An alleged Israeli airstrike Sunday near Syria’s Quneitra border crossing with Israel that killed six members of Hezbollah also killed six Iranians, a source close to the Lebanese Shiite terror group told AFP on Monday.
“The Israeli strike killed six Iranian soldiers, including commanders, as well as the six members of Hezbollah. They were all in a convoy of three cars,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Iranian general Mohammad Ali Allahdadi was among those killed in the strike, Iranian officials said.
“General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi and a number of fighters and Islamic Resistance (Hezbollah) forces were attacked by the Zionist regime’s helicopters,” said a statement on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) website.
According to Israel’s Channel 10 Allahdadi, who had previously commanded Iran’s forces in the country’s Yazd province, had recently been reassigned to Syria to provide support for Shiite militias fighting for President Bashar Assad.
The operatives killed in the strike included Abu Ali Tabatabai, who Channel 10 called the head of the group’s offensive operations; Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Imad Mughniyeh, a senior Hezbollah commander killed in Damascus in 2008; and Mohammed Issa, responsible for the organization’s operations in Syria and Iraq.
The bases they commanded in Syria contained missiles belonging to the Syrian regime, as well as missiles sent by Iran and Hezbollah. Those weapons were meant to be used in “a new front” with Israel if Assad were to fall, the report said.
The Lebanese daily As-Safir, which is identified with Hezbollah, cited sources close to the group as saying that it would choose a time and place to hit back, but would do so in a manner that wouldn’t cause an escalation in the conflict.
The attack would “be answered with an appropriately painful and unconventional response. However, it will likely be controlled so as not to expand into all-out war,” the Hezbollah sources told As-Safir.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in response to the strike that Tehran condemned “all actions of the Zionist regime [of Israel] as well as all acts of terror.”
The strike raised fears that a larger conflagration could be in the offing, with both Israel and Hezbollah bracing for possible continued fighting amid an increase in tensions.
Hezbollah confirmed that several fighters were killed. A Hezbollah official identified one of the dead as Mughniyeh, and another as senior Hezbollah commander, Mohammed Issa. He said at least one Iranian national with the group was also killed.
“A group of Hezbollah mujahedeen were martyred in a Zionist rocket attack in Quneitra, and their names will be revealed later,” said a message flashed on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar news channel.
They were killed during a field reconnaissance mission in the Mazraat Amal village of Quneitra province, it said.
The Israeli army took “a long series of steps” to brace for a possible Hezbollah response, Israel’s Channel 2 reported. Residents of northern Israel were said to be concerned about Hezbollah retaliation. Israel did not order the opening of bomb shelters on the Israeli side of the Golan, however, Channel 2 said.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon told an Israel radio station, however, that if Hezbollah said some of its forces had been killed, the question was what were they doing in the Syrian Golan Heights.
According to the source, Israeli drones were present in the area during the attack. Last month, the Syrian army said it shot down an Israeli reconnaissance drone flying over Quneitra province.
Lebanese political analyst Imad Salamey said Hezbollah’s hands could be tied because it is so heavily invested in Syria. “It’s an awkward situation,” he said.
He said Hezbollah was unlikely to open up a second front in Lebanon while so many of its fighters are bogged down in Syria, and that it would probably not retaliate from Syria because it “invites increasing involvement by Israel to attack its operation inside Syria.”
The Islamic State terror group reportedly has increased the amount of territory they control in Syria as the U.S.-led bombing campaign approaches its four-month anniversary.
The Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. government and independent assessments, say that the Islamic State, commonly known as ISIS, has control of a large swath of northeastern Syria and is creeping toward key cities in the country's west, including Aleppo, a center of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad
The Journal reports that ISIS' expansion of control can partially be attributed to the U.S. focus on Iraq, where it is working closely with Baghdad to roll back gains made by ISIS last summer. However, as a result, ISIS fighters are flowing into Syria unchecked. In other cases, Syrian rebel groups who once fought against ISIS have been convinced to join their side.
However, experts say whatever good the strikes have done in Kobani, they have not prevented ISIS from consolidating their control elsewhere, a truth that some U.S. officials readily acknowledge.
