Incredible Footage

[Alan8325]

In other news, I don't know whether to be thrilled (love catapults and such), shocked (last thing I expected to see, in modern warfare happening now, were trebuchets, let alone giant slingshots firing flame-lit 1590s pattern hand grenades) or horror (that a force was in such dire straits it would even consider using such crude weapons in modern warfare). Still, if a flaming tire lands on you it won't be fun, and if any sort of grenade, however it got there, goes off nearby, you'll be just as hurt, or dead, if it connects.

AIUI, many of the urban combat fronts, such as in Aleppo, are relatively stagnant where fighting might go on over a single city block for weeks or even months. In these cases, a trebuchet that has a range of just a few dozen meters might be just as effective an artillery piece as a light mortar.

[Vark]

Highly effective, in a trained operators hands, able to lob objects with surprising accuracy, all without a tell tale report of muzzle flash.

[Schmoly War]

Ground Zero: Syria (Part 7): Snipers of Aleppo

[Alan8325]

Looks like U.S. military weapons and/or airstrikes are on the way. Anyone want to speculate what's going to be sent?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/13/us-syria-crisis-usa-idUSBRE95C1AB20130613

[Vanir Ausf B]

We know what the rebels want: anti-tank and anti-air missiles. That would suggest Javalins and Stingers. But I suspect the US will be loath to supply it's most advanced weaponry given the participation of al-Qaeda affiliates. I predict ammunition for whatever weapons they already have and RPGs procured from friendly Arab governments. More communications and night-vision gear. At some point there will be a limited no-fly zone via Patriot missile batteries along the border in Jordan and Turkey.

When these incremental measures fail to achieve the objective then there will be airstrikes. At that point it will be interesting to see if the Russians follow through with their threat to supply S-300 batteries to the Syrian government.

[Vark]

Who will we support, when AQ turn on the FSA?

[Alan8325]

Who will we support, when AQ turn on the FSA?

Or when the Sunnis (AQ affiliates or them plus a more general group including FSA) begin retaliatory atrocities against the Alawites, Shiite and possibly Christians.

Also, once airstrikes are underway I don't think that there is any way that the S-300s can make it in there and get set up. There is also the issue of training the Syrians to use it, which there almost certainly wouldn't be time for.

[Vark]

What happens when Lebanon gets sucked in, as the emboldened and victorious Sunnis take revenge for Hezbollah's intervention? This is what happens when you pussyfoot around with a regime like Iran, it throws down the gauntlet, at its time and choosing, forcing the US to scramble around to maintain a semblance of influence, in the region.

[agusto]

Fighting at Mount Hoihna, Aleppo:

ATGM vs Tank, 09th June:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7a9_1370797937

ATGM vs 2 Tanks, 10th June:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ee0_1370882287

ATGM vs BMP, 12th June:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=677_1371036228

FSA Tank vs BMP, 12th June:

Camera 1:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=874_1371142550

Camera 2:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=10e_1371049939

[Schmoly War]

This might tell us more than any other newsfeed could.

''Hezbollah Kills 500 FSA Rebels in 3 Hours'' - Adnan Aroor Goes Crazy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDKjxa-oBtE

[Schmoly War]

Interesting insight:

"George Friedman and Robert D. Kaplan on the Rise of Sectarianism in the Middle East"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8VLIDNt57o

[Schmoly War]

Tandem warhead, not even once.

Syria: 9M133 Kornet vs. T72

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Sc5QseIjIY

[John Kettler]

Russia deploys TOS 1A (improved TOS-1) Buratino to Syria. S-300 operational and S-400 soon! Link includes a nice technical drawing and several vids.

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/06/18/doomsday-weapons-to-syria-putin/

Schmoly War,

That's a K-Kill if ever I saw one. Instantaneous detonation of entire ammunition load from the looks of it.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Vanir Ausf B]

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/06/18/doomsday-weapons-to-syria-putin/

[Editors Note: We had reported earlier that when the Israelis used an American made mini-nuke bunker buster in the Damascus attack that they had crossed Russia 'quiet red line' of using a tactical nuke against an non attacking opponent.

