New Terrorism Alert...U.S. Travel Alert Until February 24, 2016

"The US has issued a worldwide travel alert for its citizens in response to "increased terrorist threats".

The state department said "current information" suggested the Islamic State [IS] group, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and others continued "to plan terrorist attacks in multiple regions".

The alert, it said, will remain in place until 24 February 2016."

A US state department representative told BBC News there was "currently... no reason to believe that US citizens would be specifically targeted"."

Below is a picture of the current security in New York City...

View Source Here 

A Russian jet was shot down over the Turkey-Syrian border today.  This has prompted many to speculate whether this is a black flag to validate Putin declaring war on Turkey.  

"Turkey says its jets shot at the plane after warning that it was violating Turkish airspace. But Moscow says it never strayed from Syrian airspace.

Nato is to hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the incident at Turkey's request.

Mr Putin warned there would be "serious consequences" for Moscow's relations with Turkey."

View source Here

More to come as developments arise.

U.S. Getting Involved In Syrian Conflict

CIA preparing to deliver rebels arms through Turkey and Jordan

By Greg Miller and Joby Warrick, Published: June 14

The CIA is preparing to deliver arms to rebel groups in Syria through clandestine bases in Turkey and Jordan that were expanded over the past year in an effort to establish reliable supply routes into the country for nonlethal material, U.S. officials said.
The bases are expected to begin conveying limited shipments of weapons and ammunition within weeks, officials said, serving as critical nodes for an escalation of U.S. involvement in a civil war that has lately seen a shift in momentum toward the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.

Syria experts cautioned that the opposition to Assad remains a chaotic mix of secular and Islamist elements, highlighting the risk that some American-provided munitions may be diverted from their intended recipients.
But U.S. officials involved in the planning of the new policy of increased military support announced by the Obama administration Thursday said that the CIA has developed a clearer understanding of the composition of rebel forces, which have begun to coalesce in recent months. Within the past year, the CIA also created a new office at its headquarters in Langley to oversee its expanding operational role in Syria.

“We have relationships today in Syria that we didn’t have six months ago,” Benjamin J. Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said during a White House briefing Friday. The United States is capable of delivering material “not only into the country,” Rhodes said, but “into the right hands.”

The confidence conveyed by Rhodes’s statement is in contrast to the concerns expressed by U.S. intelligence officials last year that the CIA and other U.S. spy agencies were still struggling to gain a firm understanding of opposition elements — a factor cited at the time as a reason the Obama administration was unwilling to consider providing arms.

“The Syrian puzzle has come into sharper focus in the past year, especially the makeup of various anti-regime groups,” said a U.S. official familiar with CIA assessments of the conflict. “And while the opposition remains far from monolithic, its military structures and coordination processes have improved.”

The official, like most others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence assessments and planning.

The increased certainty is one of several factors that led to the reversal of a U.S. policy against providing lethal aid that had been in place since the uprising began in Syria more than two years ago.

Rhodes said the change was driven by a new determination by U.S. intelligence agencies that Assad’s regime had used chemical weapons, including sarin gas, on at least four separate occasions. Obama also faced mounting pressure to intervene more aggressively as members of Congress and overseas allies became increasingly alarmed that Assad’s forces were gaining strength with expanded assistance from Russia and Iran.

For the CIA, the shift on Syria marks a return to a covert-action role that was familiar to the agency during Cold War-era conflicts but that gave way to increasingly direct lethal operations as the agency’s drone campaign surged in the years following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The agency’s mission in Syria carries substantial risks, including a long-standing fear that arms could fall into the hands of extremists who may seek to impose Islamist rule in Syria or turn those weapons against targets in Israel and other Western countries.

That concern accounts for initial limits imposed by Obama that will allow the delivery of rifles and other munitions, but not — at least for now — antitank or antiaircraft weapons that rebels have desperately sought.

Obama’s decision to approve CIA weapons shipments, spelled out in an updated covert-action finding recently signed by the president, may also signal that the administration is now prepared to endorse the delivery of heavier arms by regional allies.

“The Qataris and Saudis have been chomping at the bit,” said Will McCants, a research analyst at CNA Analysis and Solutions and former counterterrorism adviser at the State Department. “They’ve been wanting to give heavy weapons, including antitank and antiaircraft, from the beginning. And it’s us that has put the brakes on it.”

The CIA shipments will be aimed at bolstering the capabilities of an umbrella group known as the Supreme Military Council. The council is headed by Gen. Salim Idriss and other former Syrian military officers who favor the creation of a democratic government, although the network includes avowedly Islamist groups.
Some are members of the Syrian Liberation Front, a separate alliance that wants Islamist rule in Syria but is regarded as moderate and pragmatist.

Competing groups advocate the creation of an Islamist state. These include the Syrian Islamist Front as well as more radical groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra — literally “Victory Front” — an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq that is listed as a terrorist group by the Obama administration. Another, Ahrar al-Sham, embraces a similar jihadist ideology and supports the imposition of austere, Taliban-like Islamic rule.

Those groups and potentially dozens of others have been in near-constant flux since the start of the war, adding to the confusion among U.S. analysts. But officials and experts said alliances among rebel organizations in recent months have created clearer ideological boundaries.

The CIA’s expanding role as conduit of nonlethal assistance over the past year has also given the agency deeper insight into the composition of groups and the flow of material, U.S. officials said.

The CIA does not have an established presence inside Syria, one official said. But it has been using bases in Turkey along the Syrian border, near where Idriss is based, since the outset of the conflict.

The agency’s weapons shipments are expected to be concentrated on routes out of Turkey, but U.S. officials said deliveries will also likely flow into southern Syria from Jordan, whose intelligence service has a long-standing relationship with the CIA.

“As the nonlethal aid has ramped up, U.S. intelligence has learned a lot more about who these guys are, who’s trustworthy and who’s not,” said a second U.S. official familiar with the shipment activity.

Less clear is the extent to which the CIA has technical means of monitoring the flow of arms shipments. U.S. military leaders have warned that they have no reliable way to track the heavy weaponry sought by rebel groups, including so-called MANPADs — the man-portable air-defense missiles that could help counter Assad’s air strength but could also be used by terrorist groups against civilian aviation targets.

As part of an effort to reassure the United States, regional allies presented a plan earlier this year in which rebels would be issued a small number of missiles and forced to return empty casings for each before receiving a new supply, said a Middle Eastern diplomat familiar with the plan.

