Syria Plans War On Israel’s Civilian Infrastructure
“This will be a war of attrition, which the Israelis are not good at,” he explained. The conflict, he said, “will be more like a war between cities than a war on the battlefield.”
(IsraelNN.com) Syria sees the next war with Israel as involving missile attacks on civilian infrastructure and front-line guerilla warfare, an anonymous senior official in the Syrian Ministry of Defense told Defense News Weekly, in an interview appearing Monday. Syria prefers to avoid a direct, “classic” confrontation with Israel, he said. Instead, the next war will involve Katyusha rocket and ballistic missiles that will target strategic points in Israel, especially civilian infrastructure.
The official said that the war will not be limited to a single strike, but will be protracted in nature. “This will be a war of attrition, which the Israelis are not good at,” he explained. The conflict, he said, “will be more like a war between cities than a war on the battlefield.”
According to Arab affairs expert Dr. Guy Bechor, the Syrian assessment is a result of the Second Lebanon War. After that war the Syrians understood that they do not need a large ground force to defeat Israel, but rather missiles aimed at dense Israeli population centers. For the past two years the Syrians have been engaged in massive acquisitions from Russia, after an $11 billion debt was partially forgiven by Russia in 2005, and partially covered by Iran.
Following the unimpressive performance by the IDF in last year’s war, Bechor explains, Syria began equipping itself with advanced anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank missiles and cruise missiles.
The Syrian army numbers 650,000 soldiers, including 354,000 reservists, according to Defense News. Its tanks are outdated Soviet models, however, and its air force is inferior to Israel’s.
The London-based daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat recently reported that Syria has deployed Chinese C-802 cruise missiles, which it acquired from Iran. In addition, Russia has expressed its willingness to sell the Syrians its Iskander missile, which has a range of 280 kilometers, more than enough to strike at any destination in Israel. The missile features an optical GPS navigational system that allows operators to guide it to their targets.
Al-Sharq al-Awsat also reported Saturday that Iran secretly promised Syria it would provide $1 billion for buying advanced weapons and assist it with nuclear research and the development of chemical weapons, in exchange for a Syrian promise not to negotiate peace with Israel. However, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman dismissed the report as a “media game” and asked how the media could know about the deal if it was confidential.
Arab affairs experts also questioned the veracity of the report, noting that it was written by an exiled Iranian who may simply have wanted to portray Iran’s leadership in a bad light.
Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
If you can't handle using your real email address, don't bother posting a comment.
oh no, the katyushas are coming. everyone hide behind my bristleboard. seriously, these missiles are pieces of shit both in accuracy and payload. i’ve seen fat women walking down the street that left bigger craters.
July 23rd, 2007 at 8:39 amSyria is overplaying its hand. No doubt Israeli pilots are chomping at the bit at the thought of shooting apart the Syrian air force…and/or taking out military targets in Damascus.
AQ/Iran cannot be in all places at one time. Syria cannot count on Russian supplies like they did in their last war with Israel. And Iran would go bankrupt in an attempt to bank roll a new Syrian/Israeli war.
Iran has a restive population who wants good relations with the rest an an end to their autocratic regime.
Cities in Lebanon would be devastated by Israeli counter-strikes, as would Syrian cities.
And the Gaza would be prime target land for the Israeli Army and or Abbas.
The consequences for the war in Iraq and afghanistan, might be less IED’s and less fighting, while AQ and company turns their attention elsewhere.
This could very well, be to our advantage. It would also show the Israelis that they cannot rely on peacenik presidents and PM’s anymore. They must put a tiger in the their tank if they wish to survive.
July 23rd, 2007 at 8:49 amrest=West
July 23rd, 2007 at 8:50 amPNAC,
Didn’t you read the whole article?
“The London-based daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat recently reported that Syria has deployed Chinese C-802 cruise missiles, which it acquired from Iran. In addition, Russia has expressed its willingness to sell the Syrians its Iskander missile, which has a range of 280 kilometers, more than enough to strike at any destination in Israel. The missile features an optical GPS navigational system that allows operators to guide it to their targets.”
