Syrian Troops at Israeli border, could launch surprise attack
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Syrian Troops at Israeli border, could launch surprise attack
*
Posted: June 7, 2007
News from Israel
TEL AVIV – Syria, aided by Iran, has deployed a strengthened army along
Israel's northern border and is prepared to launch a surprise war
against the Jewish state, according to senior Israeli security officials.
The development comes as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday told the
Knesset he is ready for direct negotiations with Syria aimed at an
Israeli retreat from the Golan Heights, strategic mountainous territory
that looks down on Israeli population centers twice used by Damascus to
attack the Jewish state.
With Israelis this week commemorating the 40th anniversary of the
Six-Day War – when neighbors Egypt, Jordan and Syria attacked the Jewish
state – Israeli security officials said that Syria has prepared for a
confrontation and is capable of launching an immediate war.
The officials say the Syrian army is deployed along the Syrian side of
the Golan Heights with strengthened forces after carrying out the past
few weeks stepped-up training of troops. The officials noted the open
movement of Syrian Scud missiles near the border with Israel and said
Syria recently increased production of rockets and acquired missiles
capable of hitting central Israeli population centers.
The Syrian army has improved its fortifications, according to the
Israeli security officials, and has received modern, Russian-made
anti-tank missiles similar to the ones that devastated Israeli tanks
during the last Lebanon war, causing the highest number of Israeli troop
casualties during the 34 days of military confrontations. Syria also
received from Russia advanced anti-aircraft missiles.
The officials noted Syria stepped up the pace of weapons, including
rockets, being shipped from the Syrian border to the Lebanese Hezbollah
militia. Just yesterday, a truckload of weaponry meant for Hezbollah was
confiscated by the Lebanese army.
Yossi Baidatz, chief of military intelligence for the Israel Defense
Forces, said the Syrian-backed Hezbollah is rebuilding its forces in
southern Lebanon near the Israeli border in areas where international
forces are deployed with the specific charge of preventing the Lebanese
militia's rearming.
The security officials said the greatest threat Syria poses to the
Jewish state are the country's missiles and rockets. They noted Syria
recently test-fired two Scud-D surface-to-surface missiles, which have a
range of about 250 miles, covering most Israeli territory. The officials
said the Syrian missile test was coordinated with Iran and is believed
to have been successful. It is not known what type of warhead the
missiles had.
In addition to longer-range Scuds, Syria is in possession of
shorter-range missiles such as 220 millimeter and 305 millimeter
rockets, some of which have been passed on to Hezbollah.
Israel also has information Syria recently acquired and deployed
Chinese-made C-802 missiles, which were successfully used against the
Israeli navy during Israel's war against the Lebanese Hezbollah militia
last July and August. The missiles were passed to Syria by Iran, Israeli
security officials said.
Israeli security officials said Syria is preparing for a summer war. But
they said there was an argument within the Israeli intelligence
community whether the military build-up is for an attack or is meant by
Syria to pressure Israel into vacating the Golan Heights. Some officials
said Syria estimates the U.S. or Israel will attack Iran, and Syria will
be drawn into a larger military confrontation by opening up a front
against northern Israel. Also, the officials said, Syria may believe
Israel will attack first and its preparations are defensive in nature.
The Israeli army is not taking any chances. The Israel Defense Forces
Tuesday carried out a mock attack on a "Syrian" village during a major
exercise in the Negev. The Israeli soldiers besieged and occupied the
village, designed to be similar to towns on the Syrian side of the
Golan. Similar war exercises were carried out in Israel the past few
months, including a mock attack on Damascus.
Syrian President Bashar Assad has multiple times told his state-run
media the past few months Damascus is preparing for war. He warned
Israel to evacuate the Golan Heights.
This past weekend, Assad called for "better cooperation" between
Damascus and Tehran in "the confrontation with the Zionist regime and
the USA," according to a report published Sunday by Iran's official
state news agency, IRNA.
Yesterday, an official from Assad's Baath party warned in an interview,
that if Israel doesn't vacate the Golan, residents in the strategic
territory would launch "resistance operations" against Israeli communities.
Meanwhile, Olmert yesterday told the Israeli Knesset he is willing to
hold "peace talks" with Syria without any preconditions. At the same
Knesset hearing, Israel's security cabinet decided to establish a
ministerial committee to discuss the security threat posed by Syria. The
committee, led by Olmert, is made up largely of the same war lawmakers
who helped shape Israel's war against Hezbollah last summer. Those
lawmakers were slammed in a recent government war probe for multiple
failures during the war.
Olmert – faced with devastatingly low poll numbers and calls from the
public and senior officials to resign – reportedly directed staffers at
Israel's Foreign Ministry to prepare for the possibility of talks with
Syria.
Some analysts here have speculated in the Israeli media Olmert's ratings
could rise if he reached out to his leftist base and conducted
negotiations with the Palestinians or Syria.
According to the Israeli media, Olmert tapped third parties to approach
Syria to feel out whether Damascus is seriously interested in negotiations.
Syria, which signed a military alliance with Iran, openly hosts Hamas
and Islamic Jihad leaders. The U.S. accuses Syria of fueling and aiding
the insurgency in Iraq. Israel says Syria has been allowing large
quantities of weapons to be transported from its borders to Hezbollah.
Syria has been widely blamed for the 2005 assassination of former
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Syria is accused by Israel and pro-Democratic Lebanese politicians of
fueling instability in Lebanon the past few weeks by backing Fatah
al-Islam, a group claiming connections to al-Qaida that has been
battling the Lebanese Army since May 20, killing some 107 people,
including 47 soldiers and 60 terrorists.
The clashes erupted just before the U.N. was set to call for the
establishment of an international tribunal to try the killers of Hariri.
Syria has been widely blamed for the assassination and for a string of
subsequent attacks that have rocked Lebanon.