... previously known as the Syrian Navy. Click the image for a larger view.
As noted on Monday, Israel is destroying every major military facility in Syria that its warplanes can reach. The BBC reports:
Israel has confirmed it carried out attacks on Syria's naval fleet, as part of its efforts to neutralise military assets in the country after the fall of the Assad regime.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its ships struck the ports at Al-Bayda and Latakia on Monday night, where 15 vessels were docked.
The BBC has verified videos showing blasts at the port of Latakia, with footage appearing to show extensive damage to ships and parts of the port.
The IDF also said its warplanes had conducted more than 350 air strikes on targets across Syria, while moving ground forces into the demilitarised buffer zone between Syria and the occupied Golan Heights.
. . .
In a statement, Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said the IDF was aiming to "destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the State of Israel".
He added that the operation to destroy the Syrian fleet had been a "great success".
The IDF said a wide range of targets had been struck - including airfields, military vehicles, anti-aircraft weapons and arms production sites - in the Syrian capital, Damascus, as well as Homs, Tartus and Palmyra.
It also targeted weapon warehouses, ammunition depots and "dozens" of sea-to-sea missiles.
It added that it had done so to prevent them "from falling into the hands of extremists".
There's more at the link.
I guess that makes sense from Israel's point of view, but it's going to make it much harder for a new central government to be formed in Syria - it won't have access to the military equipment and bases it needs to end internal rivalry and conflict.
There are dozens, if not scores, of different groups in Syria, each proclaiming its religious purity and its cause's righteousness. At the moment, in the first flush of victory, they're celebrating President Assad's ouster: but before long they're going to start jockeying for position, trying to stake their claim to at least some of the spoils of victory, and hoping that their leaders will be able to form part of the new government (and therefore distribute largesse to their supporters). It's going to be chaotic, shambolic, and a bloody (literally) mess.
Syria is one of those countries (like Russia) that isn't accustomed to democracy, and hasn't been for generations. It's used to a strong-man leader who dictates policy and enforces it. All those hoping for democracy, a freely and fairly elected government, and impartiality, are doomed to disappointment (to put it mildly). Hopefully a better Syria will emerge from this mess . . . but it'll take years to do so, and won't be born peacefully or bloodlessly.
Also, watch the major ethnic groups in Syria. The Kurds are virulently opposed to Turkey, and antagonistic towards Iraq, and hostile towards the fundamentalist Shi'ite government in Iran. They'd like nothing better than to form a united Kurdistan with pieces of each of those nations - but none of the others want to surrender territory (or the oil beneath it) to them. I think we may see genocidal warfare between Turkey and the Kurds in the not too distant future. The Turks have demonstrated that genocide is a perfectly acceptable ethnic solution to them (think of the Armenian massacres, just for a start). I rather suspect they're gearing up to kick six bells out of the Kurds.
(EDITED TO ADD: Am I a prophet, or what?)
(The USA, of course, regards Kurds as at least fellow travelers, if not allies, but will we intervene to protect them? Your guess is as good as mine.)
Syria - a tangled web where everyone, without exception, practices to deceive.
Peter
7 comments:
The damage to those boats looks pretty Syrias...
I'll submit that if you need a large military to enforce unity in your county, you really don't have unity.
you don't want the new government to be determined by whichever faction happened to seize weapons first.
Didn't take long for the moderate "rebels" to start slaughtering the minorities Assad protected.
I'd expect another Libya
Syria has been a failed state for awhile now. In large part because of the US's role in "regime change", CIA destabilization operations. I'm a big NON-fan of the Zionist regime (and Turkey), but they did the right thing regarding the weapons they destroyed, in my biased opinion.
Syria is about to become the latest, bestest, Terrorist Central. Chaos and back stabbing, something middle easterners are xlnt at, will help keep them less dangerous to the rest of the world.
What's happening to the common folk will be Biblically tragic. Get ready for a few million more "refugees" to enrichen the formerly White Christian Europe.
pardon my french, but I believe this is the exact definition of a clusterf**k
As cold and uncaring as it sounds - I do feel for the poor Syrian citizens - a Syria without outward-facing weaponry and limited to AKs and beheading knives is a much safer Syria for the rest of the world. Let the tribes go at each other, without a Navy or Air Force or missiles. IOW, Yay!, Israel!
The whole country was a cluster-F. Quite frankly Assad's faction was the only actual Syrian forces there, and even they were being propped up.
The main "rebel" forces started their rebellion with the rest of the various overthrows and rebellions in the Middle East during Operation Arab Spring under Obama.
Then there was briefly an article about how 50 US State Dept. and British Equivalent guys were killed in one of the Battles of Aleppo when a missile from the reign forces killed a command and control bunker. Funnily enough the rebel forces broke immediately after said bunker died.
In the later years, the Rebel forces in the Northwest were being run by the Turks. The Kurd's basically controlled the Northeast, to the Central East you had the remains of ISIS, which was the late and rightfully hated Senator John McCain's baby.
Iran was sending troops in to help Assad, and Russia was providing Anti Air to some degree. Israel had been bombing targets in Syria for a decade, but slowed down due to the Russians.
So yea a complete cluster-F. Frankly I feel sorry for the actual Syrians who's country is being used as a battlefield be other world powers.
Lastly I keep hearing on the news about how Assad was evil and this is the triumph of democracy, which lets be honest the 2nd part is certainly not true.
But I'd like to ask this. How was it decided that he was the evil wicked villain? The rebellion was sparked by the US at the same time the US State Dept. sparked a lot of other rebellions to over through the various governments in the middle east. Hell I seem to recall he was in college in Britain when it all kicked off. I know the accusations of use of gas weapons were false. The same "bodies" lying on the ground were seen up and walking later in another video.
Seriously can anyone tell me why the word evil is being tossed around? Syria was not a republic, it had a different type of government. That by no means makes their government illegitimate, nor evil, only different.
Frankly if any of us had been in his position with foreign powers sponsoring a rebellion and killing your people we would be fighting back too.
- W
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