If true, the shit is going to hit the proverbial fan and Katyusha’s are the least of their problems. If Israel reacts the same way as they did last summer, you can kiss the only democracy in the middle east goodbye.
Muslim diplomacy is the greatest oxymoron. The only thing they understand is death…preferably yours and mine. I prefer to make it theirs. Time to take off the kid gloves.
July 23rd, 2007 at 8:57 amWhy in the world would a country want to Fk with a country that has at least one missile having a 200Kt yield and possibly more aimed right at their capital? They must be brain dead.
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:11 amYou know what you never see?
You never see anywhere in the Arab/muslim world people protesting about starting or continuing warring against Israel or the US for that matter.
Or you never see here in the US anyone protesting against the Arab/muslim world for threatening us or the Jewish people.
Where are the protesters against the bullying of the Arab world.
Where are protesters against the warmongers.
I see the protesters against the us defending ourselves.
Where is Pelosi’s condemnation of warmongering Syria?
Or in her little chat with idiot did she tell him to do what ever he wanted that she was going to do her part and be tying Americas hands in knots?
Truthfully this seems all BS cause I cannot see Syria really past to present contemplating real peace with Israel so truthfully what is all this fake shit?
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:13 amPAC-3’s will have no problem with the cruise missiles.
And Syria doesn’t want to play the attrition game. I guarantee Israel can remove cities more efficiently.
Once you shoot the political correct politicians it becomes quit easy to flatten towns wholesale. We worked that out in WWII.
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:22 amand israel has nukes, the ultimate trump card
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:25 amI dont think this is good news for anyone involved except for the fact that it will give Israel an opportunity to light these bastards up in a big way. or they better at least. I would say time to teach them a lesson they will never forget, but muslims always seem to forget the past.
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:27 amHere is your chance Israel, fire at will
When I read the following passage, I thought, “Weapons for fuel? Weapons that burn for seven years? Oh, it could be nuclear weapons! They won’t need to gather fuel, because all of their enemies will be utterly destroyed! But why wouldn’t they just take the oil from their enemies if they have been destroyed? Oh, maybe all of the oil in the middle east is radioactive now!
I’m just saying.
Ezekiel 39
1 “Son of man, prophesy against Gog and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of [e] Meshech and Tubal. 2 I will turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you from the far north and send you against the mountains of Israel. 3 Then I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand. 4 On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food to all kinds of carrion birds and to the wild animals. 5 You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD. 6 I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in safety in the coastlands, and they will know that I am the LORD.
7 ” ‘I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the LORD am the Holy One in Israel. 8 It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign LORD. This is the day I have spoken of.
9 ” ‘Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and use the weapons for fuel and burn them up—the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the war clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel. 10 They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunder those who plundered them and loot those who looted them, declares the Sovereign LORD.
11 ” ‘On that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in the valley of those who travel east toward [f] the Sea. [g] It will block the way of travelers, because Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. So it will be called the Valley of Hamon Gog. [h]
12 ” ‘For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. 13 All the people of the land will bury them, and the day I am glorified will be a memorable day for them, declares the Sovereign LORD.
14 ” ‘Men will be regularly employed to cleanse the land. Some will go throughout the land and, in addition to them, others will bury those that remain on the ground. At the end of the seven months they will begin their search. 15 As they go through the land and one of them sees a human bone, he will set up a marker beside it until the gravediggers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. 16 (Also a town called Hamonah [i] will be there.) And so they will cleanse the land.’
17 “Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Call out to every kind of bird and all the wild animals: ‘Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrifice I am preparing for you, the great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood. 18 You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as if they were rams and lambs, goats and bulls—all of them fattened animals from Bashan. 19 At the sacrifice I am preparing for you, you will eat fat till you are glutted and drink blood till you are drunk. 20 At my table you will eat your fill of horses and riders, mighty men and soldiers of every kind,’ declares the Sovereign LORD.