“The Arabs have argued that MANPADs could be provided under highly controlled circumstances,” said the diplomat, who insisted on anonymity in describing private discussions with the United States. “The U.S. administration said it would investigate the matter, but they never responded.”



Craig Whitlock and Julie Tate contributed to this report.
source: Washington Post

SYRIAN TROOPS CAPTURE DAMASCUS SUBURB NEAR AIRPORT

By BASSEM MROUE

— Jun. 15 3:18 PM EDT

Protesters demonstrate against western intervention in Syria, outside the US embassy in central London, Saturday, June 15, 2013.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops pushed forward with their offensive against rebels Saturday, capturing a suburb near the Damascus international airport as the U.S. warned that the alleged use of chemical weapons by President Bashar Assad's forces and the involvement of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah in the civil war threaten to put a proposed political settlement out of reach.

The U.S. and Russia have been pressing for a peace conference to end Syria's civil war in Geneva, but prospects for that have been dampened after a series of regime battlefield victories and hardened positions by both sides as the death toll from the more than 2-year-old conflict has surged to nearly 93,000.

President Barack Obama's decision this week to send lethal aid to Syrian rebels and the deepening involvement of trained Shiite fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah group also has raised the stakes, setting up a proxy fight between Iran and the West that threatens to engulf more of the Middle East.

The U.S. reversal after months of saying it would not intervene in the conflict militarily came after Washington said it had conclusive evidence the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons, something Obama had said would be a "red line."

Syria has denied the accusations, saying Obama was lying about the evidence to justify his decision to arm the rebels. Syria's ally Russia also suggested Saturday that the evidence put forth by the United States of the use of chemical weapons doesn't meet stringent criteria for reliability.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was quoted in a statement as saying the United States continues to work aggressively for a political solution with the goal of a second Geneva meeting. But "the use of chemical weapons and increasing involvement of Hezbollah demonstrates the regime's lack of commitment to negotiations and threatens to put a political settlement out of reach," he said in a telephone conversation Friday with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

read more at AP

Massive protests in Turkey. Activists being arrested for using Twitter.

Turkey Is Now Arresting People For Using Twitter to Spread "Untrue Information"

By Josh Voorhees

 | 

Posted Wednesday, June 5, 2013

A Turkish art group preforms in support of protestors at Taksim Square onJune 5, 2013 in Istanbul, Turkey

Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

As my colleague Will Oremus wrote about earlier this week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made no secret of how he feels about the use of Twitter. "Now we have a menace that is called Twitter," Erdoğan said on Monday, day four of the mass protests that are now in their sixth day. "The best example of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society."

At the time of those remarks, the Turkish government appeared to have no immediate plans to combat this menace/curse/scourge—despite scattered reports of Internet outages, the tweets continued to roll in, along with the Facebook posts, Instagram pics, and Vine videos. That may have changed Wednesday, via the Associated Press:

Turkey's state-run news agency says police have detained 25 people for "spreading untrue information" on social media and provoking protests. The Anadolu Agency says Wednesday the people were detained in the city of Izmir for allegedly "inciting the people to enmity and hate." It said police were still looking for 13 others.

No one seems to have any idea exactly which tweets in question landed the offending users in jail—something that only highlights the fact that Turkey's main media outlets have been noticeably slow to give the protests the coverage they deserve (which, in turn, has left many Turks relying on the social media site for their updates). Regardless, the arrest of a couple dozen Twitter users is unlikely to deter the thousands of others using the social media site to voice their displeausre with Erdoğan any more than the several thousands of arrests on the streets is going to deter the mass demonstrations that are now occuring across Turkey.

source: http://www.slate.com

Dozens arrested in Turkey over protest tweets, accused of 'inciting hatred'

Published time: June 05, 2013

Turkish police have detained at least 25 Twitter users for allegedly spreading false reports, as anti-government demonstrations in Turkey continue for a sixth day.

Social media activists have been accused of using Twitter to “instigate public hatred and animosity,” according to Turkish media. Police raided 38 addresses to locate the suspects. 

A protestor uses a mobile phone to give latestt news about the clashes near Taksim in Istanbul on June 3, 2013. (AFP Photo / Ozan Kose)

The activists were arrested early Wednesday in the western city of Izmir. Police said that their tweets contained “misleading and libelous information,” state-run news agency Anatolia reported. However, Ali Engin, an official from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said that they were detained for urging people to protest. 

Police tracked down the activists through their IP addresses, and were reportedly able to locate most of them. CHP said that they have sent lawyers to assist the arrested individuals.

The lawyers revealed to the media that police files on the individuals included tweets about where to meet, about police actions, and about the names of volunteer doctors and lawyers.

Earlier on Tuesday, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc apologized for the treatment of protesters during riots that grew out of a demonstration last Friday against the planned demolition of Taksim Gezi Park to build a mall. The police use of teargas and pepper spray to disperse protesters has been heavily criticized. 

Turkish riot police officer fires tear gas during clashes with protestors between Taksim and Besiktas in Istanbul on June 3, 2013 during a demonstration against the demolition of the park. (AFP Photo / Bulent Kilic)

Arinc said that the police’s actions were wrong, and that security forces have been ordered not to use teargas except in cases of self-defense. "The excessive violence that was used in the first instance against those who were behaving with respect for the environment is wrong and unfair. I apologize to those citizens," Arinc said at a news conference on Tuesday. 

After unrest began last Friday, tens of thousands of anti-government protesters held demonstrations in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Mugla, Antalya, and many other cities and towns across Turkey. At least two people were killed and thousands were injured in the nationwide protests. 

Source:  http://rt.com/news/turkey-arrests-twitter-activists-258/

Turkey protests continue despite apology

Protesters meet with deputy PM to demand cancellation of Gezi park demolition and release of dozens arrested in Izmir. Last Modified: 05 Jun 2013 12:19

Protests have continued in Turkey as demonstrators defied a government appeal to end deadly unrest in which two people have died.

On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arnic apologised for "excessive violence" against protesters trying to save a park in Istanbul, a campaign which acted as catatlyst for deeper tensions within the country.

A meeting between the deputy prime minister and some of the protesters took place on Wednesday in Ankara. 

Police used tear gas and water cannon overnight and into Wednesday morning on hundreds of protesters, who ignored warnings to disperse in Istanbul, Ankara and the southeastern city of Hatay.

