Posts tagged air strikes
Israel Pounds Damascus With Massive Air Strikes Early Sunday
May 5th
“The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.” Isaiah 17:1
From JPost: Blasts shock Damascus, Israel blamed by Syrian television for the strikes. IDF spokesman says, ‘we don’t respond to this kind of report.’ One site targeted is the Jamraya military research center; a previous Israeli target.
BEIRUT – Powerful explosions struck the outskirts of Damascus early on Sunday, sending columns of fire into the night sky, and Syrian state television said Israeli rockets had struck a military facility just north of the capital.
Israel declined to comment on the attack, but the blasts occurred a day after an Israeli official said his country had carried out an air strike targeting a consignment of missiles in Syria intended for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
“The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army,” Syrian television said, referring to recent offensives by President Bashar Assad’s forces against rebels.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted eyewitnesses in the area as saying they saw jets in the sky at the time of the explosions.
It said the blasts hit Jamraya as well as a nearby ammunition depot. Other activists said a missile brigade and two Republican Guard battalions may also have been targeted in the heavily militarised area just north of Damascus.
Video footage uploaded onto the Internet by activists showed a series of explosions. One lit up the skyline over the city, while another sent up a tower of flames and secondary blasts.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials on Sunday’s explosions. “We don’t respond to this kind of report,” an Israeli military spokeswoman told Reuters.
The Jewish state has repeatedly made clear it is prepared to use force to prevent advanced weapons from Syria reaching Lebanon’s Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah guerrillas, who fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006. Assad and Hezbollah are allied to Iran, Israel’s arch-enemy. source – JPost
Gadhafi Beating Rebels And Making NATO Look Silly
Apr 9th
NATO strikes not stopping Gadhafi
It’s not making NATO and the US look good when their combined air strikes are failing to stop Gadhafi from advancing on the rebels. And it will make them look even worse if he is successful at retaining power in Libya.
AJDABIYA, Libya — Government soldiers and rebel gunmen battled in the streets of a key front-line city Saturday after the Libyan military used shelling and guerrilla-style tactics to open its most serious push into opposition territory since international airstrikes began. NATO airstrikes, meanwhile, hammered at Gadhafi’s ammunition stockpiles and armored forces, destroying 17 tanks. At least eight people were killed in the fighting over Ajdabiya, a hospital official said.
Recapturing the city would give the Libyan military a staging ground to attack the rebels’ main stronghold, Benghazi, about 100 miles farther east along the coastal highway. Moammar Gadhafi’s forces were approaching Benghazi when they were driven back by the international air campaign launched last month to protect civilians and ground Gadhafi’s aircraft.
For the rebels, losing the city would effectively bottle them into a coastal strip of eastern Libya and allow government forces to more tightly squeeze the few opposition pockets in the rest of the country, including the besieged western port of Misrata, where heavy clashes continued Saturday for a second day. NATO air strikes hit armored vehicles firing on civilians near both Misrata and Ajdabiya, said Canadian Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, who commands the Libya operation. source – MSNBC
Cruise Missile Hits Gaddafi Compound
Mar 21st
So where is Gaddafi right now?
WASHINGTON — A cruise missile blasted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s residential compound overnight in an attack that carried as much symbolism as military effect. Fighter jets also destroyed a line of tanks moving on the rebel capital. The U.S. said the international assault would hit any government forces attacking the opposition.
Jubilant rebels said they expected to bring Gadhafi down in a matter of days. Meantime, U.S. military officials told NBC News that Gadhafi’s chief of staff has ordered that bodies be removed from morgues and placed at a bombing site in Bab al Azaziya to make it appear the dead had been killed by coalition air strikes. The site, which the U.S. insists was a legitimate military target, was bombed Sunday and military intelligence reported no sign of civilian casualties. According to intelligence reports, once the bodies are in place, international media will to be taken to the site to report the alleged atrocity. The reported effort to stage the deaths of innocent civilians comes after the head of the Arab League condemned the apparent killing of civilians in coalition airstrikes.
Attack on Gadhafi’s home
It was not known where Gadhafi was when the missile hit near his iconic tent late Sunday, but it seemed to show that while the allies trade nuances over whether the Libyan leader’s fall is a goal of their campaign — he is not safe.” source – MSNBC
UN OKs Libya Airstrikes, No-fly Zone
Mar 17th
But will it be in time?
The U.N. Security Council authorized a no-fly zone over Libya and called for Arab states and others to use “all necessary measures” to protect civilians from attacks by Moammar Gadhafi’s forces. The resolution passed 10-0 with five abstentions, including Russia and China.
The resolution establishes “a ban on all flights in the airspace of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya” while excluding an occupation force. It also calls for freezing the assets of the Libyan National Oil Corp. and the central bank because of links to Gadhafi.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe flew to New York Thursday to press the case for speedy Security Council approval.
The world is “living one of its great revolutions that changes the course of history,” Juppe told the Security Council just before the vote.
The United States, France and Britain pushed for speedy approval because Gadhafi’s forces are advancing toward opposition-held Benghazi. The Libyan leader vowed Thursday night to oust the rebels from their eastern stronghold.” source – MSNBC
