Syria crisis: warplanes spotted in Cyprus as tensions rise in Damascus

Guardian ^ | 8/26/2013 | Martin Chulov in Beirut, Mona Mahmood and Julian Borger

[mojito]

Warplanes and military transporters have begun arriving at Britain's Akrotiri airbase on Cyprus, less than 100 miles from the Syrian coast, in a sign of increasing preparations for a military strike against the Assad regime in Syria.

Two commercial pilots who regularly fly from Larnaca on Monday told the Guardian that they had seen C-130 transport planes from their cockpit windows as well as small formations of fighter jets on their radar screens, which they believe had flown from Europe.

Residents near the British airfield, a sovereign base since 1960, also say activity there has been much higher than normal over the past 48 hours.

If an order to attack targets in Syria is given, Cyprus is likely to be a hub of the air campaign.

[Bon mots]

If it's started, the Turks and friendly Arabs need to do the boots on the ground piece.

Why not Malia and Sasha Obama along with the sons and daughters of Democrat politicians who are itching to launch WWIII for the Muslim Brotherhood?

The children of the politicians who wish to jump into the fray should be the first boots on the ground. Not our children.

[Sacajaweau]

Let’s be real...They don’t have to beef up their position. They live next door.

[VerySadAmerican]

B-2s out of Missouri will be used. But what are the C-130s doing there? Transporting troops or missiles or both?

[cookcounty]

"Resources are moving into the area."

...because there aren't resources already there. Remember when the 6th fleet was in the Med? It wasn't there when Benghazi kicked up, and it isn't there now.

.....what happened?

[cookcounty]

I would expect a knock-out of Air Defense systems plus a sea blockade, ....and possibly a no-fly zone.

Anything more than that is really nutzo.

[cookcounty]

"Pooty-Poot has some serious assets in Syria, and they’re not going to just stand by and watch their Syrian ally take the hits. "

Yeah, the Russian card here is something to worry about, and Putin seems psychologically inclined to enjoy taking things right to the edge......if not over the edge.

[unread]

Wow...I'll bet the muslim brotherhood is in big trouble now..!! er....what..???

[sunrise_sunset]

Russia’s best air defense systems aren’t in Syria.

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

Let's see. No fly zone, sea blockade of a coastline with a Russian base, Russian fleet not too far away (Black Sea), American fleets near by (6th Fleet - Med Sea, 7th fleet - Gulf)...

... "Where were you in '62?" (and I don't mean American Grafitti... )

... sounds like a potential 1962 Crisis... What could ever go wrong?

[Grampa Dave]

"Where were you in '62?" (and I don't mean American Grafitti... )

... sounds like a potential 1962 Crisis... What could ever go wrong?

AMAZING how quiet the Anti-War liberal left is on yet another pending undeclared war by the Peace Prize President Obama, isn't it??

LBJ went from being a so called great president with the liberals with his war on poverty, which is still being lost, to one of the worse presidents ever after he deepened the Nam War.

Now, Obozoliar appears to be following in the footsteps of LBJ with his lies about Assad and Syria, while covering for the Muslim Brotherhood Thugs and al Queda in Syria.

[Tommyjo]

The C-130s are the support for the RAF Typhoons and Hawks. The Hawk training jets are used for dissimilar air combat to teach the new students on the training Eurofighter Typhoon Squadron. The Guardian story is simply a journalist scooping up info from commercial pilots without checking. The 29 Squadron Operation Conversion Unit deployment is a regular occurrence as is their support aircraft such as Hawks and C-130s.

[Tommyjo]

Russia doesn’t have serious assets in Syria. They currently have a Floating Workshop Amur Class PM-138 in Tartus to support naval detachments now and again. It is simply a myth that Russia has serious or substantial military assets in Syria. The naval base Tartus is manned by civilians. See following.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20130627/181909679.html

[cardinal4]

A Nobel for Treason. I don’t even know what to say about that..
*shakes head*

[mulder1]

The Russians sill have a sizeable diesel electric & nuclear sub capability after several years of upgrades from the profits they gained from the sale of oil at high prices.

[noiseman]

"Any other time I would suggest we tell Putin to GFH, now I don't know what to think."

I know what you mean. As weird as it feels, I have found myself agreeing with Putin on a number of occasions lately. The Russians certainly seem to have a better understanding of the Islamic terrorist threat, unfettered by political correctness, than we do these days. They don't wring their hands and fret, they just eliminate the enemy. Of course, in Syria their motives may be more about preserving their client state than anything else.

Assad is certainly a bad guy, but the Islamist radicals who are fighting him are arguably worse. There seems to be no good option between the two, but arming and supporting what amounts to Al Qaeda in Syria is probably not the best idea.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Have you seen this?

#BreakingNews #Russia|n embassy is reportedly being under mortar attack in #Damascus #Syria!

https://twitter.com/RamiAlLolah/status/372117448478044160

[Palio di Siena]

I am not well versed in weapons systems like many here, however I think a strong possibility exists that we or our allies could lose ships this time.
Obama can’t be serious, hopefully Putin backs his pussy ass down before thousands die and billions of dollars are wasted.

[dfwgator]

Any other time I would suggest we tell Putin to GFH, now I don't know what to think.

Especially since Putin is on the right side of this.....If Assad is replaced, whatever follows will only be worse.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Currently the only Russian ship at their base in Tartus, Syria is the Amur-class floating workshop (similar to a US Navy destroyer tender) PM-138, which is stationed there to support the ships currently assigned to the Med.

Right now there are two destroyers, three medium-sized amphibs, seven support ships, and an unknown number of submarines operating in the area. If things start to get really troublesome, they might deploy their Black Sea Fleet, which has two cruisers, one destroyer, two frigates, and thirteen corvettes. A number of these ships are armed with the SS-N-22 Sunburn ramjet anti-ship missile. A wave-hugger with a speed in excess of Mach-3, this missile was designed to cripple US carriers and kill just about anything else.

The aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetzov and its escorts are scheduled to return to the Med before the end of the year.

[MestaMachine]

No, I hadn’t. Thank you.