In Istanbul, thousands gathered peacefully at Taksim Square on Wednesday yelling defiance at Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had earlier dismissed the protesters as "extremists" and "vandals".

read more at http://www.aljazeera.com

North Korea Threatens Nuclear Retaliation Against the United States

Furious over sanctions, NKorea vows to nuke US

HYUNG-JIN KIM

South Korean army soldiers walk on a snow covered road during an exercise near the border village of Panmunjom. North Korea on Thursday vowed to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States, amplifying its threatening rhetoric hours ahead of a vote by U.N. diplomats on whether to level new sanctions against Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test.

Lee Jin-man, Associated Press

Summary

North Korea on Thursday vowed to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States, amplifying its threatening rhetoric hours ahead of a vote by U.N. diplomats on whether to level new sanctions against Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test.

source: http://www.deseretnews.com

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

North Korea threatens nuclear action against ‘aggressors’

KCNA/EPA - A picture released by the North Korean Central News Agency shows North Korean soldiers during combat training at an undisclosed location, on March 6, 2013.

By Chico Harlan, Thursday, March 7, 6:16 AM

SEOUL — North Korea on Thursday threatened nuclear retaliation against the United States and other purported aggressors, describing Washington as a “criminal threatening global peace.”

Although Pyongyang routinely vows to demolish the United States in a sacred war, the threat issued Thursday marked a major escalation of rhetoric just hours before the U.N. Security Council is to discuss new sanctions aiming at reining in the North’s weapons program and restricting illicit overseas trade.

Calling the sanctions part of a U.S.-led “war of aggression,” the North vowed to “display the might . . . it built up decades after decades and put an end to the evil cycle of tension,” according to a statement published by the nation’s state-run news agency and attributed to a foreign ministry spokesman.

Long East Asia’s main menace, North Korea often becomes particularly combative in the run-up to and aftermath of U.N. sanctions. The isolated police state, in its state-controlled media, typically describes the sanctions as a thinly veiled effort by larger nations to cause its collapse, playing to a national narrative that says it must build up its army to defend sovereignty.

“If the enemy comes at us with a dagger,” the North said in a separate Thursday editorial in its state-run newspaper, “we’ll draw out a big sword to slice him in pieces, [and] if he comes with a rifle we’ll turn a big gun to blow him off, and if he threatens with nuke, we’ll face up to him with more powerful and accurate nuke strike means of our own.”

Security analysts do not yet think the North has the ability to strike the United States with a nuclear weapon, although the country is making progress after pouring billions into its weapons program and cooperating with Iran and Pakistan. The North has fissile material for bombs, and it succeeded last December in launching a long-range rocket into orbit. But countries typically need years of testing before engineers can mount a small nuclear warhead on a rocket with the confidence that it will hit its intended target.

For the North, conducting such tests are a problem because it is banned by existing sanctions from every kind of launch, blast or boom. Since 2006, the country has followed a pattern where nuclear or rocket tests bring sanctions, and the North then uses those sanctions as an excuse to carry out further tests. Nothing about the pattern has changed under new leader Kim Jong Eun, who inherited power in December, 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il.

The North’s statement Thursday about a preemptive nuclear strike came with a faint caveat. The Korean-language version suggested that the North would only carry out such a strike against “invaders,” meaning only if another nation breached its borders. But the English-language version of the statement says the strike will be carried out against “aggressors,” a more subjective term.

“So there’s some nuance in there,” said Dan Pinkston, a Seoul-based security expert for the International Crisis Group. “It’s not like a barge is going to float up the Potomac and a nuke will go off. Still, it’s problematic. . . . This says something about their doctrine with nuclear weapons. It says, ‘If we’re invaded with conventional weapons, we will respond with nuclear strikes.’ ”

The latest U.N. resolution, which diplomats will likely put to vote on Thursday, was drafted by the United States and China. The participation of Beijing is significant because it has long been the North’s key benefactor and has occasionally has stood in the way of international efforts to sanction Pyongyang. A draft of the latest resolution names several new individuals and business entities that will be targeted by sanctions.

“The sanctions [up for vote] will significantly impede North Korea’s ability to develop further its illicit nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” said Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. “These sanctions — as well as a commitment to take further significant measures in the event of another launch or nuclear test — will demonstrate clearly to North Korea the continued costs of its provocations.”

The latest sanctions come in response to a Feb. 12 underground test of what the North described as a miniaturized nuclear weapon.

In recent days, North Korea has threatened to nullify the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War and cut off a hotline at the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas. A North Korean army spokesman also said his soldiers would become “human bullets and bombs” to protect the country’s central leadership and the “dignity of the respected Marshal Kim Jong Eun.”

Tens of thousands in Pyongyang on Thursday protested the potential sanctions and ongoing U.S.-South Korea joint war exercises, according to the Associated Press, which has a bureau in Pyongyang.

source: http://www.washingtonpost.com

PREMONITIONS:

"i also have received a dream like premonition where a NUKE will be exploded on water, probably on a boat and probably in new york near the statue of liberty. it was like i was watching an News animation after the fact. " YAHOO

"then i started thinking about denver airport the roof being able to withstand 3000 degrees and the underground bunkers ...its basically jumping into a large oven , that heats from 0 to 200 degrees in like 10 seconds , that was in the house , outside was on fire everywhere it was only a matter of a minute or two before the house caves in on top of us ..."

"Sounds like a little preview of the Fourth of the Seven Last Plagues to me...

"And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory." Revelation 16:8,9" GOD LIKE PRODUCTIONS

Is This the Last Chance For Assad?

Al Assad's Last Stand

December 6, 2012

By Omar Lamrani

The battle for Damascus is raging with increasing intensity while rebels continue to make substantial advances in Syria's north and east. Every new air base, city or town that falls to the rebels further underlines that Bashar al Assad's writ over the country is shrinking. It is no longer possible to accurately depict al Assad as the ruler of Syria. At this point, he is merely the head of a large and powerful armed force, albeit one that still controls a significant portion of the country.

The nature of the conflict has changed significantly since it began nearly two years ago. The rebels initially operated with meager resources and equipment, but bolstered by defections, some outside support and their demographic advantage, they have managed to gain ground on what was previously a far superior enemy. Even the regime's qualitative superiority in equipment is fast eroding as the rebels start to frequently utilize main battle tanks, infantryfighting vehicles, rocket and tube artillery and even man-portable air-defense systems captured from the regime's stockpiles.

