Israel Matzav

Russian spy post discovered on Syrian side of Golan

Well, what a surprise. Syrian rebels overran a Syrian government position on the Golan Heights this past weekend and discovered that some of the position's occupants spoke Russian. The position was being used to spy on Israel.

Free Syrian Army officials, U.S. officials, and independent experts told The Daily Beast that the evidence of Russian involvement in the facility, just a few miles from Syria’s border with Israel, if verified, would show a level of Russian involvement in the Syrian civil war that was not previously known.  Free Syrian Army officials posted several videos on YouTube showing both the outside and the inside of the facility, which the FSA captured over the weekend during a battle near Al Harah, south of Damascus, next to the Golan Heights.

The videos and accompanying photos show insignias representing a branch of Syrian intelligence and the Russian Osnaz GRU radio electronic intelligence agency. The FSA found photos and lists of senior Russian intelligence and military officials who visited the facility, pictures of Russian personnel running the base, and maps showing the location of Israeli military units. Israeli news reports earlier this year said the Russian government had upgraded an advanced surveillance and intelligence gathering station in that area which could snoop on Israel, large parts of Jordan, and western Iraq, potentially to warn Iran in advance of an Israeli strike. Initial reports said documents from the facility suggested the Russian equipment was used to spy on Israel, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. 

U.S. defense officials told The Daily Beast the photos of the Russian insignia first shared on blogs were legitimate. But that evidence, at the same time, may not necessarily mean the facility captured by the opposition was controlled by Russia’s military; it could just mean that Russians were working there, as advisors or partners to Syrian troops.

בימים ההם אין מלך ... איש כל הישר בעיניו יעשה.

(In those days, there was no King... each man did what he saw fit - translation from the book of  Judges).

Barack Obama chose to degrade the United States' capabilities to the point where the world no longer has a (Western, democratic) superpower. And now the rest of the world is doing whatever it wants.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Golan Heights, Nusra Front, Russia, spying, Syria

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:49 PM