At that same time, hundreds of people on the ground began suffering symptoms consistent with reaction to a nerve agent, according to the doctors and nurses who treated them. According to Sufrin, after a month and a half of investigating, the Mossad research team concluded that Syria was working on a nuclear program of its own. In early November 2015, just over a month after launching an air campaign against Mr Assad's opponents, the Russian military reportedly began using Shayrat as a forward operating base for Mi-24 and Mi-35 attack helicopters. We went through the whole process until the correct decision was made. WebThe 1963 Syrian coup d'tat, referred to by the Syrian government as the 8 March Revolution ( Arabic: ), was the successful seizure of power in Syria by the DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) Two bombs attached to a bus carrying Syrian troops exploded in Damascus during the Syrian nuclear reactor attack: Step by step, The Intelligence Failure Surrounding the Syria Strike, The Real Fallout From Israel's Attack on Syrian Reactor. Web23 Feb 2022. Most populous nation: Should India rejoice or panic? Many of the people involved in the action deserve to get credit and also demand it, said one person who played a key role in planning the operation. The cabinet met for a discussion in Jerusalem in the morning. Western intelligence sources told the Washington Post in 2015 that General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had been with Mughniyeh in Damascus that night, but somehow he did not die in the blast that killed the Lebanese terrorist. Its a very long flight, secret, on a dark night and a low altitude of 100 meters above sea level. A major escalation took place in 1964 when Israel declared it would regard the Diversion Project as an infringement on its sovereign rights. Some of its planes had been ordered to bomb rebel positions. Now there are only exclamation points. The prime minister breathed a sigh and asked: What do we do with this? We said to him: We destroy. (In Olmerts circle, as often happens in such cases, they remember an opposite course of events. Sources told the Guardian newspaper that US intelligence officials believed Russian personnel were at Shayrat "when Sarin was loaded on to a Syrian jet", but that "they have not established whether the Russians knew it was happening". Amir says he never told his wife about that night in eastern Syria. Satellite imagery obtained by Stratfor that December showed construction work to improve the airbase. Subscribe here for top stories and breaking news straight to your inbox. Ba'athism. [26], Assad led a small group of conspirators to capture the al-Dumayr air base, 40 kilometers (25mi) north-east of Damascus the only unit that resisted the coup. Syria In the force they were worried about a series of possible complications during the attack, ranging from the presence of a concealed battery of anti-aircraft guns in the area of the reactor to the concern that it was not possible to determine with certainty that the reactor would be destroyed in a single sortie, so that a second one, immediately following the first, might be needed to complete the mission, this time under more complicated circumstances, in which the aim of the operation had already been revealed to the Syrians. Our assumption was that possibly the operation would be revealed publicly, and the Syrians would respond, and then it would become the opening move in a war. The Arab Ba'ath Movement was established by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar in the 1940s, others who played a notable role in the early stages of the Ba'athist movement were Zaki al-Arsuzi, Wahib al-Ghanim and Jallal al-Sayyid. The attacks were claimed by Islamic State group militants. There is a bit of excitement before the bomb hits. War over Water (Jordan river) - Wikipedia We had hundreds of miles to fly, some of them in an area full of missiles. WebDAMASCUS, Syria Two bombs attached to a bus carrying Syrian troops exploded in Damascus during the morning rush hour Wednesday, killing 14 people and wounding WebAbdulaziz al-Shalal (Redirected from Abdulaziz Al-Shalal) Major General Abdulaziz al-Shalal ( Arabic: ) was chief of the Syrian military police. It certainly started as an uprising of Syrian citizens. May I suggest they appoint a liaison officer to communicate their views to us? While they failed to approve it politically, they nevertheless seemed determined to adhere to the technical details of the agreement. Explore in 3D: The dazzling crown that makes a king. In the air force it was decided to brief only the top command in each of the two operational squadrons about the nature of the target that was to be attacked. In some public opinion polls, the level of support for the premier didnt rise above the single digits. No longer a secret: How Israel destroyed Syria's nuclear reactor Therefore, the findings from the reactor were presented as findings at a low level of certainty. In Israel they were surprised by that conclusion. The following afternoon, the Syrian news agency issued a laconic statement to the effect that during the night its air defense system had chased away Israeli planes that had penetrated Syrias air space. The dilemma Israel faced with respect to the choice between effectiveness and secrecy did not end with the question of the operation itself. What actually is/was 'Shallal'? I can't find mention of it anywhere. Half a year later, the commander of the shadow army was attending a banquet at his holiday home in the Syrian seaside town of Latakia when he was shot by snipers from a boat. For me, today it connects with our ability to remove threats in distant countries in the third circle [meaning, Iran]. Syria The trick was not to take responsibility and immediately after the bombing to push ahead with a diplomatic effort that would convince other countries of the reliability of the information about what the Syrians were preparing and spur them to act to restrain him., Two different air force strike options were on the table, the difference between them was the size of the aerial force that would be used. Its only rarely that a Mossad chief calls and says: I have to see you. The Mossad chief arrives and sits in my office. It was decided to attack but to authorize a small forum the trio of Olmert, Barak and Livni to decide upon the timing of the attack and the nature of the operation. Bombing of Shallal | Historica Wiki | Fandom In July 1953, Israel began construction of an intake for its National Water Carrier at the Daughters of Jacob Jordan Bridge in the demilitarized zone north of the Sea of Galilee. WebThe US bombed Syria on Friday, April 13, 2018, in retaliation for the Assad regimes use of chemical weapons. Shelly said to us: You are champions.. While Atassi and Hariri held powerful posts, they did not possess enough personal or political power to threaten the NCRC. 14 people died in a military bus blast, the deadliest attack in - NPR By no stretch of the imagination will you come back without the reactor having been destroyed. For other water conflicts, see, Arab League summit meeting convened in Cairo, "Turning Water into Fire: the Jordan River as the Hidden Factor in The Six Day War", http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu18ce/uu18ce0a.htm#10.