Weary and stumbling, the regime is attempting to push back rebel forces in and near Damascus and to maintain a corridor to the Alawite coast while delaying rebel advances in the rest of the country. Al Assad and his allies will fight for every inch, fully aware that their power depends on the ability of the regime forces to hold ground. 

The Battle for Damascus

After the last surge in fighting around Damascus in July and August, the regime kept large numbers of troops in the area. These forces continued search and destroy operations near the capital despite the considerable pressure facing its forces in the rest of the country, including in Aleppo. Once the rebels began to make gains in the north and east, the regime was forced to dispatch some of its forces around Damascus to reinforce other fronts. Unfortunately for the regime, its operations in the capital area had not significantly degraded local rebel forces. Rebels in the area began intensifying their operations once more, forcing the regime to recall many of its units to Damascus.It is important to remember that, despite considerable setbacks, al Assad's forces still control a sizable portion of Syria and its population centers. After failing to take Damascus in Operation Damascus Volcano in July, the rebels are again stepping up their efforts and operations in the Damascus area. However, unlike in their previous failed operation, this time the rebels are relying on an intensive guerrilla campaign to exhaust and degrade al Assad's substantial forces in Damascus and its countryside.

Aware of the magnitude of the threat, the regime has reportedly shifted its strategy in the battle for Damascus to isolating the city proper from the numerous suburbs. The rebels have made considerable headway in the Damascus suburbs. For example, on Nov. 25 rebels overran the Marj al-Sultan military air base in eastern Ghouta, east of the capital. Rebel operations in the outskirts of Damascus have also interrupted the flow of goods to and from the city, causing the prices of basic staples such as bread to skyrocket.

Rebel Gains in the East and North

Damascus is not the only area where the regime is finding itself under considerable pressure. The rebels have made some major advances in the last month in the energy-rich Deir el-Zour governorate to the east. Having seized a number of towns, airfields and military bases, the rebels have also taken the majority of the oil fields in the governorate. They captured the Al-Ward oil field Nov. 4, the Conoco natural gas reserve Nov. 27 and, after al Assad's forces withdrew from it on Nov. 29, the Omar oil field north of the town of Mayadeen. Al Assad's forces now control only five oil fields, all located west of the city of Deir el-Zour. With the battle for the city and its associated airfield intensifying, even those remaining fields are at risk of falling into rebel hands.

The rebel successes in Deir el-Zour have effectively cut the regime's ground lines of communication and supply to Iraq. They have also starved the regime of the vast majority of its oil revenue and affected its ability to fuel its war machine. At the same time, the rebels are reportedly already seeking to capitalize on their seizure of the eastern oil fields. According to reports, the rebels are smuggling oil to Turkey and Iraq and using the revenue to purchase arms. They are also reportedly using the oil and natural gas locally for power generators and fuel.

While all of eastern Syria may soon fall into rebel hands, rebels in the north have continued to isolate al Assad forces in Idlib and Aleppo governorates, particularly in the capital cities of those two provinces. After overrunning the 46th regiment near Atarib on Nov. 19 following a two-month siege, the rebels are now looking to further squeeze remaining regime forces in Aleppo by taking the Sheikh Suleiman base north of the 46th regiment's former base.

The Rebels' Improved Air Defense Capability

Isolated and surrounded, regime forces in the north are increasingly relying on air support for both defense and supply. However, this advantage is deteriorating every day and is increasingly threatened by the rebels' improved air defense arsenal and tactics.

The rebels first attempted to acquire air defense weaponry by seizing heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft artillery. They captured a number of air defense bases, taking 12.7 mm DShK heavy machine guns, 14.5 mm KPV heavy machine guns and even 23 mm ZU-23-2 autocannons. Over time, the rebels became more proficient with these weapons, and an increasing number of Syrian air force fixed-wing and rotary aircraft were shot down. The rebels also formed hunter-killer groups with air defense equipment mounted on flatbed trucks that provided them mobile platforms for targeting regime air and infantry units.

Read more: Al Assad's Last Stand | Stratfor 

Gaza, Egypt, Israel, Syria, War. Iran's Agenda in the Gaza Offensive.

update 11/16/2012 7:20pm GMT

FRAUD: CNN USES VIDEO FOOTAGE OF FAKED PALESTINIAN 'INJURIES'

------------------------end update-------------------------------------------
update 11/16/2012 11:17am GMT




-----------------------------------------end update-----------------------------------------------
update 11/16/2012 9:40am GMT


Iran's Agenda in the Gaza Offensive

November 16, 2012 | 0034 GMT
Summary

To begin to make sense of the escalating conflict in Gaza, we need to go back to the night of Oct. 23 in Khartoum. Around 11 p.m. that night, the Yarmouk weapons facility in the Sudanese capital was attacked, presumably by the Israeli air force. There were indications that Iran had been using this facility to stockpile and possibly assemble weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles, guided anti-tank missiles and long-range Fajr-5 rockets capable of reaching Tel Aviv and Jerusalem from Gaza. 

One of the major drivers behind Israel's latest air and assassination campaign is its belief that Hamas has a large cache of long-range Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 rockets in its possession. Israel's primary intent in this military campaign is to deny Hamas the ability to use these rockets or keep them as a constant threat to Israel's population centers. This likely explains why in early October, when short-range rocket attacks from Gaza were still at a low level, Israeli officials began conditioning the public to the idea of an "inevitable" Israeli intervention in Gaza. Israel knew Hamas had these weapons in its possession and that it could require a war to eliminate the Fajr rocket threat. It began with the strike on the facility in Sudan, extended to the assassination of Hamas military commander Ahmad Jabari (the architect of the Fajr rocket program) and now has the potential to develop into an Israeli ground incursion in Gaza. 

"All in all, this may turn

out to be a relatively

low-cost, high payoff

maneuver by Iran."

Analysis

Oct. 23 was not the first time Israel allegedly attacked weapons caches in Sudanese territory that were destined for Gaza. In January 2009, Israel allegedly carried out an airstrike against a weapons convoy northwest of Port Sudan heading to Gaza. The convoy included Fajr-3 rockets and was unusually large, with more than 20 trucks traveling north toward Gaza. The rushed shipment was allegedly arranged by Iran to reinforce Hamas during Operation Cast Lead. Iran was also exposed trying to smuggle weapons to Gaza through the Red Sea. 

