http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/14/israel-accused-russian-missiles-syria

US officials say Israel targeted advanced anti-ship cruise missiles near Syria's principal port city, Latakia, in an air attack this month, the New York Times reported.

The officials say the attack on 5 July near Latakia targeted a type of Russian-made missile called the Yakhont that Russia had sold to the Syrian government, the paper's website reported. Russia is a key political ally and arms supplier of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The officials provided no details on the strike, including the extent of the damage and how many missiles were used. The Times reported that the officials declined to be identified because they were discussing intelligence reports.

Israel maintains it is not involved in Syria's two-year-old civil war except to stop weapons transfers. The strike near Latakia was the fourth known air strike in Syria by Israel this year, the newspaper reported.

The attack came to light after Syrian rebels said they were not behind the explosions in Latakia on 5 July, according to the Times. Neither US nor Israeli officials have commented publicly on the report.

Reports surfaced earlier this year that Russia had delivered an advanced version of its Yakhont anti-ship cruise missile to Assad's regime even though Russia had said it was committed to peace talks. Those reports prompted the US to complain in May about an "ill-timed" step by Russia.

Such weapons would help to upgrade significantly Syria's capacity to target manned planes, drones and incoming missiles and would complicate efforts to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria if the US and other nations were to initiate one.

My previous post on developing WW3:-

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2013/07/07/israel-destroyed-syrian-weapons-depot/

A massive explosion last Thursday at a major Syrian weapons depot in Latakia, not far from the main port of Tartous, completely destroyed the facility and munitions stored there. Tartous is Syria’s main port. It is largely controlled by the Russian military, and the route by which all weapons transported by sea would enter Syria. As such, any advanced Russian weaponry would enter via Tartous and might be stored in the Latakia depot.

Though the Free Syrian Army took immediate credit for the attack, it was not the responsible party. A confidential Israeli source informs me that Israeli forces attacked the site. The target were components of Russia’s SA-300 anti-aircraft missile system which had been shipped by Russia to Tartous and stored in Latakia. Israel and exerted tremendous pressure on Vladimir Putin to cancel its contract to supply the missile batteries to Syria, since once they were operational they would render Israeli aircraft more vulnerable to attack. Israel, of course, will countenance no front-line state having even defensive weapons which give it superiority over Israeli weapons systems. In response to Israeli entreaties, Russia’s leader refused to budge and recommitted to providing the weapons to Assad. Apparently, he’d begun to follow through on his promise with these first shipments.


Site of Thursday’s attack

This is Israeli third attack inside Syria since January. It considerably escalates the conflict there since it is the first known attack by Israeli forces which destroyed Russian armaments. Though Putin was surely warned by Israel that this would happen if he went forward with the arms deal, actually attacking Russian munitions is an act to which Putin will not take kindly, to say the least.

Assad bragged publicly a month ago that the SA-300 deliveries had arrived. Turns out he was right. Perhaps he shouldn’t have shot his mouth off.

Israel’s Channel 10 aired a claim by Syria rebels that Israel attacked and Israel journalists tell their viewers that they know things they’re not allowed to tell. A clear indication of Israeli involvement. Haaretz reports that a Syrian army source called the explosion the result of a technical failure, which hardly seems credible.

My source further notes that the FSA coordinated with the IDF and launched a rocket attack on nearby government military installations in order to distract loyalist forces from the real target. But the rebels played no role in the attack on the munitions cache. Their claim of responsibility conveniently takes Israel off the hook (until people read this report) and lessens pressure or condemnation on Israel for its third major attack inside Syria since January.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhObUaGtS1Q&feature=c4-overview&list=UU5gtqdJOvhGdh-6WRO2CTpw

The Israeli military has test-fired a new long-range ballistic missile reportedly capable of carrying a nuclear, chemical or biological warhead.

The military described Friday’s launch from a base on the Mediterranean coast as the test of the propulsion system of a missile on which it declined to elaborate, AFP reported.   

“This morning, Israel conducted a launching test from the Palmachim base of a rocket propulsion system,” the Israeli ministry for military affairs said in a brief statement.

“The scheduled test was pre-planned… and was carried out as expected,” it added.

Israeli media, citing analysts, said the test was very likely related to Israel’s Jericho ballistic missile system.

Aalysts say the most modern version of the system, the Jericho III, has a range of between 5,000 and 11,000 kilometers, and can carry a warhead of up to one ton.

The last test of a Jericho III missile was conducted in November 2011.

In 2008, the Israeli military test-fired another long-range ballistic missile, threatening to strike Iran.

