Largest-Ever Surface Missile Attack on Syria Targeted 15 Iranian/Hizballah Sites….
01 December 2018
For 75 minutes on Thursday night, November 29, the IDF blasted Iranian, Hizballah and Syrian targets in its biggest ever surface missile attack on Syria, intelligence and military sources can now reveal.
This was not an Israeli air force strike such as those conducted for two years against Iranian targets in Syria.
Two kinds of ground-to ground missiles were used in this cross-border offensive: a Long-Range Artillery Weapon system known as LORA which has a range of 400km; and the guided, short range Tamuz.
They raked across at least 15 sites, most of them belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), pro-Iranian militias and Hizballah.
They covered an area ranging from the Syrian Hermon slopes in the north, down to the Iranian command centre at Izra north of Daraa in the south (See map above.)
Among the locations targeted was Al-Zabadani, a town on the Damascus-Beirut highway near the Lebanese border in the west, which Hizballah has taken over and established there its command posts, training camps and ammunition and rocket depots.
At Al Kiswah south of Damascus, the IDF missiles struck Iran’s central command post in Syria, which is known as the “Glass House.”
Blasted too were the command posts and structures of two Syrian brigades which are structured for Syrian officers to command a hodge-podge of Hizballah, pro-Iranian Shiite and Palestinian militias.
Israeli missiles also struck the Syrian Army’s 90th Brigade which rules the area north of Quneitra and 112h Brigade which is stationed south of this Golan town.
The massive Israeli cross-border assault inflicted heavy casualties on the Iranians, their militias, Hizballah and the Syrian army, including fatalities.
Up until Friday night, neither Iran, Syria nor Hizballah had disclosed the precise targets smashed by the IDF 24 hours earlier.
The Russian military in Syria was also silent. Developing further…..
Trump Consults Arab Rulers - Excluding Israel - before Releasing His Mid-East Plan…..
01 December 2018
President Donald Trump has notified concerned Arab rulers that he is ready to discuss a timeline for the release of his Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
The rulers he called were Jordan’s King Abdullah, King Mohammed of Morocco, President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi of Egypt, Saudi Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman (MbS) and UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Ziyad (MbZ) – but not Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
The US President told the Arab rulers that his “Plan of the Century” was finished down to the last iota and ready for immediate publication.
He proposed that they set a date together and let a joint US-Arab team make the final arrangements.
He hoped to finalise it all when he met MbS [pictured below] and MbZ in Buenos Aires on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
Trump deliberately excluded Israel and its prime minister from the process leading up to the publication of his plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians - a stunning omission for which our sources postulate the following rationale.
Last week, Trump was led to believe that the government crisis which erupted in Israel 10 days ago would force an early election in March.
He was ready to hold his peace plan back until it was over, appreciating that Netanyahu’s prospects of re-election rest heavily on popular faith in his close and stable ties with President Trump and his administration.
But then, Trump saw Netanyahu manoeuvring politically to keep his government afloat full term, up until the general election in November.
Taking this change personally amiss, the US president decided to wait no longer for the Israeli prime minister and turned to friendly Arab rulers to get his peace plan off the ground as soon as possible.
Publication is now scheduled for around late January-early February 2019, following a US-Arab process which leaves Israel in the cold.
Stay tuned...this is becoming an intriguing farce?
Syria: Wide-ranging Israel air strikes in three waves over Damascus region...........
November 30, 2018
Syrian sources reported shortly before midnight of November 29, that Israeli air attacks had been ongoing from 21:30 [9.30 p.m.] over areas in the Damascus vicinity.
Three waves of air and missile attacks had struck Al Kiswah, south of the capital, Qanaqar to the south-west, and Quneitra opposite Israel’s Golan border.
Arab broadcasting stations claimed that flames were rising over Damascus airport from targeted aircraft.
Also hit, they reported, were pro-Iranian militias’ command posts and bases, various missile batteries and Hizballah forces.
None of these reports are officially confirmed.