I stopped reading right there.

[John Kettler]

Vanir Ausf B,

The mini nuke story is one thing, concerning which I have no confirmation, but the TOS-1A, S-300 and S-400 material is well worth your time. The TOS-1A vid is most impressive.

Mini nukes are quite real, as seen in the Wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suitcase_nuke

Were someone crazy enough to use them, they would easily fit into the form factor of a 250 lb bomb for aerial delivery and could have yields of as low as 10 tons TNT equivalent. Israel has such warheads, in the form of purloined Davy Crockett systems. Davy Crockett described below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_(nuclear_device)

The acid test of such purported use would lie in what was or wasn't detected by our network of nuclear detection systems piggybacked on the DSP missile launch and tracking satellites and the GPS constellation.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Vanir Ausf B,

I checked with highly sensitive contacts, and there WAS a mini nuke used against Syria. The nuclear detonation WAS detected by our satellites, and U.S. Intelligence believes the 1000-2000 lb class penetrating munition contained two Davy Crockett warheads. Target was a Syrian missile control center planned for running attacks against Israel, once Iranian Silkworm type missiles arrived. Target was deep underground with heavy concrete overlay.

Regards,

John Kettler

[agusto]

If Israel had nuked Syria, why didnt the Syrian government (wich definately has the technogical capabilities to detect and document the radiation released by a nuclear detonation) release this fact to the public? Wouldnt this be perfect anti-israeli propaganda, shifting even the western countries public opinion against Israel and pro Syria? I mean, since even some of rebel factions see Israel as an enemy, this serious external threat would surely also shift the public opinion in Syria towards Assads government. So the Syrian state media not mentioning an Israeli nuclear attack on Syria would appear to me to be a highly unlikely course of action.

BTW all sources that you and only you have access to do not surpport your arguement, JK.

[Vanir Ausf B]

I checked with highly sensitive contacts, and there WAS a mini nuke used against Syria.

You've fallen off the wagon again.

[Vark]

More like one of the latest bunker busters was used and a min-nuke decoy floated to shield the fact. After all, it's not the first time the US has benefited from having the IDF 'test' its weapons for it.

[Vanir Ausf B]

A mini-nuke decoy? Of course! That makes perfect sense, because it would be much preferable for the world to think nuclear weapons were used than a conventional bomb. LOL. And we have the Israelis test our weapons for us because I guess we're just too lazy to do it ourselves or something, and we never bomb other countries anyway.

[Wicky]

Of course a sufficient amounts of explosives /fertiliser factory going up will produce a mushroom cloud. Just that JK's voices in his head secret sources tell him that it is a nuke.

Irish 'Nuke' in Dublin circa 1922

[Schmoly War]

The TOS-1 story is plausible. The mini nuke thing, not so. Honestly, would not this be on scale with the alleged use of sarin gas by Assad and why wouldn't Assad use the nuke as a tool of extreme propaganda immediatly since its measurable?

Yeah its a crazy world, but the politcal backlash of someone actually using a geiger meter in the area in then publishing it on media sites....

"The Syrian/African fault line spreads into Israel. Were it to be subjected to this kind of explosive power, the threat of an earthquake doing significant damage in Israel is a reality. The nuclear bunker busters have far less penetrating power and, I am not saying that this was a nuclear device, not until more evidence is in, but the ‘event profile’ shows striking similarities". Colonel James Hanke, former Defense Attaché and Liaison between the Pentagon and Netanyahu’s government. (Press TV)

Key sentence: "not until more evidence".

Video analysis is not enough, as Wicky hints to.

[Vark]

Mini-nuke is a decoy, rather like all the UFO reports that covered up the flight testing of stealth aircraft. The internet is a vast wisdom of crowds 'intelligence network', