Posted on 07/21/2006 10:12:59 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
An Israeli soldier maneuvers an armored personnel carrier at their position along the Israeli Lebanese border. Israel was amassing thousands more reservists on the Lebanese border to stage ground incursions aimed at destroying Hezbollah positions, warning it would not rule out a full-scale invasion despite mounting calls for a ceasefire.
DEBKAfile Exclusive:
July 22, 2006, 12:27 PM (GMT+02:00)
Our sources add Syrian fighter pilots are sitting in their cockpits.
These orders went out from Syrian president Bashar Assad July 20 when Irans Revolutionary Guards commander Brig.-Gen Yahya Rahim Safavi (picture) assumed command of the Lebanon war from Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Tehrans direct military intervention in the conflict was accompanied by an Iranian weapons airlift which began landing Wednesday, July 19, at the Abu Ad Duhur military airfield north of Homs. The deliveries include large quantities of new missiles, including the long-range Zelzal and Fajr 3 and Fajr 5 missiles, Katyusha rockets, anti-tank and anti-air missiles sent out from RG HQ in Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf.
Assad acted on the assumption that Israel, whose air force and ground forces are already hammering the cross-border supply routes north of the Litani River to block the passage of Iranian hardware to Hizballah, will soon decide to go for Iranian military operations in Damascus and Abu Ad Duhur.
Gen. Safavi has set up two forward command posts which coordinate war operations with Hizballah chief of staff Ibrahim Akil.
One center is working out of a cellar of the Iranian embassy in Beirut to regulate Hizballah rocket fire against Israel and direct the groups of 3 or 4 RG officers taking part in every Hizballah face-to-face engagement with Israeli ground troops in the south.
The second, housed in the basement of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, is in charge of communications, intelligence and getting hardware into Lebanon.
The deliveries were made to the Abu Ad Duhur airfield because it belongs to the joint Iranian-Syrian Scud missile factory which employs a large number of Iranian engineers and technicians.
DEBKAfiles military sources report that some of the Iranian arms have Hizballah in Lebanon notwithstanding intense Israeli cutoff operations and their impact will probably be palpable in the coming days.
Haarezt News Tracker
22:52 Ex-Meretz leader: Party should have led TA protest against Lebanon offensive (Itim)
22:34 UN humanitarian chief: It will take more than $100 million to help Lebanese (AP)
22:17 UN health agency raises to 600,000 estimate of Lebanese displaced (AP)
ynet
Updates
UN health agency raises to 600,000 estimate of Lebanese displaced
(22:02 , 07.22.06)
US: 7,700 Americans evacuated from Lebanon
(21:54 , 07.22.06)
MDA: latest count, 28 Israelis killed since onset of confrontation in the north
(21:25 , 07.22.06)
Ground Forces Commander: IDF completes takeover of Maroun al-Ras
(20:47 , 07.22.06)
I give up.
Not sure if I read it here or on some military board, but someone posted a few days back that Israeli soldiers had deliberately fired near a Fox news crew after they (accidentally, I assume) revealed their position on the air. Maybe that's what's behind Shempie's bitchiness.
Isn't that William Frawley?
Crap. I was trying to post a picture of Fred Mertz.
LOL But I'd much prefer a picture of Monica than Fred.
I saw the pic - Lucy and Fred. For some reason the hotlink doesn't work all the time.
That's the other reason I gave up.
IDF found stockpiles of Katyusha rockets in a mosque in Maroon Al Ras (sp).
Jennifer Griffen, FoxRox.
Irony
Jennifer Griffin says that a cache of rockets was found in a mosque in Lebanon during this latest incursion.
When Israelis dropped the 23 tons a couple of days ago, the Lebonese/Hezzies were on TV whining and complaining that "it was a mosque they destroyed!"
Looks like their cry has come back to bite them.
Shep suggested that the Israelis may have gone too far by going into the mosque.
yea, she's reading Debka. 1st the thing with the Syrian pilots now the Iranian control of Hizbullah, right out of the Debka article. Not saying this isn't true, but Debka is the only one reporting this
Wow, hotter n' hot!
So, the earlier reports of the cease fire were incorrect.
[We have to remember that the Islamo's typically call for cease fires -- to give them a breather to restock arms and munitions.]
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