command Friday issued terror
and rocket warning to Israeli locations within range of the Gaza Strip.
People were advised to stay within reach of shelters and fortified
spaces. Thursday, Israeli air and tank forces foiled two Palestinian
attacks from Gaza.
- British spy chief: Iran will have nuke by 2014
Sir John Sawers, head of the British MI6 spy
agency said Friday that covert operations by British spies had
prevented Iran from developing nuclear weapons in 2008, but it would
likely achieve this goal by 2014. The other points he made were:
1. US and Israel must decide whether to embark on military action to preempt a great danger;
2. Were it not for British action, Iran would be nuclear-armed by now;
Syria takes chemical weapons out of storage
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
 13 July.
Syria Thursday, July 12, test-fired advanced Scud D ballistic
missiles capable of carrying chemical weapons and nerve gas and
�hitting targets deep within enemy territory� as part of its war
exercise. In Washington, US officials disclosed that parts of Bashar
Assad�s huge arsenal of sarin nerve agent, mustard gas and cyanide,
were moved out of storage. One warned of �the precedent of WMD being
used under our watch,� calling it �incredibly dangerous to our national
security."
DEBKAfile: Chemical weapons have been transferred to Syrian units.
July 14, 2012 Briefs:
- Tel Aviv social protester in serious condition after setting himself on fire
The man in his 40s poured flammable material
on himself before setting himself alight during a protest rally of 5000
people in Tel Aviv Saturday night.
- A Hizballah drone crashes in east Lebanon
It crashed in the Baalbek town of Younin, said
The Daily Star of Lebanon. DEBKAfile: Hizballah has been using drones
to catch the movements of Syrian rebel fighter and arms across the
border.
- Israel accuses Tehran of Hizballah plot against Israelis in Cyprus
�Iranian terror has no borders,� the
Prime Minister�s Office in Jerusalem said in a statement after the
detention in Cyprus of a Hizballah operative on a terrorist mission
against Israeli tourists in Limassol and flights to Cyprus. �It�s
about time the international community dealt with the world�s biggest
exporter of terror,� the statement said.
- UN observers enter Syrian massacre site
Two days after 220 people reported by
opposition to have been massacred by shelling and knife-wielding
militiamen, UN observers entered the Syrian village of Tremseh, near
Hama.
Western sources: Israel in line for Syrian missile strike
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
 14 July. As
the pace of unthinkable slaughter in Syria accelerates, Western
military sources warned Saturday, July 14, that not only Israel, but
Turkey and Jordan should prepare for Syrian chemical missile strikes,
after Syria missiles were test-fired this week against all three.
Western officials disagree on Assad�s motives for moving his WMD out of
storage. Some Americans say he is safeguarding them against falling
into rebel hands; British officials report chemical weapons deployed at
Homs, Latakia and Aleppo and predict an ethnical cleansing campaign.
July 15, 2012 Briefs:
- Israel and Greek launch joint naval exercise Wednesday
Western military sources report that the
Israeli and Greek navies begin a maneuver Monday, July 18, in the
Aegean sea of Milos Island. There was no word on the scale of the
exercise or its duration.
- The Red Cross: Syrian conflict now is civil war
The Red Cross Committee in Geneva is the first
international organization to call the violence in Syria a full-blown
civil war, meaning international humanitarian law applies throughout
the country and a basis provided for war crimes prosecution.
- Clinton meets with head of Egypt�s military council
The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton�s
meeting with Field Marshal Mohammed Tantawi took place in Cairo Sunday
the day after she urged �the military to return to its national
security duties and to allow Morsi assume his full presidential
authorities.�
More top Syrian generals desert Assad
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
 15 July. Several
high-placed generals bolted Bashar Assad�s inner circle Sunday, July
17 to Turkey, including such key figures as two security services
chiefs who were operations commanders of the Alawite Shabiha militia
plus the former head of Syria�s chemical and biological administration
who took six other generals with him, DEBKAfile reports exclusively.
Another senior general was assassinated in Aleppo. Assad also received a
last warning not to move his chemical weapons again or else they would
be destroyed from the air.
July 16, 2012 Briefs:
- Syria-bound Russian warships refuel at Limassol
The first vessels of the Russian war flotilla
bound for its base at Tartus, Syria, are putting into the Cypriot port
to re-supply and rest their crews.
- Two Palestinian missiles explode in Sderot
One of the missiles fired from Gaza landed harmlessly on open ground, the second fell exploded on the Gaza side of the border.
- Palestinian terrorist cell kidnap plot exposed
The Shin Bet, IDF and Israeli Police reported
Monday the capture of a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP) cell which had made a number of failed attempts to kidnap an
Israeli soldier as hostage against the release of jailed Palestinians
terrorists.
- Chemical missile attack simulated in Israeli town
The exercise in Petach Tikva east of Tel Aviv was staged Monday by the Home Command, IDF, Magen David and the fire brigade.
