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Israeli rockets strike Damascus military site - reports (Videos)
RT News ^ | Published time: May 05, 2013 00:02 | Staff

Posted on 05/04/2013 8:37:07 PM PDT by silentknight

Edited on 05/04/2013 9:50:12 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]

Israeli rockets strike Damascus military site - reports

Strong blasts hit the outskirts of the Syrian capital early on Sunday, state TV reports, saying that Israeli rockets have targeted a military research center.

Massive explosions have been heard near Mount Qasioun in Damascus. The area hosts the Jamraya military research center, which came under Israeli attack earlier in January and marked the first incursion by Israel into Syrian airspace in six years.

A senior US official confirmed to NBC News that Israeli Air Force bombed the military research center.

RT has managed to speak to local journalist Abdallah Mawazini, for a report on the latest developments. Apart from the 300 soldiers who are said to have died and hundreds wounded, he reported the following:

When the explosion happened in Damascus, all the houses were shaken. There was dust everywhere. Right now we’re receiving more information about the attack, which targeted the Jamraya military research center. Everyone woke up, most of the people ran downstairs – to make sure they are safe. Now we are getting more information. The sound of the explosion was heard everywhere in Damascus. People are scared.”

During the attack, one Israeli jet was reportedly shot down by Syria's Air Force, according to Hezbollah's Manar TV channel, citing security sources in Damascus.

"The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army," Syrian television said.

There has been no immediate comment from Israel. "We don't respond to this kind of report," an Israeli military spokeswoman told Reuters.

US President Barack Obama said that he will let the “Israeli government confirm or deny whatever strikes they have taken,” RT’s Paula Slier quotes him.

Video footage uploaded onto the Internet showed a massive ball of fire rising into the sky. RT could not immediately verify the authenticity of the videos.

The Israeli Air Force conducted an airstrike on Syrian territory on Friday, reportedly targeting a shipment of advanced missiles. Unnamed US officials claimed that the missiles had been en-route from Iran to Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Among the varying descriptions of the actual rockets, Fateh 110s have come up, which are advanced enough to strike Tel Aviv from southern Lebanon and, therefore perceived as a threat by Israel.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon earlier told journalists that any alleged delivery of Syrian weapons to Hezbollah would be considered a "red line." Ya'alon then said Israel would not permit "sophisticated weapons" to fall into the hands of "Hezbollah or other rogue elements."

US President Barack Obama has also said in the past that the crossing of a ‘red line’ would warrant further action from outside. This was in relation to the possibility that Assad forces may have used chemical weapons against Syrians – a claim that is still being investigated, with no evidence so far.

Nonetheless, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced on Thursday that the US may now consider arming the Syrian opposition – something the US has shied away from openly doing in the two years since the start of the Syrian uprising.

Asked directly if the administration was reconsidering its position on that option, Hagel said "yes". "Arming the rebels — that's an option," he said. "We must continue to look at options."

The conflict in Syria has entered its third year. According to UN estimates, at least 70,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011.



TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events; Russia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: boom; israel; israelsyria; russia; syria; syriaisrael; war; waronterror
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To: silentknight
Video here......

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/05/20135502043908700.html

"Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be on their way to Lebanon's Hezbollah group, officials and activists said.

Syria's state media on Sunday reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific research centre near the Syrian capital and caused casualties.

The attack, the second in three days, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's civil war.

"The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army," Syrian television said, referring to recent offensives by the forces of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, against the armed opposition.

A Western intelligence source confirmed the attack to The Associated Press, saying the target of Sunday's strike was a shiptment of advanced guided Iranian-made missiles, believed to be on their way to Lebanon's group Hezbollah.

Video footage uploaded onto the internet by activists showed a huge ball of fire rising into the night sky.

Later on Sunday, the Syrian government condemned the airstrikes, saying the attacks aim "to give direct military support to terrorist groups" fighting the government.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry also said in a letter sent to the United Nations and the UN Security Council that the "Israeli aggression" killed and wounded several people and "cause widespread distruction".

'Felt like an earthquake'

A Damascus resident described the blasts to Al Jazeera, saying they felt like "an earthquake" and "unprecedented".

Fawaz Gerges, political analyst, discusses the potential fall out following the Israeli airstrikes on Syria A senior Israeli source told AFP that Israel had carried out the airstrike, which they said struck near Damascus airport.

