Persian Gulf & Middle East Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

The British Foreign Secretary today announced in parliament that the UK would provide armored vehicles and body armor to the insurgents in Syria. The BBC Radio 4 program PM interviewed Sir Mingus Campbell, a very long serving politician in the Lib-Dem party, junior partner in the British coalition government, that it was just to save the lives of rebels. They already have enough weapons so UK government can very hypocritically say they only provide life saving equipment to an amount of several million pounds. Let the terrorists be safe.
P.S. Sir Mingus said also that Russia and China prevented talks about a solution to the Syrian problem. But it were the insurgents who refused to go for talks in Washington, Rome and Moscow. They said so last week.

Iran launches destroyer in the Caspian Sea
By Nasser Karimi - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Mar 17, 2013 9:46:45 EDT
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran launched a domestically built destroyer in the Caspian Sea on Sunday, its first deployment of a major warship in the oil-rich region, state TV reported.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the guided missile destroyer Jamaran-2 in the port city of Anzali, about 250 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of Tehran.

He said the deployment aimed to bolster peace and friendship in the region. “The destroyer is there to meet those who want to jeopardize the security of surrounding nations,” he said, without elaborating.

There are multiple disputes between the nations that surround the Caspian — Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan — on how the inland sea should be divided.

After final tests, the report said, Jamaran-2 will join Iran’s naval fleet in the sea in coming months.

The 1,400-ton destroyer, which has a helicopter landing pad, is 94 meters (yards) long and can cruise at 30 knots. It is equipped with surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles as well as anti-aircraft batteries and sophisticated radar and communications terminals, the report said.

Iran launched a previous version of the Jamaran destroyer in 2010 in the Persian Gulf.

Since 1992, Iran has been building a self-sufficient military, reportedly producing its own jet fighters, tanks, missiles and light submarines as well as torpedoes.

Ahmadinejad said that the West has learned from Iran’s technical expertise that the country’s nuclear capabilities cannot be eliminated.

Both Israel and the United States have not ruled out military strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities. The West suspects Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies.

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Expect it too shadow and make provocative actions against Us carrier groups soon.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

Expect it too shadow and make provocative actions against Us carrier groups soon.

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Only problem is there is no American carrier strike group based in the land locked Caspian Sea

asif iqbal said:

Only problem is there is no American carrier strike group based in the land locked Caspian Sea

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Sarcasm is just another free service offered by the terran empire.

a re-post

the conflict in Syria was always there, just we didnt see it

it stems from the time when France divided Syria under mandate and Hafez Assad took the power, in past history Alawites (Shia sect) always used to live on the hills and mountains above the Mediterranean close to border between Lebanon and Syria, always seperate from Christians, Sunnis and Jews

then when Bashers father took power he clamped down on all groups (Hama massacre) apart from the Christains and Shias, they enjoyed much freedom, he set the country under tight secuirty but there was peace and brought good living to the people so they didnt complain, although closed to the outside world

this conflict was always at some point going to boil over, it just happened 2 years ago because of pre-text of Arab Spring

most Arab countrys are ruled in a similar manner, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Tunisia, Yemen and Algeria, all of them came under revolution, Bahrain was secured when Saudi sent a armoured division over the King Fadh highway last year

Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Oman etc are not the same so they did not see similar revolution

Syria can be further stuided because it is a very big mix of peoples, they all have different agendas, none are strong enough to take out Bashir Al Assad and in turn Assad isnt strong enough to clamp down on uprising, this has resulted in a bloody civil war which we see today

Alawaites have long and deep relationship with Russia and Iran, therefore Western countrys do not want to interfere as it brings in other countrys into the conflict zone

this is reasons behind modern day Syria and its issues

asif iqbal said:

a re-post

the conflict in Syria was always there, just we didnt see it

it stems from the time when France divided Syria under mandate and Hafez Assad took the power, in past history Alawites (Shia sect) always used to live on the hills and mountains above the Mediterranean close to border between Lebanon and Syria, always seperate from Christians, Sunnis and Jews

then when Bashers father took power he clamped down on all groups (Hama massacre) apart from the Christains and Shias, they enjoyed much freedom, he set the country under tight secuirty but there was peace and brought good living to the people so they didnt complain, although closed to the outside world

this conflict was always at some point going to boil over, it just happened 2 years ago because of pre-text of Arab Spring

most Arab countrys are ruled in a similar manner, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Tunisia, Yemen and Algeria, all of them came under revolution, Bahrain was secured when Saudi sent a armoured division over the King Fadh highway last year

Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Oman etc are not the same so they did not see similar revolution

Syria can be further stuided because it is a very big mix of peoples, they all have different agendas, none are strong enough to take out Bashir Al Assad and in turn Assad isnt strong enough to clamp down on uprising, this has resulted in a bloody civil war which we see today

Alawaites have long and deep relationship with Russia and Iran, therefore Western countrys do not want to interfere as it brings in other countrys into the conflict zone

this is reasons behind modern day Syria and its issues

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The current instability in Syria and throughout the region can be traced back to the WWI period. In particulier the Sykes Picot agreement and the Balfour Declaration. During WWI the British made several contradictory promises to 3 different parties. Just like in the Mel Brooks movie "The Producers" where they promised multiple investers in a stage play 50% of the profits, the Brits promised the same piece of land to 3 different parties. The only people that in the end that weren't laughing where the Arabs. First there was the Hussein Mcmahon correspondence, where the Brits promised the Arabs who had revolted against Ottoman rule that they would get a country stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the whole of the Arabian Peninsula. Then came the Sykes Picot agreement where the Brits sat down with the French and decided to carve up the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire amongst them. And they did that even before the war ended! And finally came the Balfour Declaration that promised the Jews a homeland in the place that was the historical Israel, then what was still the Ottoman province of Palestine. The Brits where able to keep 2 out of the 3 promises, the Jews got there homeland what is now Israel, and the French got their foot in the door in the Middle East with their colonies Syria and Lebanon. The only thing that the Arabs got for fighting and dying on the side of the British in WWI against the Ottomans was colonial rule from them. When the Arabs in 1920 try to set up a independent state called The Arab Kingdom of Syria they where met with French arms.

The French and Brits sat down and with pencils they drew up lines in the sand that became their respective sfeers of influence and their administrative divisions. These lines became the borders of a lot of the current states in the Middle East today. They simply slapped together people's with different religieus and ethnic backgrounds into artificial borders and states without thinking about how these people would interact with one and other or their views of one and other or their past history. You could say that the region is now made up of multiple Yugoslavia's. As time goes by the religieus background of people became more and more important, which has in turn deepend the divisions in these societies and countries. That in combanation with other factor's like great power politics is what is fueling a lot of the violence in the region today. The Sykes Picot agreement has created 5 countries, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel/Palestine. The situation in Israel/Palestine is well known and the situation in Iraq as well. Syria is now in a full scale civil war and the situation in Lebanon and Jordan is getting more precarious by the day because of the strains the conflict in the neighbouring countries is putting on them. Of course in the 1970's Jordan had its fair share of instability and Lebanon had a civil war between 1975-1990.

Franklin said:

The current instability in Syria and throughout the region can be traced back to the WWI period. In particulier the Sykes Picot agreement and the Balfour Declaration. During WWI the British made several contradictory promises to 3 different parties. Just like in the Mel Brooks movie "The Producers" where they promised multiple investers in a stage play 50% of the profits, the Brits promised the same piece of land to 3 different parties. The only people that in the end that weren't laughing where the Arabs. First there was the Hussein Mcmahon correspondence, where the Brits promised the Arabs who had revolted against Ottoman rule that they would get a country stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the whole of the Arabian Peninsula. Then came the Sykes Picot agreement where the Brits sat down with the French and decided to carve up the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire amongst them. And they did that even before the war ended! And finally came the Balfour Declaration that promised the Jews a homeland in the place that was the historical Israel, then what was still the Ottoman province of Palestine. The Brits where able to keep 2 out of the 3 promises, the Jews got there homeland what is now Israel, and the French got their foot in the door in the Middle East with their colonies Syria and Lebanon. The only thing that the Arabs got for fighting and dying on the side of the British in WWI against the Ottomans was colonial rule from them. When the Arabs in 1920 try to set up a independent state called The Arab Kingdom of Syria they where met with French arms.