However, reliable military sources estimate that even if they are partly correct, Israel is conducting its most wide-ranging assault on Iranian and Hizballah targets in south-western Syria since its major offensive of May 10 on 52 Iranian and Syrian sites.
The IDF has meanwhile reported that a missile was fired from Syria into Israeli Golan. It exploded on open ground.
The spokesman denied any Israeli aircraft were hit by Syrian fire.
According to Hizballah’s TV, all IDF bases on the Golan have beensuddenly blacked out.
Syrian sources, including the official news agency SANA, reported Thursday night that Syria air defences had repelled “hostiles targets” in the Al-Kiswah region south of Damascus and that the operation was still ongoing.
Other sources claimed that the Israeli Air Force had attacked pro-Iranian militia concentrations in the same region.
Some said there were Hizballah units present there.
If those reports are confirmed, then this will be the third Israel attack by air or missile on targets in Syria since suspending its air strikes following the shooting down of a Russian spy plane on September 17.
Before that, Al Kiswah took a number of Israeli air strikes, the last occurring on May 10 against a shipment of Iranian Fatteh-313 missiles landing in Syria.
Our military sources add that Al Kiswah is the seat of the Iranian command for South Syria which is headed by Major General Hossein Hamadani. [pictured above]
Developing..…
Ukraine Crisis Spirals ahead of Trump-Putin Summit[which Trump Just Cancelled?] in Buenos Aires…..
01 December 2018
The prospect of a Trump-Putin summit in Buenos Aires, which has been scheduled for today, Saturday, December 1, applied the last spark to a crisis just waiting to blow up in the Ukraine-Russian dispute over the Kerch Strait. (Trump cancelled at the last minute.)
A glance at the map (see above] clearly shows that, by controlling this strait, Moscow rules the Azov Sea and cuts the Ukrainian ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk off from access to the Black Sea.
This reduces the 44 million Ukrainians to a single working sea port – Odessa. The 3.1km long, 15km wide. 18m deep Kerch Strait connects the Azov and Black Seas.
In 2003 Moscow and Kiev signed an agreement providing for the sharing of the Azov Sea and its access point through the Kerch Strait and promising freedom of navigation for Ukraine and Russia.
That arrangement worked until 2014, when Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula and made it part of Russian sovereign territory.
The Kerch Strait was no longer shared by Russia to the east and Ukraine to the west, but wholly under Moscow’s control.
To underline this domination, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin formally dedicated a new 19km bridge on May 2018 by driving a truck across it.
Since then, Moscow has maintained a ramped-up naval presence at the strait.
For seven months, Russian coastguards have been holding up Ukrainian vessels bound for Mariupol and Berdyansk as well as ships from other nations.
The damage to Kiev’s economy is extreme. Shipping companies are avoiding visits to Ukrainian ports, since every Russian hold-up costs them up to an extra $15,000 per day.
Since most of Ukraine’s steel and wheat exports go through Mariupol port, its economy has paid a steep price for Russian interference.
Senior officials in Kiev accuse Moscow of imposing a naval blockade on their country and of flagrant violation of their 2003 treaty, which guaranteed its freedom of navigation in the Sea of Azov.
On Sunday, November 25, Ukraine conducted a surprise test for restoring its shipping route. A tugboat and two small armoured ships were sent through the Kerch Strait.
When they reached the mouth of the Sea of Azov, they were rammed and fired on by Russian coastguard vessels, which boarded and towed them to a Russian port with 23 sailors on board.
Six Ukrainian sailors were injured, one of them critically.
Since Kiev’s army, navy and airforce combined have nowhere near the clout needed to take on the Russian army, President Petro Poroshenko made his only available response:
He asked parliament to impose martial law – initially for 60 days, then reduced to 30 days on the advice of the US, Germany, the UK and France.
Moscow reacted by a phone call to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In which Putin expressed “serious concern” over Ukraine’s decision to put its armed forces on alert and to introduce martial law,” which, he said, could “spark a global crisis.”
He asked Berlin to “influence the Ukrainian authorities to dissuade them from further reckless acts.”
