Kindgo
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A day after the US presented its “roadmap” for Mideast “peace,” Israeli tanks stormed into heavily populated Gaza City, in a raid targeting Islamic terrorists. Ten Palestinians were killed, including at least four gunmen, but two children ages 2 and 13 were also among the dead. When the troops surrounded the house of a top Hamas bomb maker, they came under heavy fire from Palestinian gunmen. The bomb maker was killed. Eight Israeli soldiers were wounded, none seriously. The raid came two days after Hamas claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed three Israelis.
In a twist to the Tel Aviv attack, the bomber and an accomplice turned out to be Moslems from Britain! Their British passports were shown on Israel television. Police are searching for the accomplice, who had a bomb that failed to go off. The bombers entered Israel from the Gaza Strip, the first time that`s happened in 89 suicide attacks. Gaza is fenced off, but the bombers were able to get in with their British passports. Today, the British ambassador to Israel laid a wreath at the site of the bombing – a restaurant on the beachfront.
The Palestinians accused Israel of trying to sabotage the roadmap through the Gaza raid. "We strongly condemn this Israeli crime,” said Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat. “Is this their response [to the roadmap], to kill innocents and children?" The roadmap calls on Israel to halt such raids, but Israeli officials say that as long as the Palestinian Authority does nothing to stop terror, Israel will have no choice but to act on its own.
The Palestinians are also demanding that the roadmap be implemented “immediately,” but Israel wants to open the document for more discussion. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon`s office issued a statement saying he had received the roadmap "for the purpose of formulating comments on the wording." Israel`s main condition is that the Palestinians take action to disarm terrorist groups; then Israel will do its part, such as withdrawing the army and stopping targeted killings of terrorist leaders.
Near Hebron, two Palestinian gunmen were killed in a clash with Israeli troops.
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After smuggling in 'hundreds' of top Iraqis, Syria is now smuggling them back out
Syria has been smuggling out aides of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to Belarus, Lebanon, North Africa and other countries.
The regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has ordered Iraqi officials to leave that country in the wake of U.S. threats against Damascus. According to Western intelligence and Lebanese opposition sources, the Iraqis — including Saddam's wife, Sajida and her three children — were given travel documents and placed on passenger flights to Libya and Belarus.
Others were taken to neighboring Lebanon for safe haven.
So far, Syria handed over three Iraqis to the United States. They included Saddam's son-in-law and an Iraqi intelligence agent suspected of attempting to assassinate then-President George H.W. Bush in 1993.
"There were hundreds of Saddam's aides and family members in Syria by April 15," said a Western intelligence source who monitors Syria. "Assad gave up three of them who held no use for Syria or Iran. Syria might give up another two or three Iraqis, but the rest will be hidden or flown out of the country."
On April 29, U.S. Central Command said Iraqi Oil Minister Amr Rashid surrendered to U.S. authorities. Rashid, who surrendered one day earlier, had been number 47 on the U.S. list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis. He had been head of Iraq's military modernization effort and believed to have been close to Iraqi scientists involved in weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
The most important Iraqi to flee into Syria was Izzet Ibrahim Al Douri, vice chairman of the Revolutionary Council and Saddam's most trusted confidante, the intelligence sources said. At least two Iraqi WMD scientists also fled to Syria. Both Al Douri and the WMD scientists reportedly were smuggled out of Syria during the last two weeks.
Lebanese opposition sources said the government of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri also helped Iraqis to flee. Lebanese security chief Gen. Jamil Sayed issued dozens of Lebanese passports for Iraqi officials to flee the region, the sources told the U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon.
"This move comes after the United States has put pressure on Syria who was issuing Syrian passports," said a statement by the Lebanese opposition group said April 28. "More notably, some of these Iraqi officials are now making Lebanon as their homeland for good and are not leaving the country."