"The attack was very close to hte airport, the target was Iranian missiles which were destined for Hezbollah," he told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The US State Department had no immediate comment and the Israeli embassy in Washington declined comment.

The Syrian state media claims, reported by the Reuters news agency, come after Israel confirmed that its air force hit a shipment of missiles in Syria bound for Hezbollah.

Israel has repeatedly said that it is prepared to resort to force to prevent Syrian weapons, including chemical weapons, from reaching Hezbollah or groups.

Syria's rebel Free Syrian Army reacted cautiously on Sunday to the Israeli air strikes, saying their country was already under attack daily by regime war planes.

"Of course the Free Syrian Army and any Syrian is bothered that their country is being bombed, but Syria is being bombed every day by (President) Bashar al-Assad, and by Israel," FSA media and political coordinator Louay Meqdad told.

He spoke after Syrian state media reported that Israeli rockets struck a military facility outside the capital Damascus overnight, the second reported attack by the Jewish state inside Syria this week.

"We wonder why there are so many missiles and military installations around Damascus when they should be close to the ceasefire line with Israel on the Golan Heights," he added.

"For us, the operations that we carry out every day are not related to Israeli attacks or anything else, and we will continue to fight until the fall of Assad," he said.

The US president, Barack Obama, said on Saturday, before the latest incident, that it was up to Israel to confirm or deny any strikes, but that the US coordinated very closely with Israel.

"The Israelis, justifiably, have to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah," Obama told the Spanish-language TV station Telemundo.

41 posted on 05/05/2013 6:11:52 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 .....History is a process, not an event)
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To: gunsequalfreedom; Newfy
How many times since that was written has Damascus been destroyed to the point it ceased to be a city?

How many times since that was written has The U.S. been destroyed to the point it ceased to be a nation?

42 posted on 05/05/2013 6:11:59 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (The monsters are due on Maple Street)
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To: 21twelve

You are introducing prophacy that is not really relevant to the present except for place names


43 posted on 05/05/2013 6:17:21 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 .....History is a process, not an event)
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To: robowombat

Your inexplicable glee makes it seem like you are a Sunni Muslim. What in the world makes you think that Sunni Muslims will be friends to Israel? When the Sunnis are done with the Shiites and they will be very soon they would have consolidated power and you will have a billion Sunnis who are by far less tolerant than Shiites. You have to understand something that is the basis of why terrorism is happening, and that is te SUNNI concept of takferi, where they believe that others who do not believe in the same things they do deserve to die, this includes other Muslims. This is the base belief of wahabism salafism and the Muslim brotherhood that you seem to have a Hard on for. The Israelis thankfully aren’t as retarded as you are, which is the reason they are only doing precision strikes against a few facilities to disable some weapons capabilities that may be used against them. There is no such thing as a “last ditch effort” to declare war on Israel, there is absolutely nothing to gain from declaring war on Israel, they have kept the status quo as nations for quite a long time and didnt even have protracted fights during the Lebanese civil war when they were both in the area together. For some reason there will always be a few ignorant people who believe a secular government in the Middle East is inferior to an Islamic regime. I’ve seen people here cheer for saddam’s demise and I’ve seen people cheer for mubaraks Demise and I hear people cheer for bashars demise. I have yet to hear people have proper discussions on how we should be facing a real and credible Sunni Muslim threat.
Actually I guarantee you that 99% of the people even on this site don’t Ben understand their own enemy, just the garbage that an opinionated news anchor spews.
As I said, thankfully the Israelis aren’t as retarded as some people here, because if they wanted bashar gone he would be gone. They are wary of the Muslim brotherhood threat and that is why they aren’t taking decisive actions.
I can’t in a million years fathom how people here actually think it’s a good thing to have Israel surrounded by Sunni extremist nations. When Syria falls then Lebanon will come next ad I have personally seen the foreign Sunni extremists piling into Lebanon and they are relishing a war with Hezbollah. Good as that may sound the Christians in the region will suffer and the Sunnis will win again because we are rigging the game. When they do and Iran is isolated, they will ignore the Shiites and have only one more issue to deal with.
Anyone in an internal power struggle will always consolidate his power before he goes after his enemy. This is what the Sunni Shiite struggle is now, simply an internal power struggle. I would rather make an ally of 100 million Shiites and fight 1.5 billion Sunnis than completely hand over more power to the Sunnis. Sad thing is that I truly believe from my experiences in life and especially my deep experience in the Middle East, that Muslims will eventually overcome the rest of the world. There is no way to win unless you neuter them. They are playing the long game, and at the current rate with all our superior texhnogy and military we are still losing ground. We have even elected a self confessed Muslim and people still think we are going to overcome this enemy. I talk with alot of middle eastern Christians and they all think of us as naive idiots whose children will learn the lesson about Islam the hard way.
For fucking once I would love to see some fucking backbone and balls to point the finger at Saudi Arabia and Qatar and Pakistan who actively finance terrorism that is killing Americans. When are we going to stop focusing on this one stupid country that talks a big game and start focusing on the allies that are actively trying to change our society and subjugate us and convert our children into their disgusting religion and political system. Literally our biggest ally is the fucking devil. Sorry for the block of text and the rant and the language. I’m done, I’m sick of this bullshit. I’m actually cheering for bashar and his CHRISTIAN syrian supporters to kill as many Sunni terrorists as he possibly can, chemical weapons included and I pray for the safety of Christians in the Middle East. We have been acting against their interests in every single conflict that it just makes me laugh when I hear people say we are a christian nation, we used to be, and unfortunately we have become too lazy and scared to change the fact that we aren’t anymore.


