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Thu August 18, 2011Breaking News
Two key Libyan towns Brega and Misrata have fallen to Qaddafi's forces amid heavy rebel losses • DEBKAfile: The insistent reports of rebel victories are false • Chinese chief-of-staff Gen. Chen Bing-de visits Israel to "enhance friendship and promote cooperation," the defense ministry in Beijing announces • His is the guest of Israel's top soldier Gen. Benny Gantz • China's Navy Commander visited Israel in May • Heavy Syrian tank bombardment of Homs and Latakia districts continues Wednesday • Israel's refusal to apologize to Turkey for last year's flotilla deaths is final, Washington was informed • A UN panel confirms Israel acted in accordance with international law • Washington imposes sanctions on Montaz Dughmush, Gaza leader of Islamic Liberation Army • DEBKAfile: Cairo demands Dughmush's arrest and extradition • A Palestinian gunman caught crawling up to the Gaza-Israeli border opposite Kissufim was shot Tuesday night • In Iraq, gunmen dragged 7 worshippers out South Baghdad mosque and executed them outside Tuesday • Wave of terrorist bombings Monday killed at least 89, injured scores in Iraqi towns •
TopicsDEBKAfile Exclusive Report August 17, 2011, 1:16 PM (GMT+02:00)Bashar Assad uses the Palestinians to promote his crackdownNew Israeli concessions to Hamas for the release of the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit have not produced momentum because the kidnapped soldier has become a pawn in the power plays between Cairo, Hamas and Damascus. Khaled Meshaal's trip to Cairo came out of an Egyptian overture to Syria. Bashar Assad took the Palestinian card to serve his crackdown on the opposition and counter-balance his massacre of Latakia's Palestinians.
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moreZero Response to Syrian Army Draft
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moreAsif Shawqat Rises from a Double Purge
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moreTop Stories
- Libyan rebel "gains" smokescreen for talks in Tunisia
- Egypt's 5,000 troops take on 2,000 al Qaeda in Sinai
- Syria tanks enter Homs while battling Latakia
- Obama and Erdogan grant Assad 15 days to finish uprising
- Israel sets up September Commands
- Syria goads Turkey by attacking towns along their border
- Assad toughs it out against US, Turkey
- Russia: NATO close to military steps in Syria ahead of Iran attack
HeadlinesLibyan rebel "gains" smokescreen for talks in Tunisia to end war
DEBKAfile Exclusive ReportAugust 16, 2011, 2:17 PM (GMT+02:00)Qatari helicopters from Benghazi land on DjerbaThe rush of military advances claimed by Libyan rebels and the rumored near collapse of Muammar Qaddafi's army and his imminent flight are designed,DEBKAfile's sources report, as a smokescreen for current occurrences. One is the semi-secret opening of Libyan government-rebel talks on the Tunisian island of Djerba Saturday and their significant progress. Another is the deep divisions in the rebel leadership. DEBKAfile has for weeks been reporting on talks afoot on Qaddafi's incremental departure from power.
Read moreEgypt's 5,000 troops take on 2,000 al Qaeda in Sinai. Three officers kidnapped
DEBKAfile Exclusive ReportAugust 15, 2011, 7:12 PM (GMT+02:00)Egyptian troops enter Sinai in forceMonday, Aug. 15, three Egyptian army brigades of 1,700 men backed by tanks, an equal number of special policemen and 3,400 security personnel drove into the northern Sinai towns of El Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah thereby launching a mission to retake Sinai from rampant Islamists, who were also responsible for sabotaging a gas pipeline. DEBKAfile: In their first clash with Islamic Liberation Army gunmen, three Egyptian officers were kidnapped, one gunman was killed and 11 detained.
Read moreSyria tanks enter Homs while fighting Palestinians in Latakia
DEBKAfile Exclusive ReportAugust 15, 2011, 11:11 AM (GMT+02:00)Syrian-Palestinian battlefield in LatakiaTaking advantage of the 15-day leeway granted him by the US and Turkey, Bashar Assad Monday, Aug. 15, sent tanks and mechanized infantry into Homs, a town of 1.5 million inhabitants. Heavy shelling rings out as clouds of smoke rise over the city. Homs is Syria's third largest town and the biggest the Syrian military has attacked. In Latakia, Syrian tanks continue to battle armed Palestinians and in Brussels, NATO and Turkey get set to send the rebels anti-tank weapons.
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on your Android device!Obama and Erdogan grant Assad 15 days to finish uprising. Call-up in Turkey
DEBKAfile Exclusive ReportAugust 13, 2011, 9:43 AM (GMT+02:00)Syrian protesters flee tank divisionsThursday night, Aug. 11, US President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan agreed to set Syrian President Bashar Assad the deadline of Aug. 27 for extinguishing the popular uprising against his rule and starting to implement genuine democratic reforms. This decision followed Erdogan's report to Obama on the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's six-hour conversation with Assad Tuesday, Aug. 9. Turkey has called up reserves for transfer to the Syrian border.
Read moreIsrael sets up "September Commands" though no intel on Palestinian disorders
DEBKAfile Exclusive ReportAugust 12, 2011, 12:56 PM (GMT+02:00)Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny GantzIsrael's military, police and Shin Bet security service are drilling extreme scenarios of possible Palestinian disturbances, mass rallies or even terrorist attacks in September – although there is no specific intelligence of a security threat in the offing. The authorities have also set up "September Command Centers" so as not to be caught off guard. The intelligence updates fed them on Palestinian activities contain no signs so far of organized Palestinian preparations for disorders beyond some talk at local Fatah cell level.
Read moreDEBKAfile in FacebookDEBKAfile on TwitterSyria goads Turkey by attacking towns along their border
DEBKAfile Special ReportAugust 10, 2011, 8:44 PM (GMT+02:00)Syrian tanks in action near Turkish borderLess than 24 hours after Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu handed Bashar Assad in Damascus "a final warning," to stop the bloodshed or else, Assad demonstrated coolly that he is not scared by the prospect of Turkish or NATO military intervention or deterred by new US sanctions against Syria's biggest bank and mobile phone company. The day after his Turkish guest departed, Wednesday, Aug. 10, Assad launched provocative military assaults on three towns in the Turkish border region - following receipt of a missile shield guarantee from Iran.
Read moreAssad toughs it out against US-Turkish ultimatum to halt military crackdown
DEBKAfile Exclusive ReportAugust 8, 2011, 10:03 AM (GMT+02:00)Deir al-Zour under Syrian tank assaultAs his tanks and artillery stormed the eastern Syrian town of Deir al-Zour, killing 100 civilians in one day, the US and Turkey Sunday night, Aug. 7 began to turn the screw on President Bashar Assad: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked Turkey's foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu to press Syria to "return its military to the barracks," during his visit to Syria Tuesday. The Syrian ruler with Iranian backing spurned the ultimatum even before the minister reached Damascus.
Read moreRussia: NATO close to military steps in Syria for beachhead to attack Iran
DEBKAfile Special ReportAugust 5, 2011, 12:39 PM (GMT+02:00)Russia's NATO envoy Dmitry RogozinTwelve hours after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned Assad he faced a "sad fate" if he failed to introduce reforms, Moscow's envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin accused the Western alliance of planning a military campaign against Syria to help overthrow the Assad regime "with the long-reaching goal of preparing a beachhead for an attack on Iran."
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In an Izvestia interview Friday, Aug. 5, Rogozin added: "This statement means that the planning [of the military campaign] is well underway."Readers' Choice
Pakistan Takes Saudi Dollars, Flirts with Iran
DEBKA-Net-Weekly #502July 28, 2011Prince Bandar bin SultanSaudi imperial polices have been gravely set back by Pakistan's vacillations and flirtation with Tehran after shelling out two billion petrodollars in aid to buy Pakistan's partnership in Riyadh's plan for an international Sunni legion to withstand Shiite Iran. This did not stop President Asif Ali Zardari visiting Tehran and pledging expanded trade ties with the Islamic Republic.
Read moreQaddafi's sons will lead new Libyan regime
DEBKA-Net-Weekly #501July 22, 2011Muammar QaddafiThe Obama administration is willingly handing the diplomatic lead for ending the Libyan crisis to Moscow having concluded that America no longer commands the resources for carrying global burdens on its own. Muammar Qaddafi, supported by Russia and Africa, will insist on staying in power until the agreed transition is reliably implemented with room at the top for his sons.
Read more15,000 US Troops to Stay in Iraq
DEBKA-Net-Weekly #500July 15, 2011New US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki quietly agree to at least 15,000 US troops remaining in Iraq after 2011in the guise of diplomats and other civilian personnel with America keeping control of four big air bases – two of them facing Iran. The Iraqi prime minister is dragging his feet before making this understanding public.
Read moreAnalysisMoscow defends Assad, seeks nuclear deal with Iran by freezing sanctions
DEBKAfile Exclusive ReportAugust 2, 2011, 7:36 AM (GMT+02:00)Nikolay Patrushev to visit Tehran Aug. 15As Moscow prepares to block strong UN Security Council condemnation of Syrian violence against protest, Russian diplomats Monday, Aug. 1, launched a quiet effort to start freezing sanctions imposed on Iran over its military nuclear program in return for Tehran satisfactorily answering the International nuclear watchdog's "questions and concerns," DEBKAfile's Moscow and Washington sources report.
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Iranian Foreign Minister Saeed Jalili visits Moscow Aug. 17. Washington is standing by for results.Libyan rebels killed their own commander
DEBKAfile Exclusive ReportJuly 29, 2011, 1:48 PM (GMT+02:00)Gen. Abdul Fatah YounisGen. Abdel Fatah Younis, commander of the Libyan rebel forces fighting Muammar Qaddafi, was put to death on the orders of Mustapha Abdul Jalil, head of the rebel TNC,DEBKAfile's sources report. TNC officers abducted him and two aides and shot them in the head 20 kilometers outside Benghazi.
Jalil wanted the powerful Younis out of the way before the start of peace negotiations, for fear he would beat his own path to Qaddafi and head the future government alongside Saif al-Islam.
Read moreIran new Hamas commando brigade in Gaza
DEBKAfile Exclusive ReportJuly 31, 2011, 9:04 AM (GMT+02:00)Hamas' first commando unit set up by IranA team of Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) officers has just finished setting up Hamas' first commando unit especially trained to combat any Israel military force entering the Gaza Strip, DEBKAfile's military sources report. The new "Al Qods Brigades" unit of 400 men is to be the first of three. The urban guerrilla tactics imparted to Hamas drew heavily on the experience Al Qods is gaining in Syria, where its experts help President Bashar Assad crack down on protest.
Read moreStuxnet returns to bedevil Iran's nuclear systems
DEBKAfile Exclusive ReportJuly 20, 2011, 4:35 PM (GMT+02:00)The Stuxnet malworm - at it againDEBKAfile's intelligence sources report that the Stuxnet malworm which played havoc with Iran's nuclear program for eleven months was not purged after all. Tehran never did overcome the disruptions caused by Stuxnet or restore its centrifuges to smooth and normal operation as was claimed. Indeed, Iran finally resorted to the only sure-fire cure, scrapping all the tainted machines and replacing them with new ones – as was indicated Tuesday by an announcement in Tehran.
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