The French and Brits sat down and with pencils they drew up lines in the sand that became their respective sfeers of influence and their administrative divisions. These lines became the borders of a lot of the current states in the Middle East today. They simply slapped together people's with different religieus and ethnic backgrounds into artificial borders and states without thinking about how these people would interact with one and other or their views of one and other or their past history. You could say that the region is now made up of multiple Yugoslavia's. As time goes by the religieus background of people became more and more important, which has in turn deepend the divisions in these societies and countries. That in combanation with other factor's like great power politics is what is fueling a lot of the violence in the region today. The Sykes Picot agreement has created 5 countries, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel/Palestine. The situation in Israel/Palestine is well known and the situation in Iraq as well. Syria is now in a full scale civil war and the situation in Lebanon and Jordan is getting more precarious by the day because of the strains the conflict in the neighbouring countries is putting on them. Of course in the 1970's Jordan had its fair share of instability and Lebanon had a civil war between 1975-1990.

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Great analysis Frankin, the only bit I would question is the highlighted part. I have a strong suspicion that such diverse and often mutually hostile people's were lumped together not by accident, but rather by design, so they would be too busy hating and fighting each other to have any hope of forming a unified front against the foreign colonists.

Remember such 'divide and rule' tactics are hardly unprecedented, and there are well documentaries cases where western colonial powers deliberately heightened or even created ethnic tensions in order to keep the locals from unifying against them. The now infamous Hutu and Tutsi blood feuds can trace their origins directly to western colonialists artificially creating a new ethnic identity from the same race just to create a scapegoat for the majority of locals to hate and attack other than themselves.

There are unconferm reports of chemical weapons being used in syria. There are some denials as well. I ll update later I an on my phone now and cant in as detailed as I would like

plawolf said:

Great analysis Frankin, the only bit I would question is the highlighted part. I have a strong suspicion that such diverse and often mutually hostile people's were lumped together not by accident, but rather by design, so they would be too busy hating and fighting each other to have any hope of forming a unified front against the foreign colonists.

Remember such 'divide and rule' tactics are hardly unprecedented, and there are well documentaries cases where western colonial powers deliberately heightened or even created ethnic tensions in order to keep the locals from unifying against them. The now infamous Hutu and Tutsi blood feuds can trace their origins directly to western colonialists artificially creating a new ethnic identity from the same race just to create a scapegoat for the majority of locals to hate and attack other than themselves.

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Europeans and by extension, everyone, has been creating such incidents since the beginning of time. The current dispute between China and India has its roots in the English manipulation of Chinese territory with the MacMahon line. The current Diaoyu Island dispute is the result of the US giving the island to a country that was ORDERED to relinquish all territories which she had gained through "violence and greed". In the "Battle of Red Cliffs", the alliance was able to fool Cao Cao into killing his only two generals with experience in naval warfare and thus was able to annihilate Cao Cao's fleet. These methods are lowly and dishonourable, but you can't deny their effectiveness.

Syrian government accuses rebels of launching chemical attack
By BILL ROGGIOMarch 19, 2013

At least 26 people have been killed and more than 80 wounded in what may have been the first chemical attack in Syria's two-year-old civil war. The Syrian government has accused rebel fighters of launching the attack against a village in Aleppo. The use of chemical weapons has yet to be confirmed, however, according to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Syrian Information Minister Omran al Zoubi claimed that the purported chemical attack was launched "from [the Da'el area in al-Neirab" in Aleppo against the village of Khan al Asal, which is currently under Syrian military control. The unidentified rebel forces fired "a rocket with chemical substances" at the village, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.

A rebel commander from the "Ansar Brigade" told Reuters that his forces were not behind the attack, and accused the Syrian military of launching a Scud missile filled with a chemical agent.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors the civil war, said a rocket attack in the town killed 26 people, including "16 regular soldiers." News reports indicate that chlorine gas was the likely agent as many victims smelled the chemical and reported problems breathing.

If confirmed, the chemical attack would be the first recorded in the Syrian civil war. While the Syrian government is known to possess massive stockpiles of chemical weapons, it has yet to use its deadly arsenal despite losing ground to rebel groups, including al Qaeda's affiliate, the Al Nusrah Front. The Assad regime has claimed it would not use chemical weapons against its own people, and that the poisonous agents would only be used against external enemies.

It is feared that Syrian rebel groups may have obtained access to the Assad regime's chemical weapons. In December 2012, the Al Nusrah Front and allied jihadist groups seized control of the Sheikh Suleiman base, or Base 111, in Aleppo, as well as a chlorine factory near the city. The Sheikh Suleiman base is thought to have been a key node in the Syrian military's chemical weapons program.

