http://debka.com/article/23019/Large-US-Marine-force-lands-in-Aqaba-to-deploy-on-Jordanian-Syrian-border
( War going badly for Rebels , only hope is US / West intervention... )
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/06/20136521957941696.html
( War going badly for Rebels , only hope is US / West intervention... )
A large American military force disembarked Tuesday, June 4, at the southern Jordanian port of Aqaba - ready for deployment on the kingdom’s Syrian border,DEBKAfile’s exclusive military sources report. The force made its way north along the Aqaba-Jerash-Ajilon mountain road bisecting Jordan from south to north, under heavy Jordanian military escort.
Our sources disclose that this American force numbers 1,000 troops, the largest to land in Jordan since the Syrian civil war erupted in March 2012. They are members of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Force carried aboard the USS Kearsageamphibious assault ship, which has been anchored off neighboring Israeli Eilat since mid-May. Upon landing, the marines took to the road in a convoy of armored vehicles including Hummers.
Our sources disclose that this American force numbers 1,000 troops, the largest to land in Jordan since the Syrian civil war erupted in March 2012. They are members of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Force carried aboard the USS Kearsageamphibious assault ship, which has been anchored off neighboring Israeli Eilat since mid-May. Upon landing, the marines took to the road in a convoy of armored vehicles including Hummers.
Washington and Amman have imposed a blackout on their arrival. The Pentagon has only let it be known that the annual joint US-Jordanian “Eager Lion 2013” military exercise is due to begin later in June and last two months, with the participation of US F-16 fighter jets and Patriot missile defense systems.
According to our US sources, the arrival of the US force in Jordan was not directly related to the regular exercise but decided on at an emergency meeting at the Pentagon on May 31, which was attended by top military and civilian Defense Department officials. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who is away from Washington, took part by video conference.
According to our US sources, the arrival of the US force in Jordan was not directly related to the regular exercise but decided on at an emergency meeting at the Pentagon on May 31, which was attended by top military and civilian Defense Department officials. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who is away from Washington, took part by video conference.
The meeting decided that the military situation evolving in Syria and threats it posed to Jordan – including widening evidence of chemical weapons use in Syria - were urgent enough to warrant the dispatch of extra American military strength to Jordan, over and above the contingents participating in the joint exercise. The Israeli Air Force will provide air cover for the force until the F-16 jets are in place for the drill.
The US Central Command spokesman Lt. Col. T.G. Taylor in a statement to the US media said only: “In order to enhance the defensive posture and capacity of Jordan, some of these assets may remain beyond the exercise at the request of the government of Jordan.”
The US Central Command spokesman Lt. Col. T.G. Taylor in a statement to the US media said only: “In order to enhance the defensive posture and capacity of Jordan, some of these assets may remain beyond the exercise at the request of the government of Jordan.”
That request, according to our sources, was for the US to leave behind when the exercise ended and the troops departed - not just some of the weapons systems but all of the equipment which arrived with the marines Wednesday, as well as the F-16 fighters and Patriot missiles.
There is no official word about Washington’s response to this request. However, the Obama administration is not expected to turn it down.
There is no official word about Washington’s response to this request. However, the Obama administration is not expected to turn it down.
« Breaking News »
DEBKAfile June 5, 2013, 4:57 PM (GMT+02:00)
Western sources report that Syrian aerial bombardments are decimating the rebels in flight from al-Qusayr after its capture by Syrian army and Hizballah units was completed Wednesday. Many are being killed. Syrian troops have so far denied medical teams access to the 1,200 wounded trapped in the town by days of fighting. The Syrian high command said that after smashing the rebels in al Qusayr, its iron fist will crush every other rebel position in the country. DEBKAfile: The loss of Qusayr has cut off rebel forces still holding onto locations in central and northern Syria from their Lebanese sources of supply.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/06/20136521957941696.html
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Missile strike near Aleppo said to have claimed 26 lives as regime forces backed by Hezbollah continue Qusayr assault.
Last Modified: 05 Jun 2013 04:12
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Fighting in Syria has seen a missile strike near the country's biggest city, Aleppo, kill 26 people and government fighter jets target the rebel-held town of Qusayr, according to reports. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the activists' network, said on Tuesday there were numerous dead on both sides but gave no other details. US-based group Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, said its mission to Aleppo had concluded that the bodies of 147 men pulled out of a local river between January and March were "probably" executed in government-controlled areas of the city. The SOHR also said shellfire near the Russian embassy in Damascus had killed a civilian and wounded a member of the security forces. A representative of the Russian embassy in Damascus told AFP news agency two Syrian security guards had received injuries but that no embassy staff had been killed or hurt in the attack. The besieged Syrian town of Qusayr came under renewed missile and air attack on Tuesdasy as fighting there dragged into a third week. The situation in the strategic town near the Lebanon border prompted fresh calls for humanitarian access to offer some relief to the thousands trapped by government forces. Syrian soldiers have mounted a fierce onslaught on Qusayr, in Homs province, and also slightly farther north in Dabaa, the site of a disused military airbase partly under rebel control. Syrian troops backed by Lebanon's Hezbollah fighters have besieged the town, which controls vital supply routes from Lebanon and access between Damascus and the coastal heartland of President Bashar al-Assad's minority Alawite sect. Trapped civilians As Syrian government forces try to wear down the rebels in Qusayr, trapped civilians have had to choose between sheltering from the bombs or risking a 100km journey to safety. "Qusayr itself is described as a ghost town, heavily damaged and filled with the sound of bombs. People are hiding in bunkers or, even worse, in holes that they've dug," Melissa Fleming, UN refugee agency spokeswoman, told a briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday. "One woman told us that she spent, with her children, one week inside a hole that was dug into the ground." The International Committee of the Red Cross said the Syrian government had said it was willing to grant the agency access to Qusayr once military operations there had ended A doctor in Qusayr told Al Jazeera this week there were now more than 1,000 injured people in the town and conditions were becoming increasingly dire. Kassem al-Zein, who coordinates treatment in several makeshift hospitals, said the wounded were being treated in private homes after the town's main hospital was destroyed. "Four days ago, some of the injured were taken outside the city but they were hit by the forces of the regime. Some of the injured returned back to us with more injuries," he said. "It is a serious catastrophe. The martyrs are more than 200. We have no time to bury them. Some stayed for days in the streets. The smell of death is all over the place, it is not human. "Where is the world, where are the organisations who are claiming to help the people? We have lost everything." | |||||||
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/06/201364162746275230.html
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