Reports are surfacing that Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders are using the services of 5,000 Shiite Hizbullah soldiers to defend Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime against a growing number of anti-government rebel forces. In response, high-ranking American, NATO and Israeli generals have been quietly moving special operations personnel and equipment into the region in order to thwart possible chemical attacks against Israel, Turkey and Jordan.
Despite
repeated efforts by the U.S., NATO and Israel tried to coax Russia, Assad’s
closest ally, into persuading the Syrian dictator to leave the country so as to
spare further bloodshed while securing thousands of chemical weapons and their
warheads, the Kremlin has decided to make a last-ditch attempt to prop up Assad
by sending a fleet of warships to the Eastern Mediterranean.
According to
The Times of London, the Russian fleet, which features amphibious assault ships
and marines, is designed to prevent any possible combined NATO-Israeli invasion
of Syria in an effort to force Assad to leave Damascus.
With
Hizbullah and Iranian forces leading the charge against the rebels, who have
already conquered significant territory across Syria, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz have informed both the
White House and the Kremlin that special Israeli Air Force and ground units
would launch attacks against Hizbullah and pro-Assad forces if they detected a transfer
of unconventional weapons to Hizbullah. Earlier this week, Netanyahu said that
a number of Syrian army border posts and small towns along the Israeli border
on the Golan Heights had been overrun by Sunni anti-government rebels
affiliated with al Qaeda. The al Qaeda rebels have vowed to attack Israel if
they depose Assad.
In response
to the growing threats along the border, Netanyahu announced that a
sophisticated new border fence would be erected along the Syria-Lebanon
frontier within the next two years. NATO and American military personnel have
reportedly positioned several Patriot anti-missile batteries along the
Turkish-Syrian border and in northern Israel. Intelligence reports have
indicated that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders want to secure
several long-range Scud missile batteries that could be mounted with chemical
warheads for their Hizbullah proxies. Those surrogates could threaten northern
and central Israel from inside Syria or Lebanon.
Late last
week, the Israeli government and the IDF alerted several major hospitals in the
north to continue their ongoing “mass casualty” drills and to prepare special
areas to receive victims of chemical warfare attacks.
Dr. Michael
Halberthal, director of medical operations at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, told
The Jewish Press, “For the moment, there has been no change or upgrade in our
alert status. However, we are moving as quickly as possible to complete our new
state-of-the-art underground hospital facility, which is designed to
accommodate well over a thousand patients, including victims of chemical
warfare. When completed, the underground facility will have the unique
capability of operating within an anti-chemical warfare environment for three
full days without outside support.
“Our doctors
and nurses are constantly trained and drilled for the eventuality of dealing
with chemical attacks. We already have special decontamination areas that are
earmarked inside our current facility, as well as the new underground hospital.
Rambam is the first and only medical facility in the region that possesses
these advanced capabilities. We hope we never have to use them, but we are
ready for any eventuality.”
Content is
provided courtesy of the Jewish Press