Additionally, jihadist groups such as the Al Nusrah Front have taken control of several Syrian military bases, including an air base in Aleppo that housed Scuds and anti-aircraft missiles. It is unclear if the jihadist groups have the expertise or capability to launch the weapons.

Al Qaeda has employed crude chlorine bombs in the past. From February to May 2007, al Qaeda in Iraq attempted 10 suicide attacks in Ramadi, Fallujah, Amiriya, Taji, and Baghdad, in which the bombs included chlorine gas containers. US and Iraqi forces also found several chlorine bomb factories in Anbar and Baghdad and intercepted several of the bombs before they were detonated. The attempts to disperse chlorine gas in the explosion were crude; although nearly all of the Iraqis close to the blasts were killed, many others in the surrounding areas were severely sickened but did not die. In Anbar, al Qaeda directed many of the chlorine gas attacks at civilian locations; their target was the Awakening, the group of tribes and former insurgents who opposed al Qaeda.



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Israeli official says chemical weapons used in Syria attack
Published March 20, 2013 | Associated Press

JERUSALEM – A senior Israeli official said Wednesday that it is "apparently clear" that chemical weapons were recently used in Syria, and that the alleged attack will be a main topic of conversation with visiting President Barack Obama.

The statement by Yuval Steinitz, the newly appointed minister of intelligence and strategic affairs, conflicts with U.S. assessments that there is no evidence behind accusations traded the day before between Syrian rebels and the Bashar Assad regime of a chemical weapons attack in a village in the north of the country.

Steinitz, who was speaking to Army Radio, did not say how he came to the conclusion that the weapons were used. He would not comment on whether it was Assad forces or the rebels that used them, saying it was not important.

A senior defense official told the Associated Press that he concurred chemical weapons had been used, basing that on intelligence reports. He would not elaborate. He spoke anonymously because he is not allowed to speak to the media.

Israel has repeatedly expressed concern that Syria's chemical arsenal could fall into the hands of anti-Israel militants like Lebanon's Hezbollah, an Assad ally, or an al-Qaida-linked group fighting with the rebels.

Steinitz said that after Iran's nuclear program, the fate of Syria's chemical weapons is the second most urgent issue that will be discussed with Obama during his 48 hour visit that begins Wednesday afternoon.

"It is apparently clear that chemical weapons were used," Steinitz said. "The fact they apparently used chemical weapons against civilians needs to worry us and shows the urgency of taking care of the issue," he said.

Syrian rebels and Assad's government blamed each other Tuesday for a chemical attack on a northern village. There have been many reports and rumors of such weapons being used throughout the war but no attack has yet been confirmed. The U.S. said there was no evidence chemical weapons were used.

The use of such weapons would be a nightmare scenario in the 2-year-old conflict that has killed an estimated 70,000 people, and the competing claims showed willingness by both sides to go to new levels to seek support from world powers.

President Barack Obama has declared the use, deployment or transfer of the weapons would be a "red line" for possible military intervention by the U.S. in the Syrian conflict.

The Syrian state-run SANA news agency said "a missile containing a chemical substance" was fired at the village of Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province by "terrorists" — the term it uses for rebels. Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad said 31 people were killed.

SANA added that more than 100 others were wounded, some of them critically, and it published pictures showing casualties, including children, on stretchers in what appears to be a hospital ward. None showed signs of physical injuries. The rebels quickly denied using chemical weapons and accused regime forces of doing so.

The Aleppo Media Center, affiliated with the rebels, said there were cases of "suffocation and poison" among civilians in Khan al-Assal after a missile was fired at the area. It said in a statement the cases were "most likely" caused by regime forces' use of "poisonous gases."

Israel says it is trying to stay out of Syria's civil war, although it has strongly signaled that it was responsible for an airstrike in January and suggested it was targeting a Hezbollah convoy carrying anti-aircraft missiles to Lebanon.

It is concerned however about violence spilling into northern Israel.

The military says four wounded Syrians approached the Israel-Syria frontier on Wednesday and received medical treatment from Israeli troops. It said two of the Syrians are receiving medical aid adjacent to the border fence, while the two others were evacuated to Israeli hospitals following the severity of their injuries.

