Posted on 01/31/2013 7:36:50 AM PST by Former Fetus
The Syrian announcement of an Israeli air strike on a military site near Damascus Wednesday, Jan. 30, drew strong condemnation from Moscow the next day:
"Such action if confirmed would amount to unacceptable military interference in the war-ravaged country," said the statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry Thursday. "If this information is confirmed, then we are dealing with unprovoked attacks on targets on the territory of a sovereign country, which blatantly violate the UN Charter and is unacceptable, no matter the motives to justify it."
Israel has made no comment on the Damascus statement which described in detail an Israeli air strike against a "military research institute" near the capital. Witnesses say it was a plant for manufacturing "unconventional weapons." The facility was destroyed and two staff members killed.
Lebanese sources later reported a Russian Mig-31 fighter had crossed over Sinai Wednesday in the direction of Israel. It veered west over the Mediterranean after encountering an Israeli warning not to intrude into its air space and continued flying over Lebanon.
debkafile's military sources say that the only external military force in the eastern Mediterranean region is a fleet of 18 Russian warships, which includes landing-craft - among the largest in the Russian Navy - with 2,000 marines aboard.
According to various Middle East sources, the Syrian report of an Israeli air strike has touched off high military alerts across the region. Syria has put its Golan forces on the Israel border on combat readiness and the Lebanese and Jordanian armies are on alert. So too are the Russian fleet opposite Syria and the Lebanese army.
Our military sources report that Turkish units on the Syrian border are on high preparedness although Ankara played down the reports of the Israeli air strike in Syria, uncomfortable over the fact that the Israeli Air Force was the first external power to intervene directly in the Syrian conflict.
So too are the US air force units stationed at the Turkish Incerlik air base, the US special forces deployed at the Jordanian Mafraq air facility and the American, German and Dutch Patriot missile interceptors deployed in Turkey opposite Syria. Israel has been on high alert since last week.
The prevailing estimate in military and intelligence circles in Washington and NATO capitals is that the Israeli air attack on the Syrian military site near Damascus was but the opening shot for the coming round of military blows they expect to be exchanged in the near future between Israel, Syria and Hizballah, with Iran possibly waiting in the wings for a chance to pitch in.
the coming round of military blows they expect to be exchanged in the near future between Israel, Syria and Hizballah
It's starting to sound like Psalm 83 to me!
Why is it OK for Russia to be in the middle east but not Israel when they used to be the primary power in the middle east?
"Syria has threatened to retaliate for an Israeli air attack while its ally Iran says there will be repercussions for Israel over the attack.
Ali Abdul-Karim Ali, Syrian ambassador to Lebanon, said in Damascus on Thursday that Syria "has the option and the capacity to surprise in retaliation".
Ali said he could not predict when Syria would retaliate. It was up to the relevant authorities to prepare the retaliation and choose the time and place, he told Al Ahad, a website of Hezbollah, the Lebanese group is closely allied with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran.
It is unclear what the exact nature of the target of Wednesday's Israeli air raids was."
Full article and video Here
I wish Putin was our president... Oh wait, wrong thread.
That’s for all those Freepers with selective Putinphilia.
Russia better be careful with their objections since they have been supplying Israel’s enemies for years.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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This article is a pile of BS.
Mig-31 in ME? Where from?
Somewhere I’ve read that Russia still has over 250 of them. Could Russia sell some to Iran, Syria, Hezbollah... (your choice)?
Mig-31 is a poorly meneuverable Mach3 interceptor designed to counter perspective hypersonic USAF bombers (never really deployed against Soviets) or numerous cruise missiles at once. It is about to work over vast areas like Arctic or North Pacific. I think it take a few long minutes and all the Mediterranian from Turkey to Egypt just to make a turn. Not to mention it is as large as commercial airliner and has a fuel economy of space shuttle. It’s standard missile alone is as large as small conventional fighter and cost as much. It’s not belong to post-Cold War era and had be be retired along with American platforms of it’s legacy.
Neither side you mention is able to afford a thing like that (which is also pretty useless in their environment).
It would depend on the speed, wouldn’t it? It was designed to intercept other fighter planes, so it should be able to do sharp turns... it all depends on the speed. Is it the best plane Russia, Iran or Syria could get? Certainly not. Does it mean they don’t have any?...
This thing is certainly not designed to engage other fighters.
It’s primary targets are low maneuverable crafts like bombers, AWACs aircraft and cruise missiles.
In short, it is a Cold War defensive weapon specifically designed to protect USSR from hypothetical US invasion or deny USAF air superiority in Europe in case of war.
It’s single barely useful feature today is a powerful long-range radar which easily burn through countermeasures. It has a data-link suite to upload radar info to some types of post-1970s Mig and Sukhoi aircraft so it is also a high-speed, high-altitude mini-AWACs.
Being probably fastest and highest ceiling aircraft it was largely invulnerable if used properly at the time, but since USAF has tons of amraams now it may be destroyed by coordinated attack of several F-15s.
"Such action if confirmed would amount to unacceptable military interference in the war-ravaged country," said the statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry Thursday. "If this information is confirmed, then we are dealing with unprovoked attacks on targets on the territory of a sovereign country, which blatantly violate the UN Charter and is unacceptable, no matter the motives to justify it." ...Lebanese sources later reported a Russian Mig-31 fighter had crossed over Sinai Wednesday in the direction of Israel. It veered west over the Mediterranean after encountering an Israeli warning not to intrude into its air space and continued flying over Lebanon... According to various Middle East sources, the Syrian report of an Israeli air strike has touched off high military alerts across the region. Syria has put its Golan forces on the Israel border on combat readiness and the Lebanese and Jordanian armies are on alert. So too are the Russian fleet opposite Syria and the Lebanese army. Our military sources report that Turkish units on the Syrian border are on high preparedness although Ankara played down the reports of the Israeli air strike in Syria, uncomfortable over the fact that the Israeli Air Force was the first external power to intervene directly in the Syrian conflict. So too are the US air force units stationed at the Turkish Incerlik air base, the US special forces deployed at the Jordanian Mafraq air facility and the American, German and Dutch Patriot missile interceptors deployed in Turkey opposite SyriaIsrael lives there, it's the Russians who are the interlopers.
Why do we have forces in Jordan, and what is their mission?
5.56mm
I think it was late September or early October when US troops arrived to Jordan, at the request of the Jordanians, to help them develop techniques to protect civilians in case of a chemical attack from Syria. They are also supposed to be helping with the Syrian refugees.
5.56mm
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