- Clinton in Israel after Donilon
The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
holds talks in Israeli with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense
Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Iranian
nuclear program and other Middle East issues, including the peace
process. She follows National Security Advisor Tom Donilon who visited
Israel from July 14-15 and consulted with the prime minister, defense
minister and National Security Advisor Yaacov Amidror.
July 17, 2012 Briefs:
- Kadima quits Netanyahu-led government
Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz Tuesday announced
his Kadima party was returning to� opposition benches after 69 days as
member of the ruling coalition, after he and the prime minister failed
to agree on the details of new legislation for universal compulsory
conscription that was to have ended the granting of exemptions from
military and civic service for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva seminarists and
Israel Arab citizens.
- Haifa stages big home exercise for Syrian-Hizballah chemical attack
Wednesday, July 18, he Home Command launches
its first large-scale peparedness exercise for an emergency arising
from a potential Syrian and/or Hizballah chemical attack on Haifa,
Israel�s third largest town. The scenario simulates a chemical missile
revenge attack by Hizballah on the Institute of Technology�s scientists,
a direct rocket strike to set loose convicts from jails and the use
of� the big Kiryat Eliezer stadium to accommodate victims.�
- Syrian rebel chief orders all-out offensive on Damascus and Aleppo
Free Syrian Army commander Colonel Riad
al-Asaad has ordered an all-out offensive on all sectors: Rebel forces
in the south and rural orders told to capture Damascus; northern and
eastern forces to seize Aleppo, Syria�s financial capital.
- US missile-defense radar to go up in Qatar
A powerful new American X-Band radar station
will be built in Qatar following Iran�s successful testing earlier this
month of surface-to-surface Shahab-3 missiles, which are capable of
reaching Israel and southern Europe. They can also hit US bases in the
region. The new station will supplement the powerful US
missile-defense radar stations operating in Israel�s Negev and central
Turkey.
- Israel broke up 10 terrorist plots in Sinai
Israel�s Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen.
Aviv Cochavi: Using intelligence tools, we have thwarted 10 terrorist
plots from Egyptian Sinai in recent months.
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If Damascus falls, Israel and its gas fields feared threatened
DEBKAfile Special Report
 17 July.
The fall of Damascus will have wide regional repercussions, as
DEBKAfile demonstrates, because neither the Assad regime nor Iran will
take it lying down.
DEBKAfile reports their reprisals will be paced and scaled according to
the momentum of the Syrian rebels� advance on Bashar Assad�s
door-step. On the Iranian-Hizballah list are Middle East oil
installations as well as Israeli, US, Turkish, Saudi and Jordanian
strategic targets. Saturday, the Cypriot police captured a Hizballah
terrorist before he could blow up an Israeli El Al flight and tourist
buses in Limassol.
Tehran is feared to be focusing on a plot to set Israel�s Mediterranean
gas field Tamar on fire. It would be a spectacular curtain-raiser for
the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and for strikes against Gulf oil
installations.
Navy Commander, Maj. Gen. Ram Rothberg called last week for an extra
five warships and submarines to safeguard Israel�s burgeoning gas fields
at the cost of a billion dollars.
The Battle of Damascus has begun
DEBKAfile Special Report
 17 April. Bashar
Assad has gathered in his army to defend Damascus, concentrating
armored vehicles in the center. Six Shabiha battalions cut off the
roads to the center from the two southern suburbs of Meidan and Tadmon
seized by the rebels Monday, July 16, and are trying the pound them into
extinction while keeping them hemmed in.� The Syrian general staff
prepared for the last battle for Damascus by relocating its command
headquarters to a well-fortified complex on Shuhada Street in the
capital�s center.
The 130,000 Palestinians living in Damascus refugee
camps have meanwhile joined the rebels. Two Syrian tank columns drove
into those locations early Tuesday, July 17, and have been shelling them
relentlessly, after 60 years in which the Assad regime supported and
hosted the radical Palestinian Hamas, Jihad Islami, the Popular Front
and Ahmad Jibril�s PFLA-General Command.
July 18, 2012 Briefs:
- Hizballah leader crows after Bulgarian bus blast kills five Israelis
�We know what your first strike will be and
we promise you a big surprise,� said Hassan Nasrallah Wednesday night
in Beirut. �The most important weapons we fought with in the July war
(of 2006) were from Syria, not only in Lebanon but also in the Gaza
Strip. They forced more than a million settlers to stay in bunkers and
frighten Tel Aviv. Nasrallah added that the Americans are now trying to
break of Syria as they did Iraq.
- Lavrov: Decisive battle now in Syria
Russia on Wednesday said a decisive battle was
in progress in Syria and rejected a Western-backed U.N. resolution on
the crisis that would allow military intervention.
- A Taliban bomb destroys 22 NATO fuel tankers
The vehicles were hit where they were parked
Tuesday night in Samangan province in northern Afghanistan as they
headed from Uzbekistan towards coalition forces.