Many of Saddam's top aides were believed to have fled to Syria during the first 10 days of April. The Kuwaiti daily Al Rai Al Aam reported that U.S. intelligence in early April had spotted a convoy of 70 Mercedes sedans leaving the northern Iraqi city of Mosul for Syria. The newspaper said U.S. intelligence assessed that the convoy contained leading members of Saddam's regime as well as their families.
Britain and the United States have been closely monitoring the flight of Saddam's aides into Syria. Syria captured and later released two British soldiers sent to Syria to locate the former officials.
Assad wants to rid his country of as many Iraqi aides as possible before U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrives in Damascus this week.
In Jerusalem, Rep. Tom Lantos of California, the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, said the United States expects Syria to surrender additional Iraqi aides. Lantos, who met Assad on April 26, said this will also constitute Powell's chief demand. "We anticipate that additional individuals will be turned over [by Syria]," Lantos told a news conference on April 28. "Our government will be working this as a front-burner issue."
The sources said Saddam also tried to smuggle billions of dollars out of Iraq through Turkish businessmen in an attempt foiled by Turkish intelligence.
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Why Syria is focusing on unconventional weapons systems
There is a reason Syria is emphasizing unconventional weapons systems. Despite help from the former Soviet Union and North Korea, Syria has failed to modernize its military.
Syria's upgrade of main battle tanks and purchase of anti-tank missiles and night-vision systems have not significantly bolstered its armed forces. According to a new report, Syria's modernization effort has been hampered by its large and unwieldy army and lack of training.
Syria seeks to compensate for its weakness in conventional forces through its arsenal of chemical weapons, the report said.
Damascus is believed to have up to 12 Scud B launchers and 200 Scud Bs with chemical warheads. The Scud B has a range of 310 kilometers.
The report, "Syrian Military Forces and Capabilities," was prepared by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. The report claims Syria has improved its targeting capability through extensive use of commercial satellite imagery.
"The modernization that has occurred has been badly mismanaged because Syria continues to try to support a force structure at least one-third larger than it has the resources to make effective," the report states. "Syria also has failed to modernize the training of its officers and relies heavily on poorly trained conscripts."
Senior researcher Anthony Cordesman notes in the report that Damascus has taken a series of steps to improve its military. He quotes U.S. intelligence sources as saying that Syria signed $300 million worth of new arms agreements between 1994 and 1997.
Syrian arms purchases reached $500 million from 1998 to 2001. By contrast, Israel bought $2.5 billion in foreign weapons and Egypt acquired $2.6 billion worth. Most of the Syrian procurement was from Western and Eastern Europe.
"This combination of inadequate equipment and manpower is not atypical of Arab forces, but it is compounded by a static defensive approach to exercises and force planning and garrison duty in Lebanon that has led to widespread corruption in the Syrian military forces," the report said.
"Syrian readiness standards are poor, as is maintenance, and large amounts of army, air, and naval equipment are not combat capable, or have limited sustainability in combat."
The report said Syria has a total military force of 319,000, similar to that of Iraq. The army has 215,000 men, organized into three corps with a total of seven armored divisions.
Damascus is believed to have 850 surface-to-surface missiles and 4,700 tanks, about half of which are obsolete. Its best tanks are the 1,700 T-72/72Ms.
The report said Syrian tank upgrade programs have been largely ineffective. Damascus has a better fleet of self-propelled artillery fleet than did Iraq, the report said.
"Syrian armored exercises are slow moving and have poor combined arms content," the report said. "There is almost no joint warfare training — perhaps because the Syrian air force is not seen as survivable. Syria's use of attack helicopters is more effective, but equipment and tactics have not been well modernized since the early 1980s."
Damascus has massive assets of anti-tank weapons and anti-aircraft guns. These include the Russian-origin AT-14 Kornet anti-tank missiles and 20 SA- 9s and 35 SA-13s.
The report said Syria's air force has more than 600 combat aircraft and 90 helicopters. Syrian pilots average roughly 30 flight hours per year, the report said, and training is a decade behind that of most other countries.
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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