Posted on 06/02/2013 12:59:11 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
RAMTHA, Jordan — Sophisticated technology from Russia and Iran has given Syrian government troops new advantages in tracking and destroying their foes, helping them solidify battlefield gains against rebels, according to Middle Eastern intelligence officials and analysts.
The technology includes increased numbers of Iranian-made surveillance drones and, in some areas, anti-mortar systems similar to those used by U.S. forces to trace the source of mortar fire, the officials and experts said. Syrian military units also are making greater use of monitoring equipment to gather intelligence about rebel positions and jamming devices to block rebel communications, they said.
At the same time, Syrian military leaders are adopting new tactics that some experts also attribute to foreign advisers and training.
“We’re seeing a turning point in the past couple of months, and it has a lot to do with the quality and type of weapons and other systems coming from Iran and Russia,” said a Middle Eastern intelligence official whose government closely monitors the fighting. The official, who spoke on the condition that his name and nationality be withheld in discussing sensitive intelligence, said the new gear is cementing an advantage gained by Syrian forces with the arrival of hundreds of Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon in recent weeks. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“We’re seeing many things we haven’t seen before,” said Brig. Gen. Hussein al-Zyoud, commander of Jordanian border security forces. “We’ve seen new kinds of armored vehicles, and other vehicles used for jamming communications. We’re seeing night-vision and thermal devices that we haven’t seen in the past.”
The new hardware has added to a sense of momentum that pro-government forces have been enjoying since mid-spring.
“Thanks for doing nothing Mr. President, at least 80,000 dead there and all you can do is draw the 24th line in the sand saying, “I mean it”.”
The anti-Assad side is philosophically Hamas. Hamas wants to destroy Israel and all of the West. We should arm and train them? The rebels have openly expressed the need for ethnic cleansing. That would mean mascaraing the Alawites (Assad’s side) and the Christians. A goodly dollop of others would be murdered also. Both sides indulge in ritual rape.
If anything, we should be arming and training the Christians who seem to be sitting this one out. Assad at least left the Christians alone. They were second class citizens but they weren’t murdered for not being Alawites.
This is not a fight of Good vs. Evil. This is a fight of Evil vs. Evil. I think we are best off to stay well clear. Also, as Napoleon said, “Never interfere when your enemy is making a mistake.”
“no good option except to let them kill each other hoping that in the end, there is a victorious albeit lesser “Evil”. “
I suspect that Assad is the lesser evil. Mind, evil is still evil. All those “Arab Spring” deposed leaders were evil, but they were all the lesser evils; as was Kaddafi. (I don’t think Kaddafi was killed by the Arab Spring. I think he was killed by Obama.)
And the al-Qaeda rebels are sponsored by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. No need for us to get involved let thé sunnis and shia kill each oth
Correct, this is evil vs evil with Assad the lesser evil
Assad is the better of 2 evils. Victory of the rebels will mean the slaughter of Syrian Christians who live unmolested under Assad.
The rebels are Islamist Al Queda elements.
Syria needs to exterminate Al Queda ASAP. USA needs more convenient worthy forces to back: IDF for example.
We would be wise to think twice before getting into another proxy war with those Cossack pricks.
It’s probably also worth mentioning that the Syrian government is using some old technology also - which is NO RULES OF ENGAGEMENT. You do what it takes to win.
Agreed.
Let them all fight to the death. Then Turkey can set up a protectorate over Syria.
Hi Metz, just a slight correction - Assads goons are baathists. The baath party in the Arab world started and still IS the secular alternative. Saddam, Assad, Nasser etc all looked to create some kind of pan-arab mileue that was NOT a caliphate. The alawis like the alevis in turkey are a religious group, supposedly a Shia subgroup but really more esoteric and like a cross between christianity and Islam. Their minority rule can be compared to Sunnis minority rule over Shia in Iraq. Israel and Christendom lose if either side wins. BUT if we have Assad controlling the western part of Syria he will be in continuous conflict with the Sunnis. Then the Shia and allies inpebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran fight against the Sunnis in Syria, Iraq with their Saudi and Qatari allies. THAT is the outcome we want. Let them be continuously preoccupied with killing each other and they have no time to think of killing Jews or Christians. I increasingly believe Israels posturing is a sign of their support of Syria. Incredible? Yes. Hear me out. By attacking Syria they give Assad bragging rights that the evil joos are out to gerbil and that the Sunnis are closet Zionists. That will lose al-Qaeda quite a bit of support. They won’t lose it alp of course but enough to keep the above Sunni-Shia fight on a constant boil. And THAT is a consummation deeppy to be desired. A better one would be a Christian state of Lebanon but that does not look doable sadly
Someone mentioned this war is all about oil money. Saudi Arabia wants to build a pipeline through Syria to sell oil to Europe which now is supplied by Russia.
If Assad wins he will surely give the Hizbollah a free hand peering down from the Golan heights into Israel. They do this now anyway from Lebanon. THEN, Iran will have troops on the ground at Israel's borders from Lebanon and Syria. The pincer begins...add that to the whole world ignoring Iran's nuke program right now and we are looking at tiny Israel, just about sorrounded...
I don't know about anyone else but I've been making ice tea and popcorn...
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