Though efforts were likely made to conceal the weapons cache at Yarmouk, it obviously did not escape Israeli detection. Hamas therefore took a major risk in smuggling the weapons to Gaza in the first place, perhaps thinking they could get away with it since they have been able to with less sophisticated weapons systems. Before Hamas responded to the Nov. 14 Jabari assassination, there were two major spates of rocket and mortar attacks over the past month. The first was Oct. 8-10 and the second was Oct. 22-24. When the decision was made to carry out these attacks, Hamas may not have known that Israel had detected the long-range Fajrs. Launching Grad and Qassam mortars may have been Hamas' attempt at misleading Israel into thinking that Hamas did not even have the Fajr rockets, because otherwise it would have used them. Hamas may have also erroneously assumed that launching mortars and short-range rockets, as it periodically does when the situation gets tense with Israel, would not lead to a major Israeli response. 

By the time Israel attacked the Yarmouk facility, Hamas had to assume that Israel knew of the weapons transfer to Gaza. Hamas then quickly agreed to an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire Oct. 25. When attacks against Israel began picking up again around Nov. 10 -- including an anti-tank attack on an Israeli military jeep claimed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and several dozen more rocket attacks claimed by Palestinian Islamic Jihad and smaller Salafist-jihadist groups -- Hamas appeared more cautious, calling the main Gaza militant groups together on Nov. 12 to seek out another truce. By then, it was too late. They had already inadvertently provided the Israelis with the justification they needed to get public relations cover for their campaign to destroy Hamas' long-range rocket program. 

On Nov. 14, Jabari was assassinated, and Hamas had to work under the assumption that Israel would do whatever it took to launch a comprehensive military campaign to eliminate the Fajr threat. It is at this point that Hamas likely resigned to a "use it or lose it" strategy and launched Fajr rockets toward Tel Aviv, knowing that they would be targeted anyway and potentially using the threat as leverage in an eventual attempt at another truce with Israel. A strong Hamas response would also boost Hamas' credibility among Palestinians. Hamas essentially tried to make the most out of an already difficult situation and will now likely work through Egypt to try to reach a truce to avoid an Israeli ground campaign in Gaza that could further undermine its authority in the territory. 

In Tehran, Iranian officials are likely quite content with these developments. Iran needed a distraction from the conflict in Syria. It now has that, at least temporarily. Iran also needed to revise its relationship with Hamas and demonstrate that it retains leverage through militant groups in the Palestinian territories as part of its deterrence strategy against a potential strike on its nuclear program. Hamas decided in the past year that it was better off aligning itself with its ascendant parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, than remaining tethered to an ideological rival like Iran that was being put on the defensive in the region. Iran could still capture Hamas' attention through weapons sales, however, and may have even expected that Israel would detect the Fajr shipments. 

The result is an Israeli military campaign in Gaza that places Hamas' credibility in question and could create more space for a group like the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has close ties to Iran. The conflict will also likely create tension in Hamas' relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Jordan and Syria, since the Brotherhood, particularly in Egypt, is not prepared or willing to confront Israel beyond rhetoric and does not want to face the public backlash for not doing enough to defend the Palestinians from Israel Defense Forces. All in all, this may turn out to be a relatively low-cost, high payoff maneuver by Iran.

source: stratfor.com
-----------------------end update-------------------------------------

UPDATE 10-Rockets hit near Tel Aviv as Gaza death toll rises

* Two missiles explode close to Tel Aviv, shocking residents

* Israeli defence minister says militants will pay for this

* Gaza rocket hits Israeli house, kills three

* Hamas holds funeral for slain top commander, vows revenge

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip targeted Tel Aviv on Thursday in the first attack on Israel's commercial capital in 20 years, raising the stakes in a showdown between Israel and the Palestinians that is moving towards all-out war.

Earlier, a Hamas rocket killed three Israelis north of the Gaza Strip, drawing the first blood from Israel as the Palestinian death toll rose to 16, five of them children.

Israeli warplanes bombed targets in and around Gaza city for a second day, shaking tall buildings. In a sign of possible escalation, the armed forces spokesman said the military had received the green light to call in up to 30,000 reserve troops.

Plumes of smoke and dust furled into a sky laced with the vapour trails of outgoing rockets over the crowded city, where four young children killed on Wednesday were buried.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Palestinian militants would pay a price for firing the missiles.

At about the same time, Israeli aircraft conducted a wave of night raids on targets throughout the enclave, unleashing more than 25 strikes in swift succession.

An electricity generator supplying the home of Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh by the Gaza shore was hit by an Israeli missile.

The conflict, launched by Israel with the killing of Hamas's military chief, pours oil on the fire of a Middle East already ablaze with two years of revolution and an out-of-control civil war in Syria.

Egypt's new Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, viewed by Hamas as a protector, led a chorus of denunciation of the Israeli strikes by Palestinian allies.

Mursi's prime minister, Hisham Kandil, will visit Gaza on Friday with other Egyptian officials in a show of support for the enclave, an Egyptian cabinet official said. Israel promised that the delegation would come to no harm.

Israel says its attack is in response to escalating missile strikes from Gaza. Israel's bombing has not yet reached the saturation level seen before it last invaded Gaza in 2008, but Israeli officials have said a ground assault is still an option.

Israeli police said three Israelis died when a rocket hit a four-story building in the town of Kiryat Malachi, 25 km (15 miles) north of Gaza, the first Israeli fatalities of the latest conflict to hit the coastal region.

Air raid sirens sent residents running for shelter in Tel Aviv, a Mediterranean city that has not been hit by a rocket since the 1991 Gulf War. Israeli sources said one rocket landed in the sea, while another landed in an uninhabited area of the Tel Aviv suburbs.

The Tel Aviv metropolitan area holds more than 3 million people, more than 40 percent of Israel's population.

"This escalation will exact a price that the other side will have to pay," Barak said in a television broadcast shortly after the strike.

Speaking at the same time in Gaza, Hamas leader Haniyeh urged Egypt to do more to help the Palestinians.

"We call upon the brothers in Egypt to take the measures that will deter this enemy," the Hamas prime minister said.

After watching powerlessly from the sidelines of the Arab Spring, Israel has been thrust to the centre of a volatile new world in which Islamist Hamas hopes that Mursi and his newly dominant Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt will be its protectors.

