Drumbeats of War - Middle East Weekend Updates
Dateline Lebanon
Noon local time Sunday. The Israeli Airforce is currently practicing ‘mock air raids’ while flying at medium altitudes over the Lebanese cities of Nabatiyeh, Iqlim Tuffah, Khiam, Marjayoun and Arqoub, according to Lebanese mainstream news.
On Saturday the IAF tasked a reconnaissance UAV to fly over southern Lebanon for several hours.
Friday, same over the Lebanese border town of Naqoura.
Thursday, three UAVs breached Lebanese airspace. Two scanned eastern Lebanon for several hours. One reconnoitered the Lebanese capitol of Beirut for almost an entire day.
All flights clearly contravene UN resolution 1701, the act that put the UNFIL forces on the ground between Lebanon and Israel after their 2006 war. Lebanon keeps submitting documented protests to the UN, but nothing is ever done about it.
Dateline Gaza
Saturday Palestinians fired one rocket from Gaza into Israel. It exploded without causing damage in an unpopulated area of Israel’s southern desert .
Saturday night the Israeli Airforce made several bombing runs on the smuggling tunnels of Rafah at the Egyptian border of Gaza. Their world-class jets also dropped ordinance on the city of Khan Yunis. At least one death on the ground, along with unnumbered other casualties.
As of Sunday morning, Israeli Airforce missions were still flying over Gaza at very low altitudes.
Dateline Iraq
Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, held a news conference in Turkey to say that no US heavy weaponry would be transported from Iraq through Turkey. Apparently the government of Turkey has also let it be known that a transfer of military personnel also would not be permitted.
When the last combat troops departed Iraq, leaving just 50,000 US military personnel in country, they exited to Kuwait. Mullen’s statements infer the weapons will be headed that way also. Kuwait is on the Persian Gulf directly opposite Iran.
Continued reports of violence and bombings in Iraq through this hour.
Dateline Syria
Israeli sources report Syrian President Assad is making preparations for war against Israel, in concert with Lebanese Hizballah. They also say Syria and Iraqi Hizballah are instigating violence in Iraq.
Same sources say the Obama administration sent Frederic Hof to Syria with a warning to Assad that he will be held personally accountable… stress on personally… and ‘face consequences’ if Syria foments violence in Israel and/or the West Bank in response to the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Mainstream news sources in Israel all say that Hamas has declared Israeli settlers a ‘legitimate military target’, calling them ‘a real army in every sense of the word, with more than 500,000 automatic weapons’ and protected by the IDF.
Dateline Iran
The Supreme Commander of Iran’s military and Revolutionary Guards felt it necessary to state on Friday that “Our developed weapons can hit any part of the Zionist regime.”
Israeli sources interpreted this as a message that the Israeli nuclear reactor at Dimona would be targeted if war were to break out. Since Iran’s Bushehr reactor would be an Israeli target, those sources say the statement ‘publicly indicate(s) Tehran readiness for the Middle East’s first nuclear war.’
Dateline Cuba
Fidel Castro continues to make speech after speech warning the world that a nuclear war is about to begin, and that only President Obama can stop it. For his most recent speech, the 83-year-old lynchpin of the Cuban Revolution surprised everyone by wearing army fatigues, as he always used to do when he had supreme power in Cuba.
