Free Republic

Russia’s advanced S-400 air defense batteries at the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria have been quietly “deactivated,” according to Russian military sources and publications. This has not been officially confirmed or denied. One source said that today, not a single S-400 is operational anywhere in Syria. Three months ago, DEBKAfile’s military sources cited the Syrian military as reporting that the Russian S-400s posted outside the important Syrian military compound at Masyaf in the west had been “deactivated” indicating the shutdown of their radar systems. Our sources note that, although Russian S-300 and S-400 air defense systems have been deployed in...

In more than one campaign speech, President elect Donald Trump declared that his number priority was “to dismantle the disastrous deal” with Iran, which he said was “the worst deal ever” He was referring to the 2015 accord negotiated with Iran by the 5P+1 (five Permanent Security Council members plus Germany), which the Obama administration presented as putting the lid on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Trump vowed to use force if necessary to prevent Tehran from acquiring the bomb. So does Tehran have more to fear from Donald Trump than from Barack Obama in the way of US military intervention?...

"Israel by this statement marks out a security zone based on the 1974 disengagement lines for accomodating the tens of thousands of Syrian refugees massing on its borders as well as rebel forces retreating from Quneitra. This zone covers 235 sq km. between southern Golan and Mt. Hermon...." "DEBKAfile" June 1, 2018 Israel cancelled a security cabinet meeting planned tonight to discuss 'preparations for war' but increased the strength of its forces on the Golan Heights border with Syria. (One reason for cancellation may have been a meeting between Israel's Defense Avigdor Lieberman and the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu...

"Russia will ultimately bear responsibility for any further escalations in Syria" US UN Ambassador Nikki Haley 6/22/2018 "The IDF stated: Israel's air defenses and identification system located a threatening object before it crossed into Israel. No violations of sovereign Israeli air space will be permitted and action will be taken against any attempts to harm its citizens". "DEBKAfile"- Story 6/24/2018 Opponents of the Syrian government and pro-Syrian regime sources agree that the Russian Aerospace Forces (Air Force) launched attacks in support of a government offensive in the Daraa region of southwest Syria over the weekend. Different sources said anywhere from...

Israeli missiles struck at Damascus International Airport in the early morning hours of Tuesday June 26th. Syrian sources reported the attack. The attack is said to have been on an Iranian cargo plane. Syrian anti-aircraft defenses went into action with a pro-government source claiming an object was destroyed southwest of Damascus. Today (June 25th) the Israeli DEBKA website claimed that a drone targeted by an Israeli Patriot missile Sunday was participating in the offensive against jihadist opposition in SW Syria curently underway. DEBKA quoted a Syrian officer as its source. The Israeli attack on Damasacus came in the wake of...

President Barack Obama resolved earlier this month, much to the surprise of Washington insiders, to open a third anti-terror front in Libya to eradicate the Islamic Front’s tightening grip on the country. This top-secret decision was first revealed by DEBKA Weekly 692 on Jan. 1. --snip-- At the peak of the assault, large-scale US, British and French marines will land on shore for an operation first billed as the largest allied war landing since the 1952 Korean War. The attachment of Russian forces was negotiated later. According to this scenario, one group will be dropped ashore from the Gulf of...

Highly credible Iranian exile sources in Europe have revealed to debkafile that the Director of the Israel Desk of the Revolutionary Guards clandestine service was executed by a firing squad in late June or early July after he was accused of spying for Israel. Aged 46, Seyyed Ahmed Dabiri was his codename. His real name is not known. The sources report that he was tried by a Guards martial court and found guilty of tipping Israel off on classified information, including the movements of Iranian military commanders in Syria, Iranian arms shipments to Syria and arms convoys bound for Hizballah...

In defiance of the international arms embargo, Iran last week placed an order with Moscow for a huge fleet of 100 Russian IL78 MKI tanker aircraft (NATO: Midas) for refueling its air force in mid-flight, thereby extending its range to 7,300 km. This is reported exclusively by DEBKAfile from its military and intelligence sources. The transaction runs contrary to the terms of the nuclear accord the six world powers and Iran signed in Vienna earlier this month. These tanker planes can simultaneously refuel six to eight warplanes. Their acquisition brings Israel, 1.200km away – as well the rest of the...

... It was the most striking feat of the ISIS’s new tactic, which is to go for the top commanders of enemy forces in order to throw them into disarray and undermine their morale. Norouzi was the second Iranian general fighting in Iraq to succumb to this tactic.

The Ukrainian government has offered sweeping autonomous powers to restive, pro-Moscow regions of the country, in an attempt to hold its head above water against Moscow, without a source of revenue or a viable army. Acting prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told regional leaders and businessmen Friday, April 11, in the eastern town of Donetsk, where pro-Russian separatists have declared a People’s Republic, that he is ready for parliament to consider a law on referendums. The referendum staged by Crimea last month caused the region to join the Russian Federation and practically precipitated the revival of the Cold War. The devolution...