"The Israelis must realise that this aggression is unacceptable and would only lead to instability in the region and would negatively and greatly impact the security of the region," Mursi said.

The new conflict will be the biggest test yet of Mursi's commitment to Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel, which the West views as the bedrock of Middle East peace.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which brought Mursi to power in an election after the downfall of Hosni Mubarak, has called for a "Day of Rage" in Arab capitals on Friday. The Brotherhood is seen as the spiritual mentors of Hamas.

ASSASSINATION

The Gaza offensive began on Wednesday when a precision Israeli air strike killed Hamas military mastermind Ahmed Al-Jaabari. Israel then began shelling the enclave from land, air and sea.

At Jaabari's funeral on Thursday, supporters fired guns in the air celebrating news of the Israeli deaths, to chants for Jaabari of "You have won."

His corpse was borne through the streets wrapped in a bloodied white sheet. But senior Hamas figures were not in evidence, wary of Israel's warning they are in its crosshairs.

The Israeli army said 250 targets were hit in Gaza, including more than 130 rocket launchers. It said more than 270 rockets had struck Israel since the start of the operation, with

its Iron Dome interceptor system shooting down more than 105 rockets headed for residential areas.

Expecting days or more of fighting and almost inevitable civilian casualties, Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets in Gaza telling residents to stay away from Hamas and other militants.

The United States condemned Hamas, shunned by the West as an obstacle to peace for its refusal to renounce violence and recognise Israel.

"There is no justification for the violence that Hamas and other terrorist organisations are employing against the people of Israel," said Mark Toner, deputy State Department spokesman.

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting late on Wednesday, but took no action.

French President Francois Hollande has begun talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other world leaders in an attempt to avert an escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Jean-Francois Ayrault said.

"GATES OF HELL"

Israel's sworn enemy Iran, which supports and arms Hamas, condemned the Israeli offensive as "organised terrorism". Lebanon's Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia Hezbollah, which has its own rockets aimed at the Jewish state, denounced strikes on Gaza as "criminal aggression", but held its fire. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation condemned Israel's action.

Oil prices rose more than $1 as the crisis grew. Israeli shares and bonds fell, while Israel's currency rose off Wednesday's lows, when the shekel slid more than 1 percent to a two-month low against the dollar.

A second Gaza war has loomed on the horizon for months as waves of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli strikes grew increasingly intense and frequent. Netanyahu, favoured in polls to win a Jan. 22 general election, said the Gaza operation could be stepped up.

His cabinet has granted authorisation for the mobilisation of military reserves if required to press the offensive, dubbed "Pillar of Defence" in English and "Pillar of Cloud" in Hebrew after the Israelites' divine sign of deliverance in Exodus.

Hamas has said the killing of its top commander in a precise, death-from-above air strike, would "open the gates of hell" for Israel. It appealed to Egypt to halt the assault.

Israel has been anxious since Mubarak was toppled last year in the Arab Spring revolts that replaced secularist strongmen with elected Islamists in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, and brought civil war to Israel's other big neighbour Syria.

Cairo recalled its ambassador from Israel on Wednesday. Israel's ambassador left Cairo on what was called a routine home visit and Israel said its embassy would stay open.

Gaza has an estimated 35,000 Palestinian fighters, no match for Israel's F-16 fighter-bombers, Apache helicopter gunships, Merkava tanks and other modern weapons systems in the hands of a conscript force of 175,000, with 450,000 in reserve.

read more at http://www.reuters.com

Israel Hit With Continuing Missile Barrage – 40 Rockets Fired From Gaza

The Jewish homeland continues to come under attack from Palestinian terrorists, who have fired 40 missiles into Israel since Monday, June 18, 2012. The recent round of terror attacks on Israel is particularly serious as Hamas has acknowledged responsibility for 10 of the missiles, violating their tenuous cease fire with Israel yet again.

The Israeli government has taken a swift but limited response to the attacks. The IAF engaged in targeted strikes on suspected Palestinian launch sites, killing 4 terrorists and critically injuring another. The Israeli government and the IDF have made it clear that they will continue Israel’s policy of responding to unprovoked missile attacks by striking directly at the terrorists’ launch sites and weapon storage facilities.

The acceptance of responsibility for some of the attacks by Hamas is a radical departure from their recent policy of allowing other militant groups to launch missiles and denying involvement. According to the Jerusalem Post, “In a statement released by Hamas’s armed wing, the Izzaddin al-Kassam Brigades, the group said that it fired three mortars aimed at an IDF base in Zikim. It later claimed responsibility for 10 missile launches.

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/258575/israel-hit-with-continuing-missile-barrage-40-rockets-fired-from-gaza/#k5FCOsX21IDBUvvy.99  

Israeli air strike kills Hamas military chief Jabari

The BBC's Wyre Davies: "The violence in and around the Gaza Strip has been escalated"

The head of the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has been killed during Israeli air and naval strikes in the Gaza Strip.

Ahmed Said Khalil al-Jabari and another Hamas official died when the car they were in was hit in Gaza City.

It follows a wave of rocket attacks against Israel from the territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military was prepared to broaden its operation against Hamas targets in Gaza.

At least nine people had been killed in Gaza by the Israeli strikes and that number would probably rise, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansou, told reporters in New York.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Today we sent a clear message to Hamas and other terrorist organisations”

Benjamin NetanyahuIsraeli Prime Minister

A number of injured civilians were seen being taken to hospital in Gaza City.

Neighbouring Egypt condemned the strikes, recalled its ambassador to Israel, summoned the Israeli ambassador in Cairo and called for a urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council and the Arab League.

The BBC's Kevin Connolly, in Cairo, says Egypt's reaction to events in Gaza will be followed closely.

It is the first time violence has reached this pitch of intensity since the events of the Arab Spring brought to power a president drawn from the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood, the same organisation in which Hamas has its roots.

Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokeswoman Lt Col Avital Leibovich said Mr Jabari had "a lot of blood on his hands".

Civilians injured in the air strikes were rushed to Gaza's hospitals

She told BBC News that "close to 20" sites in Gaza had been targeted in a "limited" operation, with the strikes aiming to destroy rocket-firing capabilities.

"The operation against Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other organisations has two goals: to protect Israeli civilians and target the terror capability of these organisations," she added.