%20principles%20for%20confidence%20building%20measures%20in%20the%20jordan%20river%20watershed, http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/80858e/80858E0m.htm, "An American in Palestine: Elwood Mead and Zionist Water Resource Planning, 1923-1936", Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, Wave of violence in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 194, UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 242, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=War_over_Water_(Jordan_river)&oldid=1146917736, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 27 March 2023, at 19:01. [14] The UAR would prove to be Egypt-dominated, and the Ba'ath Party was forced to dissolve itself, but in 1961 the UAR collapsed because of a military coup in Syria. By the time Olmert left office less than two years later, Israel had again according to the foreign press heavily bombed an Iranian convoy in the heart of Sudan that was en route to Gaza. The weather along the way surprised us in a number of places. Rescue workers said many children were among those killed or injured in the suspected chemical attack in Idlib. [33][note 2] The purges resulted in the culmination of neo-Ba'athist transformation of Syrian military, which became mostly stripped of Sunni officers and packed with loyalist Alawite officers. When the material taken from the computer was received in Israel, it was found to include about 35 photographs from inside the mysterious building in the Syrian desert. AP Photo/Hassan Ammar. The move was denied by the Russian defence ministry, but further satellite images taken at the end of March 2016 showed several Ka-52 Alligator and Mi-28N Night Hunter attack helicopters had also arrived, according to IHS Jane's. The material was analyzed on a Wednesday night, recalls Amnon Sufrin. When the F-16I crew reported Arizona, it was 12:25 A.M., Israel time, on Friday, September 6. While no group immediately claimed responsibility for Why now? Amir, one of the F-15 pilots who took part in the attack, was dual: to advance the operation without most of the crews knowing what it was about and at the same time to prepare the rest of the squadron for the possibility that as a result of the operation, hostilities might break out, and all this while this group was not privy to preparations for the attack itself. However the British, who had helped establish the state after World War I, made a secret agreement (Sykes-Picot Agreement) with France and established the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon. Shamal was laid down 23 September 1994 by Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, The lack of immediate response from the regime reinforced the prior intelligence hypothesis that Syria would show restraint following the attack. As far as is known, it was carried out without the advance permission or involvement of Iran or Syria. Defense Minister Amir Peretz briefed his American counterpart Robert Gates, who was in Israel on a routine visit. The surrender of the 70th Armoured Brigade took longer than expected, putting Assad's forces behind schedule. At 1:30, we got back to Israel and landed at the base. Some of them heard for the first time about the presence of the reactor in Syria. He had been killed in 2008 in Damascus while leaving a reception at the Iranian embassy. Bidens bombing of Iraq and Syria: the normalization of war. The greatest challenge, relates Col. State media initially described the Damascus attack as a roadside bombing. [citation needed]. military hid airstrikes that killed dozens If the ground-to-air-systems wake up, you are in a vipers nest. Assad sent an emissary to tell the commanders that he would start shelling the base if they did not surrender. Olmert stayed in his office to work. The Nasserist officers were also given notable offices with Muhammad al-Sufi becoming Minister of Defence and Rashid al-Qutayni becoming deputy chief of staff. The 20-page document was distributed to top defense officials. We said to Barak: For every baby who is born in the next 200 years along the Euphrates with a deformity or a genetic defect, they will blame us straightaway. In a meeting on August 1, Barak forbade head of the IDF Planning Directorate Ido Nechushtan (who two years later would replace Shkedi as commander of the air force) to screen a presentation that reviewed the strategic picture and recommended a swift attack. A number of those who were present later observed that, as one of them put it, Gideon Frank, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, blanched and nearly fainted. [6], The mandate was dissolved in 1946 because of a British ultimatum to France, and Syria became an independent country on 17 April 1946. Dagans weekly meeting with the prime minister in Tel Aviv was scheduled for 8 A.M. the next day. If you dont do it, we will, he said. In Olmerts circle they describe a bleak mood prevailing after the discovery. Very quickly, it was given a name: the Cube. Immediately after the attack, Israel embarked on a diplomatic blitz that had been prepared in advance by the Prime Ministers Bureau, the Mossad, MI and the Foreign Ministry. There was not much traffic in the area. Considering that the members of the Military Committee were all too young to be perceived as the real leaders of Syria by the populace, the Military Committee appointed Colonel Amin al-Hafiz to the post of Minister of the Interior. When he looked outside, he saw larges areas on fire, he said. Amir relates that a number of years later he watched a video that had been filmed in the command post during the attack. In a one-on-one conversation Olmert tried to resolve their differences of opinion, but according to him Barak continued to try to convince ministers that a premature bombing of the reactor would cost Israel a war. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. It was then 2:00 A.M. on Wednesday. Ahmad Suwaydani, one of the new members of the Military Committee, was appointed Head of Military Intelligence and Mazyad Hunaydi became Head of the Military Police. Assad was building a plutonium nuclear reactor, he argued. The potentially hostile unit stationed in Qatana, south-west of Damascus, did not intervene probably because Widad Bashir had taken control over communications in the Damascus area. The advisers, as well as a number of ministers, first and foremost Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, were for the most part summoned individually for personal meetings with the prime minister at his residence, where they were informed about details of the affair, mostly by Yadlin and Dagan. An estimated three thousand families owned half of the land in Syria. In the air force, they characterized the release of the fuel tank into Turkey as an operational error, although tactically it was possible to have justified the crews considerations. Both of us were very excited. Did this woman die because her genitals were cut? US military officials told NBC News that the radar systems picked up flashes on the ground, indicating that ordnance had been dropped on the rebel-held town. It was one of the Israeli army's most successful operations, but was censored for over a decade. The prime minister dwelled in particular on the meaning of life in Israel under the shadow of a nuclear threat and warned that this was a condition that was liable to cause profound demoralization of Israels populace. Syria war: Deadly bomb blasts hit military bus in Damascus If a certain weapon or one of the platforms didnt work, there would be something to cover for it, says Amir. The plebeian character of the struggle and the radical ideologies spawned radical solutions to the agrarian problem. Shkedi emerged from the control booth [in the command post] only after the planes were out of the range of danger. Capt Davis said they targeted "aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defence systems, and radars", describing them as "things that made the airfield operate". And then a phone call came in from Dagan that there was a query from the United States, relates Shkedi. The air force dubbed the plan with the code name Soft Melody (the general staff operation had a different code name, Ein Habasor, while at Military Intelligence they referred to the preparations as Outside the Box). USS. To hear opinions from individuals beyond the heads of the military and the intelligence communities, Olmert consulted (as did then-Defense Minister Amir Peretz, separately) other experienced people and external oversight teams. By then, Mughniyeh was dead. However, Israel began to pay serious attention to that inclination only after the discovery of a serious intelligence gap in another country: Libya. Even the liberal and democratic-inclined founding leaders were partial to forceful takeover, citing the corrupt electoral process. A structure built on top of the reactor to conceal it. [30], Pressure from consistent pro-Nasser demonstrations in northern Syria and Damascus and from pro-union Ba'athist leaders like Jamal al-Atassi, the Nasserists and the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), coupled with the weakness of the Ba'athists at the popular level in Syria, led to unification efforts between the new government and the governments of Egypt and Iraq. [27] Another policy was to staff positions in the armed forces with Alawite relatives and friends close to the members of Military Committee. The planes took off from Ramon and Hatzerim and headed northward along the shore of the Mediterranean, with ample use of electronic warfare as camouflage. I said to them: You are going to do something of incredible significance. From the beginning, the military committee members formed state policies behind the backs of other NCRC members when the civilian leadership found out, al-Atrash said: "Why do not these gentlemen speak? Middle East. We started to back-analyze the Libyan program and try to figure out where else in the region similar programs could be hiding.. In a series of cabinet meetings, the hostility between the prime minister and his defense minister became more extreme. The Syrian branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party was able to recruit youth from radical peasant movements and thus was able to mobilise large sectors of the population. At both MI and the Mossad, they started to act to confirm or refute the hypothesis proposed by Major Y. [8] The failure in the 1948 ArabIsraeli War led to the downfall of the traditional elite and the rise of the military in politics. Shallal The prime minister chose to ignore this suggestion. A Syrian living a few kilometres from the airbase told the BBC that he was awoken at about 03:45 by the force of the explosions. Barak, however, began raising reservations. By the 1950s the party had managed to acquire an urban middle-class base. Everything happens within a few seconds. Accordingly, the Arab states have to prepare the plans necessary for dealing with the political, economic and social aspects, so that if necessary results are not achieved, collective Arab military preparations, when they are not completed, will constitute the ultimate practical means for the final liquidation of Israel.[5]. Each plane drops two bombs. [13], The Ba'ath Party faced a significant dilemma: take power through competitive elections or forceful takeover. Olmert quoted one of Assads speeches from early June in which the Syrian president predicted that toward the end of the summer there would be a development that would completely change the reality of the Middle East. The tension is liable to lead to an unplanned deterioration in the situation, and in order to prepare for that possibility the IDF must increase its level of readiness. In mid-June the former prime minister won the primary for Labor Party leadership, replacing Peretz in that position, and he announced that he himself would be the new defense minister.
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