- Syrian rebels to be issued with chemical masks
Free Syrian Army commander Colonel Riad
al-Asaad reports information that government forces are armed with
chemical weapons for use in areas lost to regime control. Preparations
are under way to obtain protective gear for FSA fighters and defectors
to their ranks.
- Clinton warns against jihadist terrorist takeover of Sinai
The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said
she had discussed at length the danger of the Sinai border between
Egypt and Israel becoming a jihadist and terrorist operational base in
her talks in Cairo and Jerusalem. The threat also affects the Americans
serving in the multinational force monitoring the peace accord.
- Jordan acts to ward off Syrian chemical attack
Jordan has taken precautions to ward off a
possible Syrian chemical attack, Jordan's foreign minister said Tuesday
July 17, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said reflecting concern that
Syria might use such weapons if the uprising there threatens the
regime.
Netanyahu accuses Iran of Bulgarian bus blast killing seven Israelis, pledges strong response
DEBKAfile Special Report
 18 July.
The flight from Tel Aviv had just come in Wednesday and the Israeli
tourists had been picked up by three buses at Burgas airport when one
of them exploded and caught fire. At least five Israelis tourists and
the Bulgarian tour guide were killed on the spot and 35 injured, four
critically. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud
Barak accused Iran of the attack and pledged a strong response.
Israeli security would reach the perpetrators, they said.
Assad�s 4 top men killed by bomb
DEBKAfile Special Report
 18 July:
Four top members of Bashar Assad�s inner circle were killed in Damascus
Wednesday, July 18:� His brother-in-law Security Chief Assif Shawqat,
Defense minister Gen. Dawoud Raijiha, Vice-Presidential aide and
former defense minister Gen. Hasan Turkmani and Interior Minister Maj.
Gen. Mohammad Ibrahim Shaar who is not expected to recover form his
injuries: �Their deaths were caused by a hidden 40-kilogram bomb in the
cabinet conference room � not a suicide bomber as previously reported.
Top-level consultations are under way in Washington, Jerusalem and
other Mid East capitals to second-guess Assad�s expected reaction.
DEBKAfile�s military sources report that US forces in
the region, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Turkey have placed
their armies on a high state of readiness until it is clear which way
the Assad regime jumps after the disaster it sustained.
The Syrian president moved fast to fill a gap, appointing
Gen. Fahd Jassem al-Freij defense minister hours after his predecessor
was killed. It is obvious that the Syrian rebels lacked the expertise
for a high-quality terrorist operation of the kind that decimated
Assad�s inner circle. He may assume a foreign intelligence agency was
responsible and lash out against the United States, Israel, Britain,
Saudi Arabia, Turkey or Qatar.
July 19, 2012 Briefs:
- Mubarak�s former spy chief Omar Suleiman dies
Gen. Omar Suleiman, long-serving Egyptian
intelligence minister, died Thursday at a Cleveland hospital in the US
while undergoing medical tests. Aged 76, he was gravely ill with an
undisclosed ailment. Suleiman served briefly as Vice President before
announcing Hosni Mubarak�s resignation last year in the face of the
Tahrir Sq. revolution. DEBKAfile: For 30 years he led the campaign
against the Muslim Brothers and acted as the president�s foremost
liaison man with the Israeli government.
- Bulgarian investigators find documents on bus bomber�s body
They included a probably forged US passport
with a Michigan address. Israelis on the doomed bus at Burgas reported
seeing a man in Bermuda shorts, with long hair and a back pack entering
the vehicle before the explosion Wednesday that killed seven people
and injured more than 30. The Bulgarian news agency reports that the
FBI has not traced the bomber by the documents found on him, which
confirms that they were forged, or found his fingerprints in their data
bases.
- US and Israel discussed IAF strikes to destroy Syrian chemical stores
DEBKAfile: US and Israeli officials recently
considered an Israel Air Force operation to destroy Syria�s chemical
weapons stores.
- Israeli Defense Minister: Syria may send Hizballah advanced missiles
Ehud Barak warned that Syria is apt to
transfer highly sophisticated missiles to Hizballah in Lebanon - and
even possibly chemical weapons - for use in a campaign of retribution
directed against Israel.
- Mahmoud Abbas: Door to peacemaking closed
After meeting Egyptian President Muhammed
Morsi in Cairo Wednesday, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told
reporters that "the doors of the political process with Israel are
shut.I
- Iran, Hizballah to pace anti-Israel terror with Syrian, Iranian conflicts
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
19 July. Iran, Syria and Hizballah resolve to
up their terror assaults on �strategic� Israeli targets in step with
the worsening war situation in Syria and a looming attack on Iran�s
nuclear program, DEBKAfile reports.
The Bulgarian bus attack was a �local� target � although
seven people, 5 of them Israeli, were killed and more than 30 injured �
whereas an Israeli plane or diplomat would be a �strategic� target.
Nevertheless, US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu agreed that Israel will not react for now.
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