The war in Syria is heating up yet again with signs that the conflict may soon be about to take greater international dimensions. This is all due to greater Israeli participation and aggression in Syria against the Syrian military and on the behalf of terrorist organizations fighting against the Syrian government. The questions that remain, however, are whether or not the Israelis are willing to tempt the resolve of the anti-terrorist coalition of Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, and Russia and how steadfast that resolve of those powers might actually be
In the past week, we have seen an escalation in the Syrian conflict the likes of which we have not seen in decades in terms of Israeli-Syrian tensions as well as the potential for a clash of nuclear world powers in the Middle East as a combat theatre.
After a mobilization of U.S. troops near Manbij – designed to prevent the Syrian military from retaking the city and as a means to stop combat between Turkish and Kurdish forces – Israel launched an air attack on Syrian targets near Palmyra, the Zionist settler state’s farthest penetration into Syria yet.
This time, however, Israel was not able to bomb and bail as they have done eleven times in the past as Syrian air defense systems were mobilized and an Israeli jet shot down as a result. This shoot-down was apparently launched after the Syrian military informed the Russian militaryof its intention to shoot down the Israeli planes. It is assumed that the Russians did not object to the use of force.
Indeed, Russian Marines were only a few kilometers away from where the Syrian military was attacked. After the attack, the Russian government summoned the Israeli Ambassador, Gary Koren, to demand an explanation for the operation. This, in and of itself, is an unprecedented event.
Very soon after the shoot-down, both Syria and Israel engaged in a war of words and threats regarding any future incidents. For instance, Israeli Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, stated that, “The next time the Syrians use their air defence systems against our planes we will destroy them without the slightest hesitation.”
Syria’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari, also responded to the incident with statements of his own.
Syria’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari, also responded to the incident with statements of his own.
“Putin sent a clear message,” he said. “The fact is that the Israeli ambassador [to Russia] was summoned for a conversation only a day after he submitted his credentials [to the Russian Foreign Ministry last Thursday], and was told categorically that this game is over.”
Jaafari pointed out that the attack has changed the rules of the game and that Syria will not sit idly by while Israel attacks its forces.
But, on Sunday, a new incident arose with the Israelis launching an airstrike in Quneitra, located in the Golan Heights. Syrian news media reported the incident first, saying that a militia commander had been killed in the strike. Lebanese television station, al-Mayadeen identified the man killed as Yasser Assayed, member of the National Defense Militia. He was a commander of the Golan Brigade, a Druze militia fighting alongside the Syrian military against terrorists. The assassination was allegedly conducted by virtue of an unmanned Israeli drone.
On March 19-20, Israel launched more airstrikes on the Lebanese-Syria border, supposedly targeting a Hezbollah weapons supply convoy.
On Monday, March 20, an Israeli drone was shot down over the Golan area allegedly by Syrian aerial defense systems. Hezbollah paraded pictures of the downed drone on its social media pages as proof of the shoot down, forcing Israel to admit that the UAV had indeed been brought down.
On Wednesday, March 22, Israel launched more airstrikes deeper inside Syrian territory, targeting Syrian army posts near the capitol, Damascus. This marks the fourth Israeli airstrike operation in Syria within one week.
Syrian President Assad told Russian MPs visiting Syrian that he is counting on Russia to do something about any further Israeli attacks on Syria and to assist Syria in avoiding a real full-scale war with Israel.
Assad’s comments and Israel’s behavior reveals that a full-scale war is bubbling just below the surface, perhaps only hours away.
Comments coming from a number of Israeli officials only a week ago has made it clear that Israel would naturally draw Hezbollah into such a war as well, perhaps involving Iran if for no other reason than the fact that Iran is the principal patron of the militia group.
Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force has commissioned a ship two-and-a-half American football fields long to bolster its fleet as threats loom in the East and South China Seas.
The JS Kaga accompanies another Izumo-class destroyer, the JS Izumo, in the Japanese naval fleet. The ship formally joined the ranks at a ceremony in Yokohama on Wednesday, according to China Topix.
The ship’s namesake, the first Kaga, was a World War II warship that was sunk during the Battle of Midway in 1942, reports the Business Standard, an India-based English language daily news outlet.
Global Times, a Chinese media outlet, has referred to the ship as "notorious" and "aircraft-like."
"We hope the Kaga’s reappearance is not [a] resurgence of Japanese militarism," said Hua Chunying, spokeswoman at the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Regarding the loss of the original Kaga, Japan should become familiar with “the lessons of history,” the Global Times reported Hua saying.
"China and its neighbors will never allow Japan to make trouble," the spokeswoman said, adding that the stability of the South China Sea relied on "the joint efforts of China and ASEAN (Association of Southeastern Asian Nations)."
Last Thursday, China warned of retaliation if Japan sent the JS Izumo through the South China Sea.
The JS Kaga and its accompanying 14 helicopters specialize in anti-submarine warcraft. Moving forward, the helicopter carrier could be outfitted for stationing F-35 short take-off and vertical landing aircraft, China Topix reported.
WikiLeaks has revealed the CIA’s alleged ability to infiltrate and control iPhones through a tool called NightSkies, which is physically installed onto factory fresh iPhones and allows the CIA to monitor and download files from targets’ phones undetected
The revelation is part of WikiLeaks’ latest Vault 7 release named ‘Dark Matter.’
NightSkies works in the background and grants “full remote command and control,” to the CIA, allowing it to upload and download files from iPhones, including details from the owner’s phonebook, text messages and call logs, and to execute actions on the phones as it wishes.
In the press release regarding the latest ‘Vault 7’ leak, WikiLeaks claims that NightSkies “is expressly designed to be physically installed onto factory fresh iPhones.”
A 2008 document featured in the release explains that NightSkies v1.2 must be physically installed and will only start beaconing information once the user starts to use the phone.
Nightskies is made up of three components: an implant, a Listening Post (LP) and a post-processing program.
The implant runs undetected on the phone once it has been physically installed.
The CIA monitors the phone for activity, including its browser history file, YouTube video cache or mail metadata. Once it is used for the first time, NightSkies kicks in and sends information to a preconfigured LP.
LPs are used to monitor devices, such as computers and phones, which have been hacked with the CIA’s malware implants. They can be physical or virtual and stored on a CIA computer server.
Curious isn't it? How will Putin react when two of his allies start throwing missiles at each other? Although it seems he favors Syria most, doesn't it?
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