44 posted on 05/05/2013 6:29:24 AM PDT by hannibaal
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To: gleeaikin

Thanks for the ping gleeaikin.


45 posted on 05/05/2013 6:39:13 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
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To: bert; ROCKLOBSTER; BenLurkin

Re “...prophacy that is not really relevant to the present...”

Well, it might not be... but if you were at all familiar with Bible prophecy in the context of recent history and current events, then you might find it to be one really interesting, if not astounding coincidence.

Prophecy was often fulfilled more than once - the first time was a preview or “shadow picture” of a future and sometimes greater fulfillment, sometimes thousands of years down the pike.

Rabbi Jonathan CAHN describes just such an echo of prophecy in his best selling semi-fiction novel “The Harbinger”:

Interview with Cahn:

http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/harbinger-author-says-almighty-warning-u-s/?cat_orig=politics


46 posted on 05/05/2013 6:43:11 AM PDT by George Varnum (Liberty, like our Forefather's Flintlock Musket, must be kept clean, oiled, and READY!)
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To: hannibaal

I see exactly like you do, no good choices here, no good guys to root for.


47 posted on 05/05/2013 6:56:28 AM PDT by jpsb
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To: silentknight

“Syrian TV says that Syria will respond at the time and place of their choosing”

Yeah, that would be called half-past never.


48 posted on 05/05/2013 7:02:00 AM PDT by VanDeKoik
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To: hannibaal

Truth


49 posted on 05/05/2013 7:11:53 AM PDT by winodog
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To: UCANSEE2

Can’t vouch for “factual” but for starters there’s this in the WAPO:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-launches-second-airstrike-in-syria-targeting-weapons-shipment/2013/05/04/cdccddc0-b4c4-11e2-9fb1-62de9581c946_story.html

Other alternative sources FWIW:

http://www.inthedays.com/syria-and-damascus/israeli-planes-hit-targets-in-syria-say-us-officials/

Rabbi Yosef: We ‘Returned the Deposit’ to Deri

Inside Israel 6:36 AM

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/167708

Report: Iran Sent Advanced Missiles to Hizbullah
Middle East 9:48 PM 5/4/2013

The weapons bound for Hizbullah that were destroyed in an Israeli airstrike were reportedly sent by Iran.
Report: Israel Bombed ‘Game-Changing’ Weapons Going to Hizbullah:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/167700

Arutz Sheva seems to be as up on it as anyone.

KOENIG has some good stuff up at the moment:
http://www.watch.org/

http://www.watch.org/linkstat.php3?idx=162250

It’s out there, but we have to look for it.

You are right however, in that for even more or less credible and timely news reporting we have to look outside of our own borders, by and large.


50 posted on 05/05/2013 7:21:39 AM PDT by George Varnum (Liberty, like our Forefather's Flintlock Musket, must be kept clean, oiled, and READY!)
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To: George Varnum

Thank you for posting those links, which should be a valuable resource to everyone reading this thread.


51 posted on 05/05/2013 7:32:02 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (The monsters are due on Maple Street)
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To: hannibaal

Our nation has witnessed our _residents bow to and kiss saudi royals in loyal support. Our nation has witnessed preferential treatment of saudis by allowing them into our nation to be spies (yes I said spies) to scout for methods to kill Americans (yes I said kill Americans). I would type a point but I believe a point is obvious, and thank you for your post.