"Gaining territorial control in Syria has never been our mission," Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, told The Wall Street Journal. "That wasn’t the objective of our airstrikes." Ryder calls the Syria airstrikes "shaping" operations, meant to weaken ISIS' hold on key parts of Iraq.
Jurgen Todenhofer, the first Western reporter to embed with Islamic State fighters and not be killed in the process, spoke to Al Jazeera about his time with the terror group.
Todenhofer lived side by side with the jihadist fighters for ten days in the Islamic State-stronghold city of Mosul, Iraq. He was accompanied only by his son, who served as his cameraman.
“I always asked them about the value of mercy in Islam,” but “I didn’t see any mercy in their behavior,” explained Todenhofer. He added, “Something that I don’t understand at all is the enthusiasm in their plan of religious cleansing, planning to kill the non-believers… They also will kill Muslim democrats because they believe that non-ISIL-Muslims put the laws of human beings above the commandments of God.”
The German reporter then elaborated on how shocked he was about how “willing to kill” the ISIS fighters are. He said that they were ready to commit genocide. “They were talking about [killing] hundreds of millions. They were enthusiastic about it, and I just cannot understand that,” said Todenhofer
He warned that the Islamic State “is much stronger than we think,” and that their recruiting has brought motivated jihadis from across the globe. “Each day, hundreds of new enthusiastic fighters are arriving,” explained Todenhofer. “There is an incredible enthusiasm that I have never seen in any other war zones I have been to.”
The journalist asserted that the U.S.-led bombing campaign was not going to stop the Islamic State and its continuing jihad. He told Al Jazeera that he believed the terror group would only be stopped if fellow Sunni Iraqis would rise up against them.
Russia cut gas exports to Europe by 60 per cent today, plunging the continent into an energy crisis 'within hours' as a dispute with Ukraine escalated.
This morning, gas companies in Ukraine said that Russia had completely cut off their supply.
Six countries reported a complete shut-off of Russian gas shipped via Ukraine today, in a sharp escalation of a struggle over energy that threatens Europe as winter sets in.
Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia and Turkey all reported a halt in gas shipments from Russia through Ukraine.
Croatia said it was temporarily reducing supplies to industrial customers while Bulgaria said it had enough gas for only 'for a few days' and was in a 'crisis situation'.
The European Union in Brussels called the sudden cut-off to some of its member countries 'completely unacceptable'.
'Without prior warning and in clear contradiction with the reassurances given by the highest Russian and Ukrainian authorities to the European Union, gas supplies to some EU member states have been substantially cut,' the EU said in a statement.
'The Czech EU Presidency and the European Commission demand that gas supplies be restored immediately to the EU and that the two parties resume negotiations at once with a view to a definitive settlement of their bilateral commercial dispute,' the presidency and the Commission said in a joint statement.
They added that the EU would 'intensify the dialogue with both parties so that they can reach an agreement swiftly'.
Overnight the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered the state energy giant Gazprom to cut supplies to and through Ukraine by around three-fifths amid accusations its neighbour has been siphoning off and stealing Russian gas.
Ukraine says the Russian move has been prompted by payment and price disputes, a row between the two that has become almost annual.
The effects of the dispute on the rest of Europe however is stark, said Ukraine's main gas supplier.
Around 80 per cent of the gas European Union countries receive from Russia comes through Ukraine.
While Germany and France are much more exposed, it is reckoned in some estimates that 15 per cent of Britain's supplies come from Russia through pipelines into the UK's east coast.
'They [the Russians] have reduced deliveries to 92million cubic metres per 24 hours compared to the promised 221million cubic metres without explanation,' said Valentin Zemlyansky of the Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz.
'We do not understand how we will deliver gas to Europe. This means that in a few hours problems with supplies to Europe will begin.'
2 comments:
Hmm, Putin doesn't play! IS doesn't play. Israel doesn't play. And God doesn't play! It's about to get really interesting....And not in a good way either. Whew, glad I know Jesus. Hope he knows me. Please pray for my friend Mark who is dying and has only a few days left. Pray he gets saved! Thank you!
Hi Ally,
Reading your comment, you don't need to hope the He knows you, you are known. Brothers and Sister we lift up Mark in prayer in agreement and others like Mark...there is no more time to play around with eternity!
Sandra
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