21 “I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the punishment I inflict and the hand I lay upon them. 22 From that day forward the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God. 23 And the nations will know that the people of Israel went into exile for their sin, because they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. 24 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their offenses, and I hid my face from them.
25 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will now bring Jacob back from captivity [j] and will have compassion on all the people of Israel, and I will be zealous for my holy name. 26 They will forget their shame and all the unfaithfulness they showed toward me when they lived in safety in their land with no one to make them afraid. 27 When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will show myself holy through them in the sight of many nations. 28 Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. 29 I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Sovereign LORD.”
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:33 amThe Chinless Ophthalmologist must have a death wish.
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:52 amIf the west could get the knotted panty girls our of leadership and instead get some men with balls this wouldn’t even be considered a threat.
The first time the West responds to these idiotic weak deliberate attacks against civilians with a real conventional attack on civilians on the other side ala WW2 style all this BS will be null and void overnight.
If I was in charge of Israel I would respond to this Syrian idiocy that I was acquiring quantity of incendiaries and expanded bomb racks for the carpet bombing response on the first city to launch a Katusha, ohh and leak some updated studies on “firestorm tactics”.
We are needlessly sacrificing our civilians, money and soldiers for hollow warm fuzzy PC feel goods. War is ugly its hell and it should stay that way so nobody dares to fight US hence little to no war. Clean warm fuzzy war will beget US nothing but eternal war.
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:44 amOne shot, “They must be brain dead” Sounds like you answered your own question.
Anonymous official in the Syrian Ministry of Defense soon to be a dead official in the formally existing syrian ministry of duh fence.
Iranian leadership doesn’t need anyone’s writings to put them in a bad light.
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:49 amjarhead
i don’t think any cruise missile would get through isreali air defense. cruise missiles are slow and large and as gbu-43 pointed out pac-3s and other isreali missile defense systems would pick them off.
plus i think isreal would mount a serious retaliation if syria launched the cruises.
i also think most people in this thread under rate israel’s response to future incoming katyushas. the reason isreal responded weakly to last summer’s war was because the 3000 hezbollah in lebanon were not ‘officially’ part of any state, they were considered rogue. also the iaf is now properly trained for a ground war, whereas last summer most of their troops were trained in spotting urban suicide bombers.
isreal will not repeat last summer’s pacifist mistakes, you have my word on this.
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:06 pmWhy isn’t anyone protesting against Syria and Iran?? Instead, people are trying to “stop the war on Iran” or whatever. Gee.
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:07 pmPNAC is right next time Isreal will not play games. They now realize that they will have to take care of business and not wait for the rest of the world to catch on.
Also Nancy Pelosi makes Benedict Arnold look like a saint. This cunt has the nerve to go behind the Presidents back to deal with terrorists. She should br hung for treason, but poor GW wants to play nice with the left. WWRD…..
July 23rd, 2007 at 6:48 pmWhen someone says he’s gonna kick my ass I find him first on my terms and timetable. I do not wait for him to throw a punch.
O Israel awake!
July 23rd, 2007 at 7:59 pmDon’t worry. The Syrian statement says they plan to target
civilians. This means the UN will step in and stop them from
committing a war crime as the UN defines it. So nothing to
be concerned about.
Just kidding.
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:33 pmlol.
Corruption reigns in the UN. I should rename myself Captain Obvious or something.
July 24th, 2007 at 1:16 amSarcasm aside,
July 24th, 2007 at 6:38 ama valid point is there to be made about the disparity that
is glaringly obvious about hizzy-fit-bolla and you cannot be
syria-ous saying openly they will target civilians when
if Israel kills civilians the world media erupt in an almighty
firestorm of indignation.
No one is going to call them on this?
Lies and taqiyya?
Well, you cannot be an AH all of the time.
Eventualy people notice.
Hizzy-fit won’t find the way so clear this time.
Isaiah 17
1The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
2The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
3The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts.
ENOUGH SAID
September 18th, 2007 at 8:07 pm