52 posted on 05/05/2013 7:50:51 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
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To: George Varnum

Wow http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/live-blog-israel-launches-second-syria-strike-in-two-days-sources-say-1.519250


53 posted on 05/05/2013 7:50:55 AM PDT by silentknight
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To: UCANSEE2

Looks like Reuters picked it up too:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/05/us-syria-crisis-blasts-idUSBRE94400020130505


54 posted on 05/05/2013 7:55:52 AM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: hannibaal
Of course no Muslim is the friend of Israel. The US is playing with dynamite in trying to bring off a de facto restoration of the Caliphate. This is probably dumber than the Bush administration's attempt to grow western style democracy in Arab or worse Pushtun Afghanistan. The Arabs and Arabized Muslims want their crazy reactionary religious totalitarian lifestyle and they want to force it on the rest of us if they can.The Arabists in the DOS are and always have been pro-Sunni. What is likely to happen is that Iraq and Syria will be in chaos for years. The Iranians will have nuclear weapons. Egypt and Turkey will get some sort of nuclear capability and the Saudis will buy or rent them from Pakistan. The result will not be ‘calm’ as O and Brennan think and surely no ‘comprehensive peace’ with Israel. There is a real possibility that sometime in the future the people you accurately analyze will attempt to destroy Israel by smothering it with 10 to20 nuclear devices. Aerabs I have spoken to don't think Iran can carry it off. They figure Israel can absorb one or two small nukes and in turn will utterly destroy the Iranians. Israel will be severely hurt but between the US military support and massive injections of dollars and aid from world Jewry Israel would recover in a fairly short time. No, they reason, sometime in the future Israel has to be destroyed with a barrage of nukes. Of course the Israelis will exact a huge revenge destroying Cairo, Alexandria, Damascus, Baghdad and Riyadh and maybe Mecca. Arabs are fatalists and their approach is ‘its the will of Allah’ if this happens. Those who launch this attack will of course be under a couple hundred feet of concrete. The US may get pulled in to try and sort out the wreckage. That would be a true war from hell.

You are correct in your analysis of the ends and goals of the Saudi Sunni's. My comments were simply how i am sure those fellows feel about the Jews being helpful in squashing heretical Muslims. The Saudis are nothing if not more Machiavellian than old Nick ever was. Treachery is the Arabs true birth name and ever will be.
For myself I wish we could be detached from the pleasures of dealing with these folks and if we had any relations it would be limited to Israel. Because there are so many Americans who are on the Saudi payroll and they have penetrated the US political culture to such an extent this will never happen. Besides the Europeans and japan are deeply dependent on Middle Eastern oil to run their economies so the US is tied in with trying to keep the global economy from tanking due to ‘oil shocks’.
Unfortunately the profoundly irrational nature of the Arab east makes the exercise of normal statecraft a sort of meaningless charade.
In passing, Christian minorities in Syria and now Lebanon are just screwed. If American churches were really Christian they would encourage with dollars and physical help for these people to leave and move to the US and Canada and Australia to at least balance the arrival of all the Muslims those countries are inviting.
Finally, the tenor of my remarks was based on my general position that bombing Arabs is always to be approved off. Like Ms. Glick my policy towards Muslims with WMD’s is simple, “Bombs Away”.

55 posted on 05/05/2013 8:07:12 AM PDT by robowombat
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To: silentknight
world war 3 starting now?
56 posted on 05/05/2013 8:59:32 AM PDT by Drawn7979
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To: Drawn7979
world war 3 starting now?

Good thing we are gutting our own military.

57 posted on 05/05/2013 9:27:33 AM PDT by SkyPilot
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To: silentknight

That big fireball was a secondary explosion, I’m thinkin’


58 posted on 05/05/2013 10:06:15 AM PDT by GeorgeWashingtonsGhost
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To: hannibaal

yup!! right on

however at some point in time Christ will return and islam will be no more


59 posted on 05/05/2013 10:15:57 AM PDT by 99Floyd (I hate zero and all his zombies)
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To: gunsequalfreedom

“How many times since that was written has Damascus been destroyed to the point it ceased to be a city?”

Damascus has been continuously inhabited for at least 5,000 years, giving huge significance to Isaiah’s prophecy.


60 posted on 05/05/2013 10:32:39 AM PDT by Amish with an attitude
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