Search This Blog

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Saturday, November 3, 2012

ISRAEL: 3 Syrian tanks enter demilitarized zone in Golan Heights, Israel


Three Syrian tanks entered the demilitarized buffer zone in the central Golan Heights on Saturday, leading the IDF to raise its alert level in the area.


טנק סורי כפי שנראה באזור הגבול. נשלח באימייל האדום  (צילום: גבע ברעם)
Syrian tanks in border area, Saturday (Photo sent via Red Email by Geva Ba'am)


The Israeli army has also lodged a complaint with UN forces enforcing the ceasefire in the Golan Heights.

The Syrian tanks entered the village of Bir-Ajam, located just a few kilometers from an IDF outpost, and took part in battles against Syrian rebels.

Over the past 24 hours a number of mortar shells fired as part of the Syrian infighting landed in the demilitarized zone. One of them may have been the cause of a fire that erupted Saturday at Mount Hosek, located near the Israel-Syria border. 

Also on Saturday, Syrian rebels launched a dawn assault on a strategic airbase in the north of the country, trying to disrupt strikes by warplanes and helicopters that pound rebel-held towns and give the regime of President Bashar Assad a major edge in the civil war.

The assault, reported by activists, comes a day before the start of a key international conference in Qatar at which the United States and its allies aim to reorganize the opposition's political leadership and unite their ranks. The leadership-in-exile has been widely seen as ineffective and out of touch with rebel fighters on the ground.

Rebel forces attacked the Taftanaz airbase early Saturday morning in fighting with government forces that continued into the afternoon, the anti-regime activist Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.


סימני עשן באזור הגבול  (צילום: גבע ברעם)
Smoke in border region (Photo: Geva Bar'am)

Joining Syrian rebels in the attack were fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic militant group made up of foreign jihadis, according to the Observatory. Al-Nusra fighters, who are considered among the most experienced and disciplined among the opposition forces, have led attacks on other airbases in the north in past months.

The Taftanaz base mainly houses military helicopters, near the main highway between the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, where rebels and the military have been battling for control for months.

Online activist videos claim to show the battle, with rebels firing rockets and mortars, and smoke rising over buildings and an airstrip area. An activist speaking in the video identifies it as an attack by rebels and Jabhat al-Nusra on the base.

The videos appear genuine and are consistent with other Associated Press reporting in the area.

The capturing of the base - and holding on to it - would be a major achievement for the rebels, who often complain they are outgunned by government forces.

Airstrikes have been one of the most effective and feared weapons of the regime in the civil war. Rebels managed to seize control of a pocket of territory around Aleppo, but government warplanes and helicopters continue to blast towns they hold from the air. In the fierce fighting over Aleppo itself, warplanes almost daily swoop in to strafe or bomb rebel-held neighborhoods.

Rebels repeatedly target military airports and runways and often try to shoot down military jets to curtail the regime's air power, even though they don't have anti-aircraft weapons.

In an August attack on the Taftanaz base, rebels claimed to have badly damaged 10 military helicopters.

Activists say more than 36,000 people have been killed during Syria's 19-month-old conflict, which began in March last year as a largely peaceful uprising but has transformed into a brutal civil war.


Several attempts for a truce in the fighting have failed, including the UN-supported four-day cease-fire that was meant to coincide with a major Muslim holiday last week, leaving the international community at a loss for ways to end the war.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday called for a major leadership overhaul and suggested Washington would handpick more representative leaders, including those fighting the regime. The opposition conference in the Qatari capital, Doha, starts on Sunday.


No comments:

Post a Comment


Category

1915 Armenian Genocide 21st-century Christian martyrs‎ Al Qaeda Apostles Arab Christian Arab-Orthodox Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov Asia Australia BBC Belarusian Orthodox Church Bethlehem Bible movies Bulgarian Orthodox Church Byzantine C.I.A. Cairo China Christian Armenians Christmas Traditions Christmas tree Conspiracy Constantinople Documentary Easter Ecumenical Patriarch Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Elder Ephraim of Vatopaidi Elder Porphyrios Epiphany FREE Greetings Cards FREE books Fr Seraphim Rose Georgian Orthodox Church Greek Orthodox Church Greek Orthodox Easter Holy Fathers Holy Scripture Holy Tradition Internet Interview Italy Jesus Christ Middle East Miraculous Icon Mount Sinai Movie Trailers Orthodox Church in America Palestine Prophecy Russia Russian Orthodox Church Saints Shroud of Turin Son of God St Nicholas of Myra The Mount Athos Food Evolution UK Ukraine Ukrainian Orthodox Church Vatican Watch FREE full movie africa al assad albania anti-Morsi protests army bank bible bible translations bulgaria byzantine music christianity christians christmas church coptic church copts cyprus daily news economy egypt egypt pope elder elder Paisios elder joseph of vatopaidi english subtitles europe food france fyrmacedonia germany greece greek greek food greek music greek orthodoxy health and medicine icon iran islam islamist israel jerusalem jews jihad killed libya mafia monastery money mother of god mount athos music muslim muslims news orthodox church pakistan patristic tradition photo photos picture politics pope protests quotes recipes religion romania romanian orthodox church saint science spy syria theotokos travel turkey tv usa vatopaidi video war world
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...