DEBKAfile’s Washington sources refuted claims by some Israeli officials that the administration gave Israel prior warning of President Barack Obama’s decision to hold off on military intervention in Syria and wait for congressional approval. This couldn’t have happened, they said, because the president’s decision was so sudden that even US army chiefs were caught by surprise. It was taken by Obama on his own and out of the blue without consulting with his closest advisers.

Debkafile reveals one of the CIA's most dramatic scoops in many years, and epic disaster for Iran. Our most exclusive Iranian and intelligence sources disclose that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's personal cameraman, Hassan Golkhanban, who defected from his UN entourage in New York on Oct. 1, brought with him an intelligence treasure trove of up-to-date photographs and videos of top Iranian leaders visiting their most sensitive and secret nuclear and missile sites. The cameraman, who is in his 40s, is staying at an undisclosed address, presumably a CIA safe house under close guard.

Our Washington sources report that Saturday night, May 7, President Barack Obama gave the Pakistani government, army and intelligence an ultimatum: Cooperate in the capture of the three wanted men or else we shall pump more American soldiers into Pakistan to take up the pursuit with or without your permission. US intelligence is convinced that Omer, Zawahiri and al-Adal have joined forces and are plotting a revenge attack on America dramatic enough to outdo the psychological impact of the bin Laden killing.

Senior Libyan rebel “officers” sold Hizballah and Hamas thousands of chemical shells from the stocks of mustard and nerve gas that fell into rebel hands when they overran Muammar Qaddafi’s military facilities in and around Benghazi, DEBKAfile’s exclusive military and intelligence sources report. Word of the capture touched off a scramble in Tehran and among the terrorist groups it sponsors to get hold of their first unconventional weapons. According to our sources, the rebels offloaded at least 2,000 artillery shells carrying mustard gas and 1,200 nerve gas shells for cash payment amounting to several million dollars. US and Israeli intelligence...

The repeated delays and contradictory statements about the two Iranian warships' transit of the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean is accounted for by a standoff between the Iranian flotilla and five US warships deployed in recent days at the waterway's southern entrance and along its course, debkafile's sources disclose. Thursday night, Feb. 17, the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, escorted by missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf and the fast supply ship USNS Arctic, headed south through the canal. By Friday morning, they were through and taking up position opposite the Kharg cruiser and Alvand missile destroyer of the Iranian Navy's 12th...

The package Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has accepted for US-sponsored talks with the Palestinians contains more substantial concessions than merely a freeze on settlement construction and goes far beyond the one-year deal put before the security cabinet Saturday night, Nov. 13, debkafile reports from Jerusalem and Washington. The deal unveiled in Jerusalem early Sunday is only stage one of a larger secret package to which only Netanyahu and his close adviser Yithzak Molho are privy - not even Defense Minister Ehud Barak or the Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi.

debkafile's intelligence sources report from Iran that dozens of Russian nuclear engineers, technicians and contractors are hurriedly departing Iran for home since local intelligence authorities began rounding up their compatriots as suspects of planting the Stuxnet malworm into their nuclear program. Among them are the Russian personnel who built Iran's first nuclear reactor at Bushehr which Tehran admits has been damaged by the virus. One of the Russian nuclear staffers, questioned in Moscow Sunday, Oct. 3 by Western sources, confirmed that many of his Russian colleagues had decided to leave with their families after team members were detained for questioning...

The Israeli intelligence website DebkaFile has reported that Obama is now seriously considering an attack on the Iranian nuclear facilities. His change of heart is not, according to Debka, prompted by the Israeli Netanyahu -- whose nation is most directly threatened by Iranian nukes -- but by an ultimatum from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who told Obama that his nation could not tolerate Iranian WMD, and would develop its own if Iran was allowed to acquire them. ~snip~ Thus, without first taking serious steps to check Palestinian terrorism, he has pushed for the two-state solution that would inevitably lead...

In my recent article US or Israel will attack Iran by March I accumulated a number of signs in support of my conclusion. Here's another even more conclusive sign. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that this request, revealed by a senior Pentagon official, is the first time in four years that an American general has asked for a special force as a deterrent for Syria and Iran. Our Washington sources interpret the publication of Gen. Abizaid’s request during the visit to Iraq of the new defense secretary Robert Gates’ and head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace as...

Our Washington and Jerusalem sources report intelligence predictions of an impending revival of the Lebanon war and its spread to the Golan. Tehran and Syria are turning up the heat to obstruct Western moves to curb Iran’s advance on a nuclear weapon and nullify the embargo on arms for Hizballah. A senior Iranian spokesman announced Wednesday night, Aug. 23 that his government was on the brink of a “dramatic” nuclear development. Some Tehran sources surmise an announcement will be made on significant Iranian advances in uranium enrichment following a breakthrough in activating P-2 centrifuges. This would constitute blatant defiance of...