; "Al Qaeda gunmen march into Syria")
After 48 hours in Jerusalem and Ramallah, trying to talk Israeli and Palestinian leaders into returning to peace diplomacy, US Secretary of State John Kerry’s exit line, May 24, called for “hard decisions.” debkafile: As he spoke, two rival terrorist groups, Al Qaeda and Hizballah, continued pouring fighting strength into Syria – both of them, enemies of Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. Israel’s leaders would be wise to ignore Kerry’s message and focus their “hard decisions” on warding of the perils looming from Syria.
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; "One of the Woolwich terrorists after murdering British soldier")
May 23, 2013, 6:57 PM (IDT)
The two Islamist terrorists who hacked a British soldier to death on a London street Wednesday, May 22, chanting Allahu Akbar, were born in Britain of Nigerian descent and known to British security authorities. Motivated by revenge for Moslem deaths in Afghanistan, they selected as their victim a soldier from the Woolwich barracks who had served there. One terrorist was identified as Michael Adebolajo, 28, a convert to Islam and self-appointed Muslim street preacher from a stand near the barracks and the site of the murder.
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Some Israeli defense strategists still refuse to admit that Bashar Assad, Hassan Nasrallah and Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei are pulling ahead in the Syrian war - contrary to their hopes that defeat would snap their bonds.
This uncertain assessment gives Assad and Nasrallah the gift of the initiative at war.
Tuesday, May 21, after an exchange of fire on the Golan, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said: “Last night we destroyed a Syrian army position which fired on an Israeli patrol.” Damascus earlier took responsibility for the attack and threatened to strike back for Israeli reprisals.
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Shortly after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pledged Sunday, May 19, to maintain Israeli operations in Syria against advanced Iranian weapons for the Lebanese Hizballah, Syrian troops and their Hizballah comrades captured Al-Qasayr, gaining command of the high road to Lebanon’s Hermel Mountains.
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The Syrian war is set for its next stage, the spillover of hostilities from Syrian Golan into Israel. debkafile: This is the consequence ... More>
Apr 24, 2013, 8:53 PM (IDT)
Tamerlan Tsarnaev established links with al Qaeda’s Caucasian networks for terrorist attacks in America, starting with the Boston bombings. In 2011, Russian intelligence notified the ... More...
Feb 26, 2013, 3:42 AM (IDT)
Syrian peace talks are set to open in Moscow on March 5 between the Syrian opposition and Assad regime representatives, debkafile reveals. The ... More...
Jan 18, 2013, 7:04 PM (IDT)
Neither France nor the US has learned from the Afghanistan War that aerial warfare won’t defeat al Qaeda – certainly not when they are highly-trained ... More...
Dec 19, 2012, 11:28 AM (IDT)
debkafile Exclusive: The Russians have given Bashar Assad his most sophisticated weapon thus far – the Iskander cruise missile which has a hypersonic ... More...
Binyamin Netanyahu left his meeting with Vladimir Putin Tuesday certain that Moscow had given Assad the go-ahead for his threat to make the Syrian Golan the platform for a war of attrition against Israel with the help of Hizballah armed with advanced weapons and other proxies.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spent three hours with President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Tuesday, May, 14, trying to head off advanced Russian anti-air S-300 missile systems sales to Syria. Instead, the Russian leader issued a warning relating to Israel’s air strikes against Damascus.
Russian Navy Admiral Viktor Chirkov said Sunday, May 12, that a permanent staff of 20 officers is in place to run Russian fleet operations in the Mediterranean Sea. debkafile: Russia’s step aims at safeguarding the Assad regime and securing its Hizballah and Iranian allies. It also signals Moscow’s Middle East comeback.
The Obama administration’s slowcoach policy on Syria has given Iran and Hizballah unfettered access to intervene in the Syrian civil war, magnifying its lethality and prospects of its spilling over into Israel, Turkey and Jordan, says debkafile. It will further deteriorate when Washington’s expectations of an international conference are not recprocated by Moscow.