The Israeli regime is widely believed to be the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East. The regime reportedly maintains between 200 and 400 atomic warheads, but under its policy of so-called nuclear ambiguity, it has never denied nor confirmed its possession of the weapons of mass destruction.

Furthermore, the Israeli regime has never allowed any inspection of its nuclear facilities and continues to defy international calls to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

MN/MHB

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/07/13/313543/israel-test-fires-nuclearcapable-missile/

Part of the build up to World War 3 will be the complete nuclear annihilation of DAMASCUS as prophesied in Isiah 17:1.

Damascus is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world for over 4000 years without being sacked by invasion or war. Who will destroy Damascus with a nuclear strike is anybody's guess.

I pity israel.
They're poking the eyes of a lion,which is russia.
Even america will not dare provoke russia like this.

Hmmm, its a pity someone's biting more than he could chew!!!

#Sits back and watches in 3d#

Russia is not as strong as we think again.
The only thing that makes russia relevant in the world is there nuclear weapon and their ICBM systems.
Dey have the best rocket ICBM system in the world.
Minus those 2 things any advanced country can invade them.

Mod front page will like us to discuss the topic

malele: Russia is not as strong as we think again.
The only thing that makes russia relevant in the world is there nuclear weapon and their ICBM systems.
Dey have the best rocket ICBM system in the world.
Minus those 2 things any advanced country can invade them.

I could hunt you down for saying the bolded

solomon111: I pity israel.
They're poking the eyes of a lion,which is russia.
Even america will not dare provoke russia like this.

Are you sure russians are not afraid of isrealis? Isreal na small shittt wey dey spoil yansh o

The long range missile test by Israel a few days ago is a warning by Israel to Russia: Do not mess with us or we will obliterate Moscow.

solomon111: I pity israel.
They're poking the eyes of a lion,which is russia.
Even america will not dare provoke russia like this.

Russia lives in past glory. They are not tite like b4. It's Russia d̶̲̥̅̊α̇̇̇̊τ̲̣̣̥ can't dare America. Don't pity Israel cos they hv de capabilities ‎​t̶̲̥̅̊​o̶̲̥̅̊​ withstand any storm d̶̲̥̅̊α̇̇̇̊τ̲̣̣̥ Comes their way." Even naija can take on Russia" no laff. jus kidding tho

citizenisb: The long range missile test by Israel a few days ago is a warning by Israel to Russia: Do not mess with us or we will obliterate Moscow.

solomon111: I pity israel.
They're poking the eyes of a lion,which is russia.
Even america will not dare provoke russia like this.

My dnt pity israel instead pity russia,israel will finish russia if them wish,my dear israel is born 2 fight n win no nation will defeat them israel can fight d whole world n will nt be defeated

Most of you are ignorant about Russia and Israel. If any of you happened to studied in Israel or have lived there for years, you wouldn't be here saying all these because Russia can't fight Israel neither will Israel fight Russia.

Do any of you have idea that Russian Jews and Morocco Jews dominated Israeli Government and most of these Russian prominent Jews are building up Russia through what they makes from Israel.

scipher:
I could hunt you down for saying the bolded

Bro any advanced country can challenge russia, if dey decide not to use their Icbm Technology.

malele:
Bro any advanced country can challenge russia, if dey decide not to use their Icbm Technology.

no country can defeat Russia... Rather, they'd destroy this planet than fall

scipher: no country can defeat Russia... Rather, they'd destroy this planet than fall

The same goes to isreal and USA

scipher: no country can defeat Russia... Rather, they'd destroy this planet than fall

Bro minus nukes russia is not that strong.

The United States is pissed off with both the egyptian military and Israel that is why they have exposed their attack on the Russians openly exposing Israel to reprisals. They are two ship load of US Marines off the coast of Egypt as we speak:

The Obama administration is signifying its strong disapproval of Israel and Egypt taking matters in their own hands in the last two weeks, debkafile’s military and Washington sources report: Israel was accused of independent military action against Syria, and the Egyptian army of persecuting the Muslim Brotherhood after deposing President Mohamed Morsi.  

Washington is also highly displeased with the campaign the Egyptian army launched after the coup, with Israel’s active support, to root out the Islamist terror blighting the Sinai Peninsula. US warships and marines are now parked off Egypt’s Red sea coast as a deterrent to the generals in Cairo.

For whipping Israeli into line, the administration used another method, i.e., Pentagon leaks naming Israeli air strikes as responsible for the explosions at the Syrian weapons depot outside the port town of Latakia on July 5, which demolished a fresh stock of Russian Yakhont (NATO codenamed SS-N-26) shore-to-ship missiles along with their advanced radar.

