FuzzyLumpkins
05-05-2013, 02:08 PM
The sudden and dramatic escalation in Israeli air strikes against suspected military targets in Syria risks turning Syria’s two-year civil war into a regional conflict. Israel as well as Syria and its allies have an apparent interest in avoiding an escalation in the short-term, but a miscalculation on either side could ramp up the fighting.
“We are coming very close to it,” says Timur Goksel, a university lecturer in Beirut who served with the United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon from 1979 to 2003. “A severe case of brinkmanship is being played at the moment.”
Syria and the Lebanon-based Shiite movement Hezbollah, which has long relied on Syria’s Assad regime to funnel weapons from Iran, appear to have been drawing into a closer alliance as the Syrian civil war intensifies. If Israel continues to launch air strikes into Syria, says Mr. Goksel, “they will have to react.… The Israelis are pushing it to the edge.”
A series of strikes on a military facility just outside Damascus last night has been widely attributed to Israel, which would make it the second Israeli attack on Syria in less than 48 hours and the third this year. Among the reported targets of the two latest attacks were consignments of Iranian Fateh-110 missiles reportedly intended for Hezbollah, which would allow the Syrian ally to launch precise attacks on Israeli targets such as Ben Gurion Airport or the defense ministry in Tel Aviv from launch pads as far north as central Lebanon.
Israel has stated that it will not allow “game-changing” weapons systems to fall into Hezbollah’s hands. But Hezbollah is believed to have acquired by 2009 a Syrian-engineered version of the Fateh-110, known as the M600. Both Syrian and Iranian versions carry a 1,100-pound warhead and have a range of some 150 miles. The M600 reportedly has a basic guidance system that allows it to strike within 500 yards of its target at maximum range, enabling more accurate strikes than Hezbollah’s other long-range missiles afford.
Read the full article (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2013/0505/Israeli-attacks-inside-Syria-risk-widening-war?nav=87-frontpage-entryLeadStory)
“We are coming very close to it,” says Timur Goksel, a university lecturer in Beirut who served with the United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon from 1979 to 2003. “A severe case of brinkmanship is being played at the moment.”
Syria and the Lebanon-based Shiite movement Hezbollah, which has long relied on Syria’s Assad regime to funnel weapons from Iran, appear to have been drawing into a closer alliance as the Syrian civil war intensifies. If Israel continues to launch air strikes into Syria, says Mr. Goksel, “they will have to react.… The Israelis are pushing it to the edge.”
A series of strikes on a military facility just outside Damascus last night has been widely attributed to Israel, which would make it the second Israeli attack on Syria in less than 48 hours and the third this year. Among the reported targets of the two latest attacks were consignments of Iranian Fateh-110 missiles reportedly intended for Hezbollah, which would allow the Syrian ally to launch precise attacks on Israeli targets such as Ben Gurion Airport or the defense ministry in Tel Aviv from launch pads as far north as central Lebanon.
Israel has stated that it will not allow “game-changing” weapons systems to fall into Hezbollah’s hands. But Hezbollah is believed to have acquired by 2009 a Syrian-engineered version of the Fateh-110, known as the M600. Both Syrian and Iranian versions carry a 1,100-pound warhead and have a range of some 150 miles. The M600 reportedly has a basic guidance system that allows it to strike within 500 yards of its target at maximum range, enabling more accurate strikes than Hezbollah’s other long-range missiles afford.
Read the full article (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2013/0505/Israeli-attacks-inside-Syria-risk-widening-war?nav=87-frontpage-entryLeadStory)