Russia’s UN ambassador Dmitry Polyanksy [pictured above] claimed the Ukrainian ships had entered Russia’s territory waters for “a long-planned provocation by Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and his western backers, as a distraction from his unpopularity in the run-up to elections next March”.
” The declaration of martial law”, said the ambassador, was “about cancelling the elections.”
At this point, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stepped in to accuse Moscow of a “dangerous escalation and violation of international law.”
He said, “The United States condemns this aggressive Russian action. We call on Russia to return to Ukraine its vessels and detained crew members, and respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders, extending to its territorial waters.”
President Donald Trump, when asked what he thought about this crisis, answered: “Not good, Not happy about it all.”
He did not apportion blame, possibly since he tends to avoid criticizing the Kremlin, but in reference to Pompeo’s statement, he added that the US had “let our position be known.”
Moscow’s response to the US demand to return the detained crew members came on Tuesday, November 27 when a Russian court sentenced the first batch to two months in prison. They were accused of illegally crossing the Russian border.
The Ukraine president then asked for NATO to send ships to the Sea of Azov "to assist Ukraine and provide security." He was whistling in the dark.
But on Thursday, Trump call off his meeting with Putin when Russia failed to send the Ukrainian sailors back.
Reliable sources note the timing of the spiralling crisis just days before Presidents Trump and Putin are scheduled to meet face to face on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires on Saturday.
Our sources have noted in the past that whenever the Syria issue is due to come up at a Trump-Putin summit, a flare-up occurs over Ukraine.
This time, the military stand-off in both trouble spots is closer than ever before to full-on eruption.
News Just in 01 December 2018;
According to a Kremlin communique, President Vladimir Putin will nowmeet President Donald Trump on Saturday on the sidelines of the G20 summit at Buenos Aires. White House confirmation is awaited.
Iran Sinks a Fordow-Style Facility under a North Syrian Mountain…….
01 December 2018
A fresh spurt in Iranian air freight traffic to Beirut international airport is reported by reliable military and intelligence sources.
Hardly a day went by in the past week without the arrival of at least one - if not two - Iranian transport aircraft, making refuelling stops at Damascus on their return flight.
This airlift set off alarm bells at the US CENTCOM Air Base at Udeid in Qatar and at Israeli military staff headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Both are short of information on the reason for the accelerated Iranian air transport traffic and the nature of their cargoes.
The CIA and Israeli intelligence services have, however, caught on to four major clandestine Iranian missile production projects in the making - over and above the dozens of small workshops known to be busy affixing precision-guidance components to Hizballah’s arsenal of thousands of medium- and long-range Fajr-5, Fateh-110 and Zilzal-2 surface missiles.
Those workshops are scattered widely across Lebanon, although some are located in Beirut and some in western Syrian areas adjoining the Hizballah-ruled regions of eastern Lebanon.
Much less is known about the four large projects going up - two each in Lebanon and Syria, but Tehran appears to be in a hurry to get them finished.
Construction is in the hands of the Khatam Al-Anbiya Construction, an engineering firm owned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Two are located 6km north of the town of Hermel in the Lebanese Beqaa Valley.
The pair in Syria are going up near the western town of Masyaf, east of Banyas - both covered by the shield of the Russian S-400 air defence missiles protecting the Russian Khmaimim Air Base in Latakia.
Also located in the vicinity of Masyaf are two IRGC bases and the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre (CERS), the euphemistic title of the Syrian army’s central laboratories for the development of military systems, including different types of chemical weapons.
Three of the four factories are finished and standing empty, possibly because the Iranians are wary of installing equipment that will attract destructive Israeli air strikes.
Our military sources have also discovered that while three of the four factories appear to be modelled on Iran’s missile plants in the military compounds of Parchin and Khujir, the fourth stands out as different and puzzling.
Sunk under the mountains surrounding Wadi Jahannam near Banyas in northern Syria, this facility is assuming the shape of a subterranean military industrial city, built on the same lines as the Fordow underground facility in central Iran and sharing a similar natural setting and near impregnability.
