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Arab/Muslim States

More signs war with Syria is on the way


By Stan Goodenough
July 10, 2007

Tensions crept higher in the Middle East Saturday through Monday, building on the already swirling rumors that another Arab-Israeli war is being set to wrack the region this summer.

Israelis learned Monday that a "top official" in the Ba'ath Party of Syrian President Bashar el-Assad had threatened Syrian fighters would commence "resistance" operations against Jewish communities on the Golan if Israel does not relinquish those heights by September.

Jerusalem Newswire picked up reports immediately following last summer's war between Israel and Lebanon's Hizb'allah that Syria had noted with interest how the Lebanese succeeded in driving Israel out of southern Lebanon, and the subsequent psychological impact they were able to inflict on Israel by simply firing missiles at the country.

Back then a decision was reportedly taken in Damascus to train a force that would imitate Hizb'allah and wage a war of attrition against the Jewish state.

According to World Net Daily (WND) the Ba’ath official, who spoke on condition his name be withheld, said such a force – the Committees for the Liberation of the Golan Heights – has now been trained and is ready to launch attacks against Jewish homes on the Golan.

"Damascus was preparing for anticipated Israeli retaliation following these attacks and for a larger war with the Jewish state in August or September."

Syria has "the capability of firing 'hundreds' of missiles at Tel Aviv," the official warned.

Another source identified the Syrian official as President Bashar el-Assad.

On Saturday the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat reported that Israel was "concerned" that a Syrian decision to remove military checkpoints that had been in place on the road to Kuneitra since 1967 could be a preparation for war.

¬The Jerusalem Post said the al-Hayat report also charged that Israel had barred journalists from covering IDF exercises and preparations on the Golan, and that the Israeli military had blocked access to areas on the heights from which towns and villages were visible.

The reports out of London came a few weeks after Syrian officials confirmed that its state archives had been removed from Damascus for safeguarding in the event of a war.

In another, almost bizarre development which will certainly do nothing to quiet the tensions, Israeli "experts" said Sunday Israel was stealing water from Syria.

"For years," ran the report in Ynetnews, "Israel has been pumping water from springs in the Golan Heights to the shrinking Sea of Galilee, depriving Syria of major water resources.

"Water from some springs exploited by Israel would naturally stream downhill to Syria had it not been to human intervention on the Israeli side of the border," the experts said.

According to the World Net Daily report, Israeli security officials have confirmed the stepped-up presence of Syrian troops along the border with the Golan Heights. Also noted was Syrian Scud missile movement near the border with Israel, and Syria's recently increased production of rockets and acquired missiles capable of hitting central Israeli population centers.

WND said the Syrian army has improved its fortifications and has received modern, Russian-made anti-tank missiles similar to those that devastated Israeli tanks during the last Lebanon war.

Russia has supplied Syria with advanced anti-aircraft missiles.

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