Syrian War Report – Dec. 17, 2018: Syrian Army Is Set To Respond To Any Future Israeli Attacks
The Syrian Armed Forces will respond by force to any Israeli attack on its bases as a part of new policy, which was adopted by the Syrian leadership following the incident with the Russian Il-20 plane last September, the Kuwaiti al-Ra’i newspaper reported on December 15 citing a high-ranked Syrian official.
The unnamed official clarified that “this means that a strike on an airport in Syria will be met with a strike on an airport in Israel and so on.”
According to the same report, Moscow gave Damascus a green light for such actions in response to attacks that would destroy Syrian military capabilities or kill foreign advisers supporting the Syrian Arab Army (SAA).
The source denounced Israel’s claims regarding the destruction of the Syrian missile capabilities and claimed that Damascus had received medium and long range missiles guided with the Russian satellite navigation system, GLONASS. The report says that the SAA can use these missiles to respond to Israeli attacks.
Meanwhile, media reports appeared that an Israeli military delegation, which recently visited Moscow, complained to the Russian side that Hezbollah in Syria uses Russian flags to defend its positions and military convoys from Israeli airstrikes.
The cover-up flags were supposedly seen in positions of Iran and Hezbollah in Hama, Homs, Idlib and the central desert.
A week ago, Colonel Mustafa Bakkor, a spokesman for Jaysh al-Izza, made a very similar claim. According to Bakkor’s claim, Iranian forces in northern Hama are raising Russian flags over their positions in order to “protect themselves from Israeli bombardment.”
The most interesting question is: If Israel was really able to identify these positions, and was sure that there were no Russian service members there, what difference the presence of these flags did make?
U.S. officials have warned the Free Syrian Army against participating in the upcoming Turkish military operation in northeastern Syria, the Turkish Anadolu Agency reported on December 15. In a message allegedly sent to different FSA factions and to the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, Washington vowed to strike any group that would participate in the attack and to end its relations with it.
During the last few days, opposition sources confirmed that factions of the Turkish-backed National Front for Liberation and the Syrian National Army are ready to participate in the upcoming operation with more than 15,000 fighters.
In turn, the YPG expanded its operations against Turkey-led forces in Afrin. Over the past few days, the YPG claimed that it had killed 5 Turkish soldiers with an anti-tank guided missile near the village of Kimar, blown up a vehicle of the Sultan Murad Division in the village of Qastal Miqdad, killing 2 militants and injuring 2, as well as killed 4 and injured 5 members of the Sham Legion near the villages of Dersiwan and Nebi Houri.
On December 15th, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, the YPG is their core, vowed a strong response to any Turkish attack, claiming that Turksih actions are undermining the SDF operation against ISIS in the Hajin area.
This does not look good.
This means that the option to initiate a conflict is given to Israel/US, at a time of their choosing.
Initiate, yes, but not to end.
Israeli attack is always only self-defense
Elijah Magnier explains the new rules of engagement plain and simple:
https://ejmagnier.com/2018/12/14/new-rules-of-engagement-between-syria-and-israel-as-russia-changes-its-position/
“Syria will adopt a new rule of engagement with Israel now that Russia has taken a tougher and clearer stance on the conflict between Israel and the “Axis of the Resistance”. Henceforth, Damascus will be responding to any Israeli strike. If it damages a specific military target it will reply with a strike against a similar objective in Israel. Decision makers in Damascus said “Syria will not hesitate to hit an Israeli airport if Damascus airport is targeted and hit by Israel. This will be with the consent of the Russian military based in the Levant”.”
Read Elijah Magnier’s latest article to get a clear picture
Does this mean that Syria is strong enough now to face a full blown Israeli attack, a replay of the 1973 war which resulted in the loss of the Golan Heights (if I got my timeline correct)?
If Israel decided to have its Big War, things could get out of control rapidly, and with both Russia and the US in the same space.
The rabbis and hot heads ofoutskirts of the Lamentation Walls are selfish and arrogant but not stupid enough to face Vlad putin.
With whom by the way, Bibi is talking week in and week out.
“rabbis and hot heads” might be not stupid , but they are arrogant and schizophrenics .
How else is it called if not arrogance an aggression ?! If not Russian flags , how do they dare to bomb Syrian friends , on Syrian territory , which are not even a threat to israel ? Should Syria bomb NATO forces and other terrorists that are hiding in israel and are used in killing Palestinians ,Syrians and Lebanese ?
If they attack Syria again in a full scale attack they will have a strong Hezbollah and Iran to deal with, it will lead to Israeli cities burning, see how they like that.
If Israeli cities burn then Iranian, Syrian and Lebanese cities will cease to exist via Samson
So what, its still worth it, and Russia must give Iran nuclear capability just like the US provided for Israel. And with Russia’s nice, new approach these days it is well within the bounds of possibility :-)
Maybe ( The Problem ) should think twice about doing anything to anybody….
That is pretty loud talk concerning a bunch of people propped up by derivative ponzi scheme economics and reproductive medicine technology.
Time for Golan to return to Syria, the game is up. Even UN, the fake do-gooder glorified New York casino, says Golan is Syrian land. The Anglo Zionist Empire is finished because they lost the technological battle already.
Putin’s speech on the day of Purim (!) revealed the Russian aerospace hypersonic missiles, which can never be defended against. Same with underwater guided missiles, new Sukhoi models, and intense partnerships with China, Iran, Serbia and Venezuela ensure Russia must now be considered the dominant world power.
Russia now largest food exporter and self sufficient in nearly all areas- China has a bigger economy, it is not yet self sufficent. Xi is working hard to reduce the pro western corrupt influence. No wonder Latin America and Africa voted against or abstained from the anti-Russia and anti-China votes at the UN. Sad however that so many good Slavic Europeans are happy to go down with the sinking anglo zionist ship, when the door is wide open for them to the belt and road.
And now Russia and China via sattellites have the ability to control weather in regions and disrupt all enemy radio communications.-
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/2178214/china-and-russia-band-together-controversial-heating-experiments
Syria isn’t going to directly attack Israel. That would be giving Netanyahu what he wants – an excuse to attack Syria all-out – which Syria can’t afford to risk.
As for Russia, I doubt they have given any green light for Syria to attack Israel in retaliation for any given non-all-out Israeli attack on Syria. Russia doesn’t want the conflict escalating any further than it has. They also don’t want their hard work in stabilizing Syria jeopardized by an escalation into war with Israel and potentially the US.
If Israel continues to attack Syria, or escalates those attacks to a higher degree than at present, then Russia itself may demand Israel back off. Russia is in a position to do so, as demonstrated by the reduced Israeli attacks on Syria subsequent to Russia’s providing S-300 systems to Syria. Israel can not risk war with Russia. Russia in turn does not want war with Israel as that is likely to bring in the US.
So this news is a non-starter all around. Neither Syria, nor Russia, nor Israel can afford to escalate to direct attacks on each other. The fiction that Israel is “just” attacking Iranian or Hizballah forces will likely remain in effect.
Note that I personally would love to see Russia directly engage Israeli aircraft which are involved in attacking Syria, or even to attack those aircraft while they are on Israeli airfields either before or after such attacks.
But it’s not going to happen unless Israel significantly escalates its attacks on Syria. The risk of uncontrolled escalation is too high for all parties involved.
Iranian forces in northern Hama are raising Russian flags over their positions in order to “protect themselves from Israeli bombardment.”
According to this Israeli combat aircraft are still flying over Syria and striking targets. In my estimate the Israelis have one or two more month of relative unopposed flying over Syria. Once the Syrians manning the S 300 are fully trained this might change. An Israeli or any “coalition” aircraft or missile downed can than be attributed to a Syrian defense effort. Russia can at least in public wash her hands in innocence. I am waiting for the showdown between Russian air defense and western mil. aviation. Loss of an f 15 or F 16 could be “explained” with the age of the equipment. I am talking here about the ecm stuff on board.
Bring down an F 22 or F 35 and a world collapses.
Striking an Israeli Airport will require a ‘Saturation attack’ to wear down the Israeli air defense. it will require a large number of’ targets’ to bee fed to Iron Dome and whatever defends Israeli airspace and targets. Does Syria have this amount of missiles or is the help of Hizbollah needed?
This might very fast get out of any control or containment.
Wollt Ihr den totalen Krieg?!
“it will require a large number of’ targets’ to bee fed to Iron Dome and whatever defends Israeli airspace and targets.”
LOL, the invincible iron dome hasbara. :-D
Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ air defence is a failure, Russia’s systems actually work – here’s why
https://en.muraselon.com/2018/11/israel-iron-dome-russia-gaza/
“During the latest round of clashes in Gaza, the Israeli ‘Iron Dome’ air defence system (used for repelling local rocket and mortar attacks) managed to intercept less than 25 percent of the missiles fired into Israel by Palestinian armed groups.
This was despite the fact that the Palestinian rockets were entirely primitive by modern standards of weapon design – traveling relatively slow and on a very predictable course, not maneuvering defensively and with no countermeasure electronics to jam intercepting projectiles.
According to Theodore Postol, a now retired but highly regarded professor on science, technology, and international security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a key failure of the ‘Iron Dome’ system is that its intercepting missiles attempt to catch the incoming Palestinian rockets from the rear – by comparison, the more modern Pantsir-S system made by Russia is programmed for front-on and side-on interception of an incoming projectile.
Citing a study of the 2012 Gaza-Israeli clash, Postol points out conclusions made by the report that Iron Dome achieved an interception rate of less than 5 percent; when Palestinian rocket attacks were again mass-fired into Israel in 2014, post-attack reports on Iron Dome performance suggested very little improvement in the system.
In contrast to this, Syrian air defences confronted a joint American-British-French cruise missile attack in April this year and succeeded in intercepting 71 of the 103 missiles – all of which were sophisticated guided missile types designed to fly low, regularly change course and were aided by a barrage of radar countermeasure jamming from various sources.”
Like everything israeli, 95% horse manure with 5% actual substance.
Russian Aviation in Syria Carried Out Up to 100 Sorties Per Day – Minister
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201812171070747802-hmeymim-syria-russian-military/
“Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov said Monday that Russian military aircraft and helicopters managed to carry out up to 100 sorties per day from the Hmeymim air base in Syria due to efficient functioning of the engineering services.
“Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), Russian Helicopters, Tactical Missiles Corporation (KTRV) and other organizations of the military industrial complex contributed to the establishment of the engineering and technical platform designed to ensure functionality of aircraft at the Hmyimim air base. A well-coordinated work of our professionals provided a high level of intensity of the military activity that reached up to 100 sorties per day,” Borisov told reporters.
“The achieved reliability indicators… of the new Su-35 and Su-30SM aircraft in intensive combat operation were three-four times higher than the standard,” the official said after his visit to Syria.
Borisov added that the Iskander-M missile system as well as the Tornado-G and Smerch rocket launchers had also proved its effectiveness in combat in Syria.”
Russian Air Force decreases military flights over Syria by 96 percent
https://mobile.almasdarnews.com/article/russian-air-force-decreases-military-flights-over-syria-by-96-percent/
“According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, their air force has gone from conducting 100 military flights a day over Syria to just four per day.
The reason for this significant decrease in flights has been due to the Syrian government’s success on the battlefield, which has seen them retake most of the country from the rebel and Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS/Daesh) forces.
Furthermore, the Sochi agreement that was established on September 17th has allowed the Russian military concentrate on reconciliation efforts, rather than any ground operation against the jihadist groups in the Idlib, Latakia, and Hama provinces.
With the war for the Syrian government winding down, the Russian Air Force’s need to conduct military flights in Syria should also shrink in 2019.”
You lost, israel.
New map shows Turkish military’s upcoming attack points in Syria
https://mobile.almasdarnews.com/article/new-map-shows-turkish-militarys-upcoming-attack-points-in-syria/
“A new map released by Hezbollah’s media wing showed the potential Turkish military attack points east of the Euphrates.
As shown in the map above, the Turkish military will focus on four border towns that are currently under the control of the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Syrian Democratic Forces.
The four towns highlighted in the map are the following (from west to east):
Kobane (read as ‘Ayn Al-‘Arab)
Tal Al-Abyad
Salouk
Ras Al-‘Ayn
The Turkish military has been conducting several reconnaissance flights over these towns as of recent, prompting many to suspect these to be their targets.”
US Military Preparing for Full Withdrawal From Northeastern Syria – Reports
https://sputniknews.com/us/201812191070826973-us-military-syria/
“The US military is preparing to withdraw all of its forces from northeastern Syria, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
People familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that US officials have started telling partners in northeastern Syria about the plans to immediately pull all American forces out of the area.
The comment comes after Department of Defence spokesperson Col. Rob Manning said last week that the US has finalised the establishment of observation posts in northeast Syria and will be coordinating with Turkey its security efforts in the border region.
The US-led coalition and its majority-Kurd Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) allies have ramped up a campaign against the remnants of Daesh* holed up in several towns east of the Euphrates River.
The Syrian government has repeatedly accused the coalition of using white phosphorus and cluster bombs in the region, and of causing heavy civilian casualties in built-up areas. The coalition has confirmed carrying out a heavy campaign of airstrikes in the area, including in the city of Hajin, but has denied that the strikes are causing mass civilian casualties, and adamantly denied using banned white phosphorus and cluster munitions.
Since early November, Sputnik has reported on the deaths of nearly 200 civilians in coalition strikes in Hajin and al-Shaafa.”
I think the u.s. withdrawal talked about here is from the border region with turkey. Given the source (wsj) I’m waiting for a credible source and a better explanation.
See also:
Trump says ‘we have defeated ISIS’ amid reports of US withdrawal from Syria
https://www.rt.com/usa/446863-complete-military-withdrawal-syria/
“The schedule, as well as the details of the alleged withdrawal, are yet unknown. While the Pentagon and the White House did not issue any official statements on the issue,”
And:
Israel to Continue Combating Iran in Syria if US Forces Leave – Ambassador to UN
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201812191070829828-israel-against-iran-in-syria/
“Israel will continue fighting Iranian troops in Syria even if the United States withdraws its forces from the country, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said in a press briefing on Wednesday.”
War for Syria – Christoph Hörstel to situation calendar week 50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HcpPEqBc0Y
You can change the subtitles to English
Israel to Continue Combating Iran in Syria if US Forces Leave – Ambassador to UN
The statement comes after US President Donald Trump said in a Twitter post that the US has
defeated the Daesh* terrorist group in Syria adding that this was the only reason for Trump to
be in the Middle Eastern country during his presidency.
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201812191070829828-israel-against-iran-in-syria/
RAW: Putin checks out weaponry seized from Syrian militants
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK-fiwNtFhU