Although CNN ran this leak Friday, July 7, sourcing it to three separate unnamed US officials, the New York Times repeated the story Saturday and it was picked up by more US media for the third day running on Sunday.

Israel declined to comment on the report.

This over-exposure of alleged Israeli culpability certainly risked prodding Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Syrian ruler Bashar Assad into retaliating for the Latakia bombardment.
Our sources find a second US motive behind this tactic  - this one relating to the standoff between Washington and Moscow over Edward Snowden, who has been holed up for three weeks in a hotel in the transit area of Moscow international airport tin defiance of US demands for his extradition to face trial for espionae.

Putin has steadily refused to hand him over to America.

The idea in Washington was to put the Russian president’s credibility on the line and embarrass him by showing Moscow as having "lost" a large consignment of Russian missiles for Syria.

When Putin appeared inclined to offer the young American political asylum, Washington seems have decided to use the Latakia incident to apply the screws and, at the same time, teach him a lesson: If the Russians want Washington to keep the Israeli military on a leash, they must stop disregarding US views on the Syrian question and start playing ball with Obama.

For teaching the Egyptian generals a lesson, the administration resorted to tangible military steps: two amphibious assault ships carrying 2,600 Marines were moved to the southern Egyptian Red Sea coast.

Gen. James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, reported Thursday that the huge USS Kearsarge (1,800 Marines) and the USS San Antonio (with 800 Marines) had “moved up into the Red Sea and parked off Egypt,” a couple of nights ago, “because we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

debkafile’s military sources report that the two vessels also carry a fleet of helicopters for ferrying the Marines to distant ground arenas.

The US has placed additional Marine units at Signonella base in southern Italy and slowpoke in Spain on the alert with orders to be ready to move at 60 minutes’ notice.

To calm the tension, the US Embassy in Egypt said on its website Saturday: "We deny false claims in the Egyptian press that US naval ships are in the vicinity of the Arabian Peninsula and the Suez Canal to militarily invade Egypt."

According to our sources, the US flotilla was brought in to warn Egyptian strongman Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his generals that if they took their persecution of the Muslim Brotherhood too far, American Marines stood ready to step in.

1.  Should shipping through one of the world’s major world arteries, the Suez Canal, be imperiled  – as in case of sabotage by the Muslim Brotherhood or the armed Salafists of Sinai, a menace raised repeatedly by debkafile - the US military would be there to take charge of securing international shipping in the waterway.

2. The US maintains 1,000 army personnel in Sinai, most members of the 1st Cavalry Division, as part of the multinational force which monitors the 1979 Egyptian-Israel peace treaty provisions.

The Obama administration is keeping a close eye on the mounting Islamist violence in the peninsula and the Egyptian military campaign which was mounted, in close intelligence cooperation with Israel and the IDF, against two terrorist elements –the armed Salafist Bedouin associated with al Qaeda and the Palestinian Hamas of Gaza, whose operations have spilled out into Sinai.

US strategists see the fighting in Sinai escalating and spreading and allow that American military intervention may be called for – especially if US MFO service personnel are in harm’s way.

While the (chemical) dust over Syria has yet to settle, one country is not waiting around before in tried and true fashion it kicks the proverbial hornets nest.

Only this time the recipient of Israeli aggression is not some small country that can hardly afford to defend itself against made in the US, state-of-the-art weapons: it is Russia, if only indirectly.

Last Friday, July 5, in the fog of the Egyptian coup, a contingent of 50 Russian-made Yakhont P-800 anti-ship missiles at the Syrian port-city of Latakia was destroyed. It has since become clear that the attack was launched by none other than an Israeli Dolphin-class (German-made) submarine according to a report in the British Sunday Times, which in turn contradicts a previous report that the attack had been the work of the Israeli air force.

Furthermore, the alleged Israeli naval strike was closely coordinated with the United States. While this open aggression on Russian interests in Syria for now remains unchallenged, one wonder what happens when the news hits that US-made weapons supporting Syrian "rebels" have been mysteriously blown up by Russian rockets and how furious the public outcry would be against such an open Russian provocation.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-14/israeli-german-made-subs-destroy-russian-missiles-syria-russia-holds-largest-post-so

Fast forward one week when we learn that in a perfectly unrelated event, a massive military drill involving naval forces, strategic bomber aircraft, missile-defense teams, tactical and strategic missiles, infantry, and armored vehicles took place in Russia's far east: a perfectly unrelated exercise that just happens to have 160,000 soliders, 1,000 tanks, 130 aircraft and 70 naval vessels that has been classified as the largest of its kind in the post-Soviet period.



