Syrian official threatens all out war by September, warns Damascus preparing for large-scale conflict
Pastor Dale Morgan
Syrian official threatens all out war by September, warns Damascus
preparing for large-scale conflict*
Posted: July 8, 2007
News from Israel
GOLAN HEIGHTS – If Israel doesn't vacate the strategic Golan Heights
before September, Syrian guerillas will immediately launch "resistance
operations" against the Golan's Jewish communities, a top official from
Syrian President Bashar Assad's Baath party said.
The Baath official, who spoke on condition his name be withheld, said
Damascus is preparing for anticipated Israeli retaliation following
Syrian guerilla attacks and for a larger war with the Jewish state in
August or September. He said in the opening salvo of any conflict, Syria
has the capabilities of firing "hundreds" of missiles at Tel Aviv.
"Syria passed repeated messages to the U.S. that we demand the return of
the Golan either through negotiations or through war. If the Golan is
not in our hands by August or September, we will be poised to launch
resistance, including raids and attacks against Jewish positions (in the
Golan Heights)," the Baath official said.
The Golan Heights is strategic mountainous territory looking down on
Israeli population centers captured by Israel after Syria twice used the
territory to attack the Jewish state.
The Baath official said a new purported guerilla group called the
Committees for the Liberation of the Golan Heights has been training and
is ready to attacks against Jewish communities in the Golan in August or
September.
He said Syria is preparing for a war.
"More and more of our units have undergone intensive trainings starting
at 6 a.m. and finishing late into the evening. If the need arises, we
are ready for a war," said the official.
The official said Syria "learned from the Hezbollah experience last
summer and we can have hundreds of missiles hitting Tel Aviv that will
overwhelm Israel's anti-missile batteries."
He claimed Syria has "proof" Israel is also readying for a war.
"We hear about special Israeli trainings to take Damascus. We see that
Israel is re-establishing bases of the Israeli army in the Golan that
are unusual and not needed except for war. We believe the Israeli
government has an interest in confronting Syria to rehabilitate its
image of losing to Hezbollah," he said.
He also claimed newly installed Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, a
former prime minister, "wants to prove he is a military expert."
Israel: Syrian war preparations serious
Israeli security officials confirmed the stepped-up military presence of
Syrian troops deployed along the Syrian side of the Golan Heights with
strengthened forces after carrying out increased training the last few
months. The security officials noted the 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 missiles 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 security officials said any conflict with Syria could degenerate
into a larger war involving Hezbollah along Israel's northern border and
Palestinian terror groups launching attacks from Gaza in the south and
the West Bank toward the center of Israel.
The officials noted Syria stepped up the pace of weapons, including
rockets, being shipped from the Syrian border to the Lebanese Hezbollah
militia.
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 Hezbollah last July and August.
The missiles were passed to Syria by Iran, Israeli security officials said.
Israeli security officials said Syria is indeed preparing for a summer
war. But they said there was an argument within the Israeli intelligence
community whether the military buildup 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
last month reportedly 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.
According to security officials, recent U.S. intelligence estimates also
predict a strong possibility of war between Israel and Syria in the
coming months.
Dennis Ross, the American Middle East envoy under the Clinton
administration, said this weekend in an interview with Ynetnews, a
leading Israeli news website, he thinks "there is a risk of war" between
Israel and Syria this summer.
"Nobody has made any decision (about going to war), but the Syrians are
positioning themselves for war," said Ross.
The reports of war also come amid a flurry of articles in the Arab media
the past few days claiming Syria has warned its citizens residing in
Lebanon to leave the country ahead of a civil war there. Israeli
security officials noted the possibility of a civil war in Lebanon, and
said there were strong concerns violence there could be used as an
excuse for Hezbollah or Palestinian groups to attack Israel.
Syria formed new terror group?
The Baath official said that Syria learned the advantages of using
guerilla tactics to achieve political ends from Hezbollah's war against
the Jewish state last summer. He said the Committees for the Liberation
of the Golan is modeling itself after Hezbollah.
The Baath official's statements follow a series of interviews in which
Baath officials said a purported new Syrian guerilla organization
recently was formed and is ready for attacks if Israel doesn't withdraw
from the Golan. According to the officials, the Syrian Committees for
the Liberation of the Golan was formed last year.
In one interview, one Baath party official said Syria learned from
Hezbollah's military campaign against Israel last summer that "fighting"
is more effective than peace negotiations with regard to gaining territory."
Hezbollah claims its goal is to liberate the Shebaa Farms, a small,
12-square-mile bloc situated between Syria, Lebanon and Israel. The
cease-fire resolution accepted by Israel to end its military campaign in
Lebanon last July and August called for negotiations leading to Israel's
relinquishing of the Shebaa Farms.
The Baath official said that Syria's new Committees for the Liberation
of the Golan Heights consists of Syrian volunteers, many from the Syrian
border with Turkey and from Palestinian refugee camps near Damascus. He
said Syria held registration for volunteers to join the Committees last
June.
The official said attacks by the Committees may include the infiltration
of Jewish communities in the Golan, rocket attacks against Israeli
positions or raids of Golan-based Israeli military installations. He
said all attacks would be launched from the Syrian side of the border.
It was first reported last June on the alleged formation of the
Committees for the Liberation of the Golan.
One month later, a man identified as the leader of the Committees gave
an interview to state-run Iranian television.
In February, a fax sent to news agencies signed by the Committees
claimed the group was holding Guy Hever, an Israeli soldier missing
since 1991. Hever disappeared in the Golan Heights near the Syrian border.
Israel is taking the claims of formation of the Committees information
seriously. Amos Yadlin, head of the IDF's intelligence branch, told the
Knesset in October Syria is indeed in the early stages of forming a
Hezbollah-like group.