Posted on 06/27/2014 9:09:31 PM PDT by Perseverando
Almost the entire Syrian side of the Golan Heights is now under the control of rebel forces, including radical Islamist groups, a senior Israeli military commander in the area said Friday.
Only the Quneitra border area is still in the hands of forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, Lt.-Col. Anan Abbas, deputy commander of the Golan Brigade, told Israel’s Channel 10. About 95 percent of the Syrian side of the Golan is in the hands of anti-Assad rebels, including radical Islamic groups such as the Al-Nusra Front, affiliated with al-Qaeda, a rival of the burgeoning Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, better known as ISIL or ISIS.
One of two Syrian army brigades that used to control the area has completely disappeared, the officer said.
At present, the Islamist groups in the area are focused on the war against Assad, he said, “but we know their goal is to harm Israel; we’ve seen their propaganda material.”
The Israeli officer said that the dramatic gains made by the rebel forces in the area appeared to explain why Syrian troops fired a missile on Sunday that killed a 15-year-old boy on the Israeli side of the border.
Apparently forces loyal to Assad, stationed some five kilometers inside Syrian territory, erroneously calculated that a civilian truck, delivering water to Israeli contractors who were working on the border fence, was actually a rebel truck on the Syrian side of the border, and opened fire on it with an anti-tank missile. The attack killed 15-year-old Mohammad Karkara, who had accompanied his father, a civilian contractor, to work that day.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofisrael.com ...
Israel should do some artillery practice there
I was on the Golan Heights back in 2011, Israel controls the vast majority of the Heights. 95% of the Syrian portion must be awfully small.
Yup, I get a bad feeling about all this... I doesn’t take a Nostradamus to foresee the coming mess.
lol
Awful. Israel may be forced to clean house there. The last thing she wanted to have happen in Syria. But maybe she’ll finish the job with the terrorists who’ve taken over S Lebanon, just a few miles down the road. Will give Israel opportunity to get rid of a major danger to world peace and, if she wishes, demonstrate a few of her advanced defense “goodies” that nobody ever even mentions , ha! The murderers won’t even know they were hit when they check into Allah/Satan to collect their 72 Virgins. Ha! May God bless America and Israel.
Pressure can only be contained for so long. As it increases, eventually the container cracks.
Diplomacy with muslims only gives them time to rearm. their own book says so.
Well it wasn't Nostradamus, but a much more reliable source for future events: Bible condition for 3rd Temple now met? ('red heifer' being raised in U.S.)
They ought to roach bomb the jihad vermin back to the Azoic!
For decades, non-Muslim minorities in the Mid East used the hope of Arab nationalism to paper over the tendency of Muslims (including Arab ones) to impose their religious views over everyone they ruled. Now that it’s clear that Arab Muslims cannot be appeased short of mass conversions, the time may be ripe for non-Muslim Arabs to begin making a separate peace with Israel. It would not surprise me if an Alawite-ruled Syria, made a separate informal peace with the Jewish state. Informal because the Iranian aid is probably conditional upon Syria’s declared hostility to Israel.
Goodbye sweet Israel, nice to know you. Maybe if so many left wing Israelis and all American Jews hadn’t supported Obama. Oh well.
Ping
The Syrian Army brigade may have to surrender to the Israelis or risk annihilation by al-Qaeda.
I can only assume they have things similar to the NLOS cannon.
Can’t be! I have it one one of the highest authorities on earth that this ISIS band is but a Lakers jersey-wearing JV team!
HF
I worked on the NLOS cannon. It was originally the Crusader. It weighed in at a porky 96 tons and, because of its weight, was virtually useless to the Army. Rumsfeld got it cancelled because it was only worthwhile if it was prepositioned in Europe and used against the invading Russian hordes. It could not easily be moved and it was useless in places we were likely to fight like Afghanistan. Rumsfeld wanted vehicles that could be air transported.
A political cabal of Congressmen resurrected it by telling the Army they couldn’t have their Future Combat System funding without it. The Army reluctantly agreed but the weight had to come down. It went from 96 tons to (as I recall) 26 tons. GD had told the Army no way would they reduce the weight because the auto-firing mode would cause a lighter vehicle to shatter under repeated firing. I believe it was another contractor who brought in aircraft engineers who “knew how to make stuff light” and they got the weight down by changing all those cast steel boxes to aircraft grade aluminum. I did see video of it on auto-fire, but that’s nothing when you consider it could likely be in the inventory for fifty years. Engineers who knew cannons said the repeated shocks would destroy the inside and take the crew with it.
In Afghanistan the Army got limited use from the Strikers, which weigh about 26 tons. They wanted and finally got tanks built on 6 ton truck chassis. So, although it looks impressive, I hope Israel hasn’t wasted any money on a similar obsolete concept.
An Army officer who had served in Afghanistan told me (approximately) I light up a target and call it in, it gets hit in minutes. I don’t know if it will be Air Force, Army air, Marine fighter or drone. I don’t care. It’s so much better than trying to direct artillery onto it. Artillery takes up too much of our logistics when there are better ways to get the job done.
Thanks. I suppose as long as steel quickly gets on the target, I guess it really does not matter who delivers it, be it USAF, Army, USMC or Navy.
Uhhh...didn’t Israel want Assad replaced?
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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