On its Twitter feed, the Israeli military said 17 rockets fired from Gaza had been successfully intercepted by Israel's "Iron Dome" missile defence system on Wednesday, but one had got through and hit a "southern Israeli city".

This appeared to be a reference to Beersheba, where firefighters were seen extinguishing a burning car after a reported rocket strike.

It also claimed that Hamas's long-range missile capabilities and underground weapons storage facilities had been seriously damaged by Wednesday's strikes.

"Today we've sent a clear message to Hamas and to other terrorist organisations. And if there is a need, the Israeli Defense Forces are prepared to widen the operation. We will continue to do everything to defend our citizens," Mr Netanyahu said in a televised address.

'Israel will regret this'

Mr Jabari, who was 46, is the most senior Hamas official to be killed in the Gaza Strip since the major Israeli offensive four years ago.

Outside the hospital to which Mr Jabari's body was taken, thousands of angry Gaza residents chanted "retaliation" and "We want you to hit Tel Aviv tonight", according to the Associated Press news agency.

Hamas spokesman Abu Zuhri said: "Israel will regret the moment they even thought of doing this."

read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20328579

Israel ignores intl law with Gaza bombing, enjoys US, UK support (PHOTOS)

An Israeli soldier watches as an Iron Dome launcher fires an interceptor rocket near the southern city of Beersheba November 15, 2012. (Reuters / Baz Ratner)

The latest attacks by Israel against Gaza have been condemned as a violation of international law. However the US and UK have given their unwavering support to the new strikes on Gaza.

US President Barack Obama “reiterated US support for Israel's right to self-defense in light of rocket attacks from Gaza” in a phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.

Meanwhile UK Foreign Secretary William Hague also stepped forward in Israel’s defense, claiming that Hamas“bears principle responsibility” for the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Israel has now reportedly hit over 200 “targets” in Gaza, killing 13 and injuring over 120 people.

read more at http://rt.com/news/international-reaction-gaza-assault-736/

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First three Gaza missiles hit Tel Aviv. Israel drafts 30,000 reservists

DEBKAfile Special Report November 15, 2012, 8:17 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  IDF   Hamas   missile attacks   Gaza 

Israeli leaders decide enough is enough

The first three Palestinian missiles reached the Tel Aviv conurbation, Gush Dan, Thursday night, Nov. 15. shortly after a long-range missile exploded in Rishon Lezion southeast of Tel Aviv and sirens sounded in outlying towns of Holon, Ness Ziona, Gan Raveh and Beer Yacov. None report casualties or damage. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has ordered 30,000 army reservists drafted. The IDF spokesmen earlier reported units of the elite paratroop and Givati Brigades were mustering outside the Gaza Strip on the second day of Israel's counter-terror operation Pillar of Cloud.

From DEBKAfile's earlier report Thursday:  As the rockets kept coming through Wednesday night – and the first three fatalities Thursday morning, Nov. 15 - the cautious lift in Israeli spirits generated by the death of Ahmed Jabari, who fashioned Hamas into a paramilitary machine of terror, and the destruction of dozens of missile sites in Gaza, gave way to resignation for a long haul before southern Israel is free of its decade-long rocket nightmare.
Thursday morning, a rocket from Gaza killed three Israelis in Kiryat Malachi. By then, some 120 rockets – mostly targeting the major towns of Beersheba and Ashdod, but also smaller locations – had followed Jabari's death. Iron Dome intercepted 27.The first reserve units had been mobilized for possible ground action in Gaza to supplement the air offensive against the Palestinian missile arsenal.

 But Operation Pillar of Cloud’s first part showed a favorable balance: Palestinian missile fire was as erratic as ever, although intense; Iron Dome filtered out the rockets aimed at Israel’s major towns; Israeli casualties were relatively low though painful; and the enemy in Gaza was decapitated – for now.

But most of all, the Palestinians and their allies in Tehran and Hizballah suddenly discovered that the old IDF had come roaring back.

In the only former major Israeli operation in Gaza, Cast Lead (late 2008, early 2009), the IDF was slow, unwieldy and unfocused. Its counter-terror offensive was foreshortened by heavy diplomatic pressure before achieving anything, owing to the government’s lack of resolve. In the 2006 Lebanon War, the army was stalled before developing an effective tactical offensive.
The IDF of 2012 is in a different class, recalling its rapid-fire performance in the Six-Day War then fought on multiple fronts.

In just a few hours late Wednesday, Nov. 14, Pillar of Cloud achieved more than Cast Lead managed in weeks: It was driven by clockwork, integrated intelligence by the Shin Bet and Military Intelligence, precise, surgical air force strikes and a command-and-control with fast reflexes which recalled Israel’s military skills of 45 years ago.

The rapid destruction of scores of Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 rockets, whose respective ranges of 45 and 75 kilometers placed Israel’s heartland in line of Palestinian strikes, compared with the destruction of the Egyptian air force on the ground in the early hours of the 1967 war, rather than the bombardment of Hizballah’s long-range missiles in 2006 which failed to draw its sting.
In 1967, the Egyptian army had to fight in Sinai without air cover. In 2012, the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip were stripped of their key commander and terror strategist and lost substantial, though not all, its missile arsenal.

Wherever Operation Pillar of Cloud goes next – and the IDF is preparing for a long, hard haul – Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz deserve kudos for their performance thus far.

It may be said that Israel’s Gaza operation did in fact start on Oct. 24 in Sudan with the attack on the Yarmouk complex manufacturing Iranian missiles near Khartoum. Former Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin Wednesday confirmed DEBKAfile’s exclusive report that the factory had housed the emergency reserve stocks of the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami in the Gaza Strip.

Its destruction contributed to their loss of infrastructure.

The tough part of the Israeli operation to eliminate the terrorist war peril hovering over southern Israel from the Gaza Strip is still to come. For now, Hamas is at a loss for a strategic answer to the IDF offensive – unless one is provided by Tehran or Hizballah coming to its rescue.
source: http://www.debka.com/article/22528/First-three-Gaza-missiles-hit-Tel-Aviv-Israel-drafts-30-000-reservists

Gaza missiles fired at Tel Aviv

Hundreds of rockets have landed in southern Israel in recent days

Palestinian militants have attempted to hit Israel's commercial capital, Tel Aviv, with missiles fired from Gaza.

Residents took cover after air raid sirens alerted them to a missile threat for the first time in two decades, but there were no casualties.