Since the work is carried out below ground, it is hard to determine what stage it has reached. But when finished, this underground Iranian facility will present Israel and the United States with a novel and dangerous challenge.
First, by its proximity: no more than 280km from Haifa, the largest town in northern Israel, the site of the Israel Navy’s main home base and a regular port of call for the US Sixth Fleet.
Based there, too, are Israel’s nuclear-armed submarines geared for attacking targets in Iran.
The Wadi Jahannam structure is believed by Western military experts to have formidable protection – not just from natural rock, but the extra hardening gained from North-Korean bunker-building expertise, including multiple blast-proof doors, dividers, reinforced ceilings and 20-cm thick concrete walls.
Its susceptibility to attack also depends on the depth of its chambers,which is not yet known.
It is assumed by intelligence experts that the Syrian version of Fordow has longer approach tunnels than those at the original site, for added protection against air strikes and missiles able to penetrate tunnels.
The US has different types of conventional bunker-busting weapons, including the 5,000-pound BLU-122, which can penetrate more than 20 feet of concrete or 100 feet of earth before detonating.
In recent years, the US supplied Israel with two types of bunker-buster bombs, BLU-109 and BLU-113. The US armory also contains a far more powerful Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), a 30,000-pound monster that can be delivered by the largest American strategic bombers.
Its exact features are classified, but it is estimated to be able to bore through up to 200 feet of dirt and rock before exploding.
Iran’s revved up armaments industry in Syria and Lebanon confronts Israel and the US with tough quandaries.
But first, they are trying to determine whether the current Iranian airlift has finished delivering all the equipment for the four large-scale manufacturing plants going up in Syria and Lebanon.
US Marks out Area of Influence in NE Syria, Anchored in New Kurdish-Led Political Entity & Army…….
01 December 2018
Amid recurring spats with Turkey, the US is forging ahead with a detailed road map for stabilising its sphere of influence in north-eastern Syria and anchoring it on a new army and a new autonomous political system formed by local Kurdish factions and other segments of the population.
Initial Turkish objections were reportedly settled, according to reliable sources, under a deal negotiated in Ankara by Ambassador James Jeffrey, [pictured above] Donald Trump’s special adviser on Syria.
This deal is designed to open the door for the US to confirm its military and political domination of wide swathes of northern and eastern Syria, including the disputed Syrian-Iraqi border, and establish its first real counterweight to Russia’s military control of western Syria.
The six points of the deal provisionally struck with Ankara by Ambassador Jeffrey are revealed here for the first time:
• Turkey undertakes to halt its army’s advance into north-eastern Syria, specifically the eastern bank of the River Euphrates and other Kurdish regions - a threat which figures repeatedly in President Tayyip Erdogan’s rhetoric.
• The leading Kurdish party’s political and military arms, PYD and PYG, have pledged to purge elements of the Turkish separatist PKK (Kurdish Workers’ Party) from its ranks under a US guarantee.
• The Kurds will forego their demand for the restoration of Afrin, the Syrian province seized by the Turkish army 10 months ago.
• A new Syrian-Kurdish army of 150,00 men under arms will be formed around the US-backed Syrian Democratic Force (SDF)’s core of 60,000 members.
• A new, autonomous Kurdish-Syrian government system will rise in northern Syria.
• US observation posts will define the borders of the new entity and monitor implementation of the deal with Turkey.
As the US scheme takes shape, sources note the fragile state of the deal with Ankara.
As recently as Friday, November 23, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu [pictured above] said that the implementation of the roadmap in the east of the Euphrates “must witness the removal of units belonging to Syrian Kurdish Forces.”
Turkey, at least publicly, holds to its animosity for the Kurds, despite the deal negotiated with Ambassador Jeffrey for a cross-border truce.
Strange Waves Rippled Around the World, and Nobody Knows Why……
01 December 2018
Instruments picked up the seismic waves more than 10,000 miles away—but bizarrely, nobody felt them…..
On the morning of November 11, just before 9:30 UT, a mysterious rumble rolled around the world.
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