From RFE:

An unspecified number of Tu-95MS strategic nuclear bomber aircraft reportedly were being readied for combat missions at an airbase in the Amur region. An armored brigade with some 100 tanks made a 1,100-kilometer rail journey from Buryatia to the Tsugol testing ground in Chita Oblast.
 
Tank commander Dmitry Manyukin told the Russian TV news station Rossia 24 on July 14 that his company's final objectives in the exercise had not yet been issued in order to test the ability of Russian troops to respond quickly to freshly received orders.
 
"The peculiarity [of this drill] is that [although] we deployed here 24 hours ... it hasn't yet been disclosed to us where we will move from here and what we will be ordered to accomplish," he said.
 
According to Manyukin, the emphasis on being prepared for rapid deployment was being emphasized by the Defense Ministry in Moscow.
 
"Since the appointment of the new Defense Minister [Sergei Shoigu], combat readiness has been treated very seriously," he said. "Very strict demands have been put in place for combat readiness ever since."
 
The 83rd Airborne Brigade has been ordered from its base in Ussuriisk to Sakhalin Island, where an amphibious assault will be carried out in coordination with assault ships "Oslyabya" and "Nikolai Vilkov" assault ships.
 
A mobile radiation, chemical, and biological defense brigade has also been taking part in the exercise.
And speaking of hands on...

Putin has said he might personally participate in the drill, which is scheduled to end on July 20.

Israelis may be responding to Russian helping Syria to recently both sink an Israeli submarine and shoot down an Israeli plane - not in mainstream news

On 4 May 2013 the Syrian navy apparently sunk one of these very same Israeli submarines, a German-built Dolphin.

This past Monday, 8 July 2013, the Israelis lost an F-16 fighter plane in the Mediterranean ... what is unsaid is that it was probably one of the Russian missiles in Syria that shot it down.

Much more is going on here than we can be sure of ...

---

Also, there are some heavy connections between Russia and Israel ...

Of the 8 million people in Israel (not counting Palestinian territory occupied by them), 1.5 million are Arabs within Israel, and 1 million of the people in Israel are Russians, who came over in the 1990s when the average Russian was in dire poverty, on the basis they had a Jewish ancestor, welcomed by Israel because Israel wanted more Jews

Of these 1 million Israeli Russian-speakers, maybe half do not consider themselves Jewish, and are often Orthodox Christian in religion ... they went to Israel because it seemed less poor and had warmer weather. Some of these Russian Israelis actually have anti-Jewish hatred, put up swastika graffiti in Israel etc

Amid that big 1990s Russian migration, a number of KGB agents and sympathisers went to Israel, Russia even supplying them with fake documents about a Jewish ancestor so they could get instant Israeli citizenship under Israel's 'White Jew' programme (Israel mostly rejects Jews from Africa who are black)

Some of these Russian Israelis have headed back home ... but most stay, liking the warmer weather, and they have Russian TV, a Russian-speaking Israeli political party etc

There is also in general the enormously powerful Russian-speaking Jewish mafia, mostly kicked out of Russia to Israel, but still with links to the Russian homeland

Israel and Germany unveiled the fifth Dolphin-class submarine constructed for the Israel Navy at a ceremony at the German port of Kiel on Monday.

The submarine – called the INS Rahav – is the most expensive defense platform ever purchased by Israel. The vessel is set to undertake several long-range classified missions that are critical for Israel’s security.

The submarine is viewed by the navy as an important “force multiplier” that will enable Israel to cope with threats in the increasingly unstable Middle East region.

According to foreign reports, the navy’s Dolphins also provide Israel with nuclear second-strike capabilities, as they can travel far from Israel’s territorial waters and are reportedly able to carry long-range cruise missiles tipped with nuclear warheads.

Some defense analysts consider the submarines to be a crucial aspect of Israeli nuclear deterrence vis-à-vis Iran.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu welcomed the announcement, calling the submarines “a strong, strategic tool for the IDF.”

“The State of Israel,” said the prime minister, “is ready to act anytime, anywhere – on land, sea and air – in order to ensure the security of Israel’s citizens.”

Among their many capabilities, submarines can launch conventional missile attacks on near and distant targets, fire torpedoes at various naval vessels and engage in intelligence-gathering.

The latest Dolphin-class subs can remain submerged longer than their predecessors.

The INS Rahav, together with the INS Tanin – the fourth Dolphin sub, delivered to Israel in 2012 – and the sixth sub, which is still being built, will cost a total of some 1.4 billion Euro ($1.8 billion). The German government is reportedly covering a third of the cost.

See storm in a tea cup. Russian weapons in Syria were attacked. It's not aggression against Russian forces by any means, so where is the provocation? So if Biafran forces destroyed British weapons delivered to the Nigerian government, it would be seen as an attack on Britain.