Israel's defence minister authorised the call-up of 30,000 reservists.

Three Israelis were killed by rockets from Gaza earlier, while 15 Palestinians have been killed in two days of Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Israel said 274 missiles had been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel since Wednesday afternoon, when an Israeli strike killed the military leader of Hamas, Ahmed Jabari.

While some of those missiles have been intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system, others have hit their targets, including a direct hit on a block of flats in the town of Kiryat Malachi.

Two women and a man living on the top floor were killed.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said: "This escalation will exact a price that the other side will have to pay."

'Steadfast'

However, Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, condemned what he called Israel's "ferocious assault" against Gaza.

read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20349280

Israel hits Syrian targets after stray mortar fire

Syrian fighter jet bombs rebel-held area near Turkish border

Syria fighting expands10:55

An Israeli tank scored a "direct hit" Monday on a Syrian armoured vehicle after a mortar shell landed on Israeli-held territory, the military said, in the first direct confrontation between the countries since the Syrian uprising broke out.

This comes as a Syrian fighter jet bombed a rebel-held area near the Turkish border on Monday, killing more than a dozen people, while a rocket-propelled grenade landed in Turkey, officials and witnesses said.

The incidents raised fears that Syria's neighbours could be dragged into its ongoing conflict.

"We are closely monitoring what is happening and will respond appropriately," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday in a speech to foreign ambassadors. "We will not allow our borders to be violated or our citizens to be fired upon."

Israel has steadfastly tried to avoid getting sucked in, but it has grown increasingly worried after a series of stray mortar shells have struck territory in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

Israeli military officials say they believe the mortar fire is spillover from intense fighting near the frontier between Syrian President Bashar Assad's army and rebel forces trying to oust him, and not an overt attempt to hit the Jewish state.

Tanks targeted 'source of fire' in Syria

But on Monday, a senior Israeli official said Israel is starting to question that assessment.

The Israeli military says it has hit Syrian targets, after responding to stray mortar fire from its northern neighbour.(Ariel Schalit/Associated Press)

"We thought it was spillover, but today we're not sure," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the issue is still being debated among intelligence commanders.

Israeli officials have long feared that the embattled Assad might try to draw Israel into the fighting in an act of desperation.

In a statement, the military said Israeli tanks targeted the "source of fire" in Syria after the mortar shell landed in an open area of the Golan Heights. It confirmed "direct hits" on the targets.

Israeli military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity under army guidelines, said an armoured vehicle carrying "Syrian mobile artillery" was hit. There was no immediate word on casualties on the Syrian side, but Israeli officials said the vehicle was believed to belong to the Syrian government.

Monday's incident occurred in an area called Tel Hazeka, in the central Golan Heights near the Syrian frontier.

The Syrian Observatory, a Britain-based group that relies on a network of activists on the ground in Syria, said three rebel fighters were killed Monday in clashes with the Syrian army in Bir Ajam, a nearby village.

Smoke rises after shells fired by the Syrian army explode in the Syrian village of Bariqa, near the Syria-Israel border Monday. The Israeli military says Syrian mobile artillery was hit after responding to stray mortar fire from its northern neighbour. (Ariel Schalit/Associated Press)

Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Britain-based group, said rebels belonging to an Islamist group attacked several Syrian military checkpoints and that government forces fought back for control of the area.

The state-run news agency SANA has not commented on the fighting in the area or on the clash with Israel.

While Israel appeared eager to calm the situation, its response was a potent reminder of how easily the Syrian civil war — already spilling across borders with Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan — could explode into a wider regional conflagration.

Fatal Syrian bombing near Turkish border

On Monday, a Syrian fighter jet bombed a rebel-held area near the Turkish frontier three times, killing more than a dozen people in the town of Ras al-Ayn, a Turkish official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

The official said close to 70 people were brought to Turkey for treatment, where eight more of them died.

Syrians inspect the damage and look for victims after a bombing Monday near the Syrian-Turkish bordertown of Ras al-Ayn. (Shaam News Network via AP video/Associated Press)

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, speaking to reporters in Rome, said Ankara had formally protested the bombings close to the border, saying the attacks were endangering Turkey's security, state-run TRT television reported. He said Turkey had also reported the incident to NATO allies and to the United Nations Security Council.

The Syrian jet had not crossed the border into Turkey, he said, adding that Turkey would have responded if it had. He did not elaborate.

In recent months, shells fired from Syria have landed on Turkish territory, prompting Turkey's military to retaliate in kind.

Last week, the rebels overran three security compounds in Ras al-Ayn, located in the predominantly Kurdish oil-producing northeastern province of al-Hasaka, wresting control from the regime forces.

Rocket-propelled grenade lands in Turkey

Hours later, a Syrian helicopter was seen flying over Ras al-Ayn, prompting rebels to fire on it with machine-guns. The helicopter returned fire but it was not clear if there were any casualties.

Earlier Monday, a rocket-propelled grenade round landed on an empty field near Ceylanpinar. No one was injured, the official said. Turkey has been responding with fire to shells and mortars fired from Syria that land on its territory, but there was no immediate Turkish retaliation, according to the official.

The force of the blast from the aerial bombing shattered windows in Ceylanpinar, in southeastern Turkey, the official said. A few people were injured in Ceylanpinar, mostly from broken glass and shrapnel. The private Dogan news agency said a Turkish soldier guarding the border area was also hurt.

The violence in Syria has killed more than 36,000 people since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime began in March 2011. Hundreds of thousands have fled the fighting into neighbouring Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.

A surge of 11,000 more Syrians escaped into Turkey on Friday following the fighting at Ras al-Ayn.

Gulf council recognizes official opposition

The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council recognized the new broad-based Syrian opposition group Monday as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people, the first formal endorsement of the opposition group that seeks to topple President Bashar Assad.

Syrian anti-government groups struck a deal Sunday after more than a week of meetings in Qatar. They were under intense international pressure to form a new opposition leadership that will include representatives from the country's disparate factions fighting to topple Assad's regime. The deal is backed by the U.S. and other Western countries.

In its statement, the GCC said it will offer "support and endorsement to this entity to realize the aspirations and hopes of the Syrian people." The council said it hoped the new body will be a step toward quick political transfer of power and put an end to the bloodshed. It called for Arab and international recognition of the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces, the new body.

The GCC is made up of Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates..

source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/11/12/syria-civil-war-assad-turkey.html