Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Iraq/Syria: On Ground Updates

Note: This post moved to top from Sunday - Scroll for newer post below
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Iraq/Syria: On Ground Updates
U.S. Special Ops launch attack inside Syria's Border Sunday
Sunday/Monday/Tuesday, October 26-27-28, 2008
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Time.com brings us the following report and it starts off like this... U.S. military helicopters attacked an area along Syria's border with Iraq Sunday, killing eight people, the Syrian government said... The Syrian report comes just days after the commander of U.S. forces in western Iraq told reporters that American troops were redoubling efforts to secure the Syrian border, which he said was an "uncontrolled" gateway for fighters entering Iraq... A government statement carried by the official Syrian Arab News Agency said Sunday's attack was on the Sukkariyeh Farm near the town of Abu Kamal, five miles inside the Syrian border...
Read the rest at link below...
Did U.S. Forces Cross Over Into Syria?
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BBC News had this take on the story... US helicopter-borne troops have carried out a raid inside Syria along the Iraqi border, killing eight people including a woman, Syrian authorities say... The official Syrian news agency Sana said the raid took place in the Abu Kamal border area, in eastern Syria... It said that American soldiers on four helicopters had stormed a building under construction on Sunday night... The US says it is investigating. It has previously accused Syria of allowing foreign militants into Iraq...
Read the rest at link below...
'US troops' carry out Syria raid
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Telegraph.co.uk reports the attack this way... In an echo of the Israeli air strikes which last year targeted a suspected Syrian nuclear facility, US military helicopters were reported to have crossed into Syria to drop troops who then executed the mission... The state news agency Sana reported that eight civilians had been killed in the raid. "Four American helicopters violated Syrian airspace around 16:45 local time (1345 GMT) on Sunday," it said... "American soldiers" who had emerged from helicopters "attacked a civilian building under construction and fired at workmen inside, causing eight deaths..."The helicopters then left Syrian territory towards Iraqi territory," Sana said...
Read this report in full at link below...
US forces destroy Syrian construction site near Iraq border, Damascus says

HAARETZ.com...
Those who anticipated an American bombing of Iran on the eve of the presidential elections or immediately after must for the moment be satisfied with a somewhat lesser replacement: the helicopter attack Sunday night in north-eastern Syria... The central target of the attack, according to initial reports overnight, was a senior operative in the "global jihad" - the web of organizations connected to al-Qaida... The context, from an American perspective, is mainly Iraqi. This was a strike on those who have been causing them problems in their backyard and an attempt to gain stability in Iraq...
Read the rest at link below...
ANALYSIS / U.S. takes page from Israel's book in Syria strike

.Map Courtesy of CENTCOM
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UPDATE: Monday, October 27, 2008
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Good day to everyone. Well... as I thought last night, more in-depth info has come out this Monday morning on Sunday’s U.S. Operation in Syria.
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Let’s get started with the following Report/News Video I found at the FOXNews.com website...
News Report at following link...
U.S. Military Helicopters Launch Attack Inside Syria
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View News Video by Fox below...
* Strike on Terror *

U.S Attack Kills Al Qaeda Leader in Syria

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* AP.Google.com put this report out late this afternoon and it starts off like this... Families in this Syrian village on Monday buried relatives they said died in a U.S. helicopter attack. A U.S. counterterrorism official said American forces killed the head of a Syrian network that funneled fighters, weapons and cash into Iraq... The raid Sunday targeted the home of Abu Ghadiyah, the nickname for the leader of a key cell of foreign fighters in Iraq, according to the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence. The U.S. Treasury Department has identified him as one of four major figures in al-Qaida's Iraq wing who were living in Syria... Also Monday, a villager said U.S. forces grabbed two men and took them away by helicopter during the cross-border raid...
Read the full report at link below...
US official: Raid on Syria killed leader of cell
Has photos

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Update: Tuesday
, October 28, 2008
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* BBC News has a very interesting news article posted on their website today and it starts off like this...
Mystery surrounds the fate of a top al-Qaeda operative reportedly targeted by an alleged US strike on Syria... US officials have identified Syrian militant Abu Ghadiya as a key figure behind the smuggling of foreign fighters into Iraq... They are reportedly claiming that his death in the raid will have a major impact on al-Qaeda's capabilities... But this runs at odds with statements made by the militant's organisation, al-Qaeda in Iraq, which announced his death on jihadist web sites over two years ago...
Read the rest at link below...
Profile: Abu Ghadiya.
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AubreyJ.........

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