Israeli Attack on Russian Missile Battery in Syria, Russians on Alert

Lost in the coverage of the Zimmerman verdict were some significant stories from other areas of the globe. One of those was the Obama Administration's confirmation that, earlier this month, Israel had attacked a Russian missile battery in Syria. From the New York Times:

Israel carried out an air attack in Syria this month that targeted advanced antiship cruise missiles sold to the Syria government by Russia, American officials said Saturday.


The officials, who declined to be identified because they were discussing intelligence reports, said the attack occurred July 5 near Latakia, Syria’s principal port city. The target was a type of missile called the Yakhont, they said.


Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, declined to comment on the strike, as did George Little, the Pentagon spokesman.

The Russian-made weapon has been a particular worry for the Pentagon because it expanded Syria’s ability to threaten Western ships that could be used to transport supplies to the Syrian opposition, enforce a shipping embargo or support a possible no-flight zone.

The missile also represented a threat to Israel’s naval forces and raised concerns that it might be provided to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia that has joined the war on the side of the Syrian government.

The attack against the missiles came to light after Syrian rebels said that they were not responsible for large explosions at Latakia on July 5, and that a missile warehouse had been hit. American officials did not provide details on the extent of the damage or the number of missiles struck.

Revelations like these are not without consequences. As the Guardian Express reports, the Russians have responded by placing their military on high alert:

In a July 13 report from the official Russian news agency, ITAR-TASS, The Russian Defense Ministry has announced what is being described as “the most ambitious [check alert] in the history of post-Soviet test readiness.” A check alert, according to the Defense Ministry is a mobilization for exercises designed “to test the readiness of units to perform assigned tasks, and assessment of the level of training of personnel, staffing and technical readiness units and formations with arms and military equipment.” The alert, according to the ITAR-TASS report, involves more than 80,000 troops, around a thousand tanks and armored personnel carriers, some 130 aircraft and 70 naval vessels.

This massive military alert is seen as a response to the disclosure Friday to CNN, by unnamed US officials, that the destruction of the Russian missiles in Syria was a result of Israeli airstrikes.

There has been slightly more coverage of claims that Taliban fighters from Pakistan have joined the anti-Assad rebels in Syria. What many news outlets are ignoring is the Sunni-Shia root of this assistance.

Many fighters like Suleman believe they must help Syria's Sunni majority defeat Assad's Alawite regime ... an offshoot of the Shia sect. Radical Sunnis view Shias as heretics.

Many of the Pakistani fighters are allegedly from the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is known for its affiliation with the al Nusra front, a branch of al-Qaeda.