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Syria asks UN chief to appoint independent mission to investigate alleged chemical attack
Published March 20, 2013
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS – Syria has asked the U.N. secretary-general to appoint an independent technical mission to investigate an alleged chemical weapons attack by rebels in the country's north.
Rebels in northern Syria deny the government claim and blamed regime forces for Tuesday's missile attack on Khan al-Assad village in northern Aleppo province.
Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari told reporters Wednesday morning that he had just asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "to form a specialized, independent and neutral technical mission to investigate the use by the terrorist groups operating in Syria of chemical weapons yesterday against civilians in the town of Khan al-Assad in Aleppo."
The U.S. ambassador to Syria said Wednesday the Obama administration has no evidence to support Syria's claims.
Ja'afari stressed his government has repeatedly said it would never use chemical weapons.


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Excerpts from
Chlorine is a chemical element with symbol Cl and atomic number 17. Chlorine is in the halogen group (17) and is the second lightest halogen after fluorine. The element is a yellow-green gas under standard conditions, where it forms diatomic molecules. It has the highest electron affinity and the third highest electronegativity of all the elements; for this reason, chlorine is a strong oxidizing agent. Free chlorine is rare on Earth, and is usually a result of direct or indirect oxidation by oxygen.
The most common compound of chlorine, sodium chloride, has been known since ancient times. Around 1630 chlorine gas was first synthesized in a chemical reaction, but not recognized as a fundamentally important substance. Characterization of chlorine gas was made in 1774 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, who supposed it an oxide of a new element. In 1809 chemists suggested that the gas might be a pure element, and this was confirmed by Sir Humphry Davy in 1810, who named it from Ancient Greek: χλωρóς khlôros "pale green".
Nearly all chlorine in the Earth's crust occurs as chloride in various ionic compounds, including table salt. It is the second most abundant halogen and 21st most abundant chemical element in Earth's crust. Elemental chlorine is commercially produced from brine by electrolysis. The high oxidizing potential of elemental chlorine led commercially to free chlorine's bleaching and disinfectant uses, as well as its many uses of an essential reagent in the chemical industry. Chlorine is used in the manufacture of a wide range of consumer products, about two-thirds of them organic chemicals such as polyvinyl chloride, as well as many intermediates for production of plastics and other end products which do not contain the element. As a common disinfectant, elemental chlorine and chlorine-generating compounds are used more directly in swimming pools to keep them clean and sanitary.
In the form of chloride ions, chlorine is necessary to all known species of life. Other types of chlorine compounds are rare in living organisms, and artificially produced chlorinated organics range from inert to toxic. In the upper atmosphere, chlorine-containing organic molecules such as chlorofluorocarbons have been implicated in ozone depletion. Small quantities of elemental chlorine are generated by oxidation of chloride to hypochlorite in neutrophils, as part of the immune response against bacteria. Elemental chlorine at high concentrations is extremely dangerous and poisonous for all living organisms, and was historically used in World War I as the first gaseous chemical warfare agent.


Use as a weapon
World War I
Main article: Poison gas in World War I
Chlorine gas, also known as bertholite, was first used as a weapon in World War I by Germany on April 22, 1915 in the Second Battle of Ypres.[61] As described by the soldiers it had a distinctive smell of a mixture between pepper and pineapple. It also tasted metallic and stung the back of the throat and chest. Chlorine can react with water in the mucosa of the lungs to form hydrochloric acid, an irritant that can be lethal. The damage done by chlorine gas can be prevented by a gas mask, or other filtration method, which makes the overall chance of death by chlorine gas much lower than those of other chemical weapons. It was pioneered by a German scientist later to be a Nobel laureate, Fritz Haber of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, in collaboration with the German chemical conglomerate IG Farben, who developed methods for discharging chlorine gas against an entrenched enemy. It is alleged that Haber's role in the use of chlorine as a deadly weapon drove his wife, Clara Immerwahr, to suicide.[62] After its first use, chlorine was utilized by both sides as a chemical weapon, but it was soon replaced by the more deadly phosgene and mustard gas.[63]
Iraq War
Main article: 2007 chlorine bombings in Iraq
Chlorine gas has also been used by insurgents against the local population and coalition forces in the Iraq War in the form of chlorine bombs. On March 17, 2007, for example, three chlorine-filled trucks were detonated in the Anbar province killing two and sickening over 350.[64] Other chlorine bomb attacks resulted in higher death tolls, with more than 30 deaths on two separate occasions.[65] Most of the deaths were caused by the force of the explosions rather than the effects of chlorine, since the toxic gas is readily dispersed and diluted in the atmosphere by the blast. The Iraqi authorities have tightened security for elemental chlorine, which is essential for providing safe drinking water for the population.