Syrian planes 'bomb' Lebanon border area

[Le Socialiste]

Syrian warplanes have bombed the border area with Lebanon for the first time, Lebanese army officials say, reportedly targeting Syrian rebel positions inside Lebanon.

Officials on Monday said that four missiles hit the Lebanese border town of Arsal, where many residents back the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The mountainous, desert area is also ideal for the smuggling of arms and the flow of fighters across the border.

Local residents say the missiles had fallen in an agricultural area and there were no injuries in the incident.

Al-Manar television, which belongs to the Pro-Assad Lebanese Shia Hezbollah movement, reported that the warplanes had targeted two barns used by "armed men" in the Wadi al-Khayl area of Arsal.

The US State Department confirmed that Syrian government aircraft fired rockets into Lebanon.

"This constitutes a significant escalation in the violations of Lebanese sovereignty that the Syrian regime has been guilty of. These kinds of violations of sovereignty are absolutely unacceptable," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters at her daily briefing.

The latest attack comes four days after Damascus warned it may strike at Syrian rebels taking refuge across the frontier.

Lebanon has a policy of "dissociation" from the two-year civil war in Syria but officials say they feel their country is increasingly at risk of being dragged into a conflict that the UN says has killed 70,000 Syrians.

Syria's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that a "large number" of opposition fighters had crossed Lebanon's northern border into the Syrian town of Tel Kalakh last week.

"Syria expects the Lebanese side to prevent these armed terrorist groups from using the borders as a crossing point, because they target Syrian people and are violating Syrian sovereignty," it said in a message to the Lebanese government, according to state media.

It said Syria's "patience is not unlimited", even though "Syrian forces have so far exercised restraint from striking at armed gangs inside Lebanese territory."

Lebanon’s opposition largely backs the Syrian uprising, while Hezbollah and its allies stand by Assad's regime.

Syrian rebels accuse Hezbollah of dispatching fighters to battle alongside Assad's force.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/03/2013318145945245517.html

[ckaihatsu]

[EmergencyResponseforUSAttackonIranorSyria] Rick Rozoff: U.S. Drone Strikes In Syria Dangerous Escalation




In a message dated 3/18/2013 2:23:16 A.M. Central Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:

Interview: U.S. Drone Strikes In Syria Dangerous Escalation

Sun Mar 17, 2013 8:15 pm (PDT) . Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff


http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/293911.html

Press TV
March 16, 2013

US drone strikes in Syria ‘dangerous escalation’

Audio at URL above

The introduction of drone strikes by the United States inside Syria would mark a dangerous escalation in the Syrian unrest, says Rick Rozoff, manager of the Stop NATO organization.

Rozoff told the U.S. Desk that if deadly U.S drone strikes are expanded to Syria, it would be "the most disturbing manifestation of the international drone warfare policy.”

Drone attacks inside Syria would be “an act of utter provocation,” he said.

“If the U.S. directly engage in military strikes, which is what drone attacks are, means that the U.S. has openly intervened and become belligerent in the war on Syria and it could lead to an escalation of tensions not only in the region but globally.”

Rozoff said while it is difficult to ascertain exactly who will be the target of U.S. drone attacks at this point, “government targets including military units” would probably be high on the list.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is collecting information inside Syria for possible lethal drone strikes at a later stage, The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of security forces, have been killed.

The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.

Although the U.S. publicly claims that its role in Syria is merely limited to providing food and medical supplies to the anti-government militants, Croatian newspaper Jutarnji List revealed on March 7 that the U.S. has coordinated weapons shipments from Croatia to the rebels in Syria.

[ckaihatsu]

[EmergencyResponseforUSAttackonIranorSyria] Top Military Commander: NATO Ready For Libya-Style Intervention In Syria


http://www.stripes.com/news/stavridis-more-direct-engagement-by-us-could-turn-tide-in-syria-1.212471

Stars and Stripes
March 19, 2013

Stavridis: More direct engagement by US could turn tide in Syria
By John Vandiver

STUTTGART, Germany: Adm. James Stavridis, NATO’s top military commander and head of U.S. European Command, told lawmakers Monday that a more aggressive posture by the U.S. and its allies could help break a stalemate in war-torn Syria.

“My personal opinion is that would be helpful in breaking the deadlock and bringing down the regime,” Stavridis said during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

So far, the U.S. and NATO has refrained from providing lethal support to Syrian opposition forces, who have been engaged in a bloody two-year battle with the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

In response to questions from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a vocal supporter of a more aggressive policy in Syria, Stavridis said the alliance is preparing for a range of contingencies.

“We are looking at a wide range of operations and we are prepared if called upon to be engaged as we were in Libya,” Stavridis said.

Stavridis also said NATO Patriot missile batteries now deployed in Turkey as part of a plan to defend Turkish airspace could, if called upon, be capable of shooting down Syrian jets in that country’s airspace. When asked whether such a move could serve as a deterrent to Syrian attacks on rebel positions, Stavridis said: “I think whenever aircraft are shot down that is a powerful disincentive.”

In the event of the regime’s collapse, Stavridis painted a grim picture OF a post-Assad Syria, which he likened to the Balkans of the 1990s.

“There is a great deal of danger in the endgame scenario,” said Stavridis, who cautioned that competing ethnic groups could set the stage for more violence. “I think there is a great deal of potential for revenge killing.”

Stavridis, who testified alongside Gen. John Kelly of Southern Command and Army Gen. Charles H. Jacoby, Jr. of Northern Command, also spoke about the effects sequestration is having on the military mission in Europe...