Russian troops for Tartus. US forces ready to go
DEBKAfile Special Report June 15, 2012, 7:39 PM
A contingent of Russian special forces is on its way to Syria to guard the Russian navy’s deep-water port at the Syria’s Mediterranean coastal town of Tartus, Pentagon officials informed US NBC TV Friday, June 15. They are coming by ship. According to DEBKAfile’s sources, the contingent is made up of naval marines and is due to land in Syria in the coming hours.
In a separate and earlier announcement, US Defense Department sources in Washington reported that the US military had completed its own planning for a variety of US operations against Syria, or for assisting neighboring countries in the event action was ordered – a reference, according to our sources, to Turkey, Jordan and Israel.
The Syrian civil war is now moving into a new phase of major power military intervention, say DEBKAfile’s military sources. Moscow, by sending troops to Syria without UN Security Council approval, has set up a precedent for the United States, the European Union and Arab governments to follow. They all held back from sending troops to Syria because all motions to apply force for halting the bloodshed in Syria was blocked in the UN body.
According to US military sources, in recent weeks, the Pentagon has finalized its assessment of what types of units would be needed and how many troops. The military planning includes a scenario for a no-fly zone as well as protecting chemical and biological sites. The U.S. Navy is maintaining a presence of three surface combatants and a submarine in the eastern Mediterranean to conduct electronic surveillance and reconnaissance on the Syrian regime, a senior Pentagon official said.
Amen, and Amen@ Laura:
If the US indeed has a working understanding with Russia regarding military moves against the Assad regime in Syria, and with a goal of breaking up that state into separate ethnic and religious autonomous zones in an overall loose federation, then I was wrong in my earlier comment on this thread, and I stand corrected.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ Laura:
Except for one thing, the WMD’s. They must be secured at all costs.
Laura is correct about staying out of the way of the Syrian civil war. However, Israel should give the Kurds some support, including military equipment, for their battle to pull loose the Kurdish provinces of far northeastern Syria. We should want an independent Kurdistan and we should want them to be long-term allies with Israel.
But in the Mediterranean coast area of Syria, Israel should make no threatening moves in the neighborhood of the Russian marine force that apparently is landing in the deep water port of Tartus. Nor should Israel play pats-paw for Obama in anything the US Defense Department finally gets into its collective mind to try doing in Syria. With a Russian armed force already on the scene, the US would be well advised to stay elsewhere. Starting all but useless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is one thing. Militarily challenging another super-power is something else.
As for the UNO, the EC, NATO, and all the rest of that rabble, ignore them.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
We should follow Daniel Pipes advice and Stay out of the Syrian mess. When muslims are warring against each other, we should count our blessings and stay the hell out of the way.
This is the perfect time, with Syria engulfed in civil war, to strike Iran. Israel could then flatten Lebanon and exterminate the sub-human scum of Hezbollah without Assad being able to help them.
Israel can then push the Shiites from south of the Litani out and then annex the territory.
So, will WW3 start in Syria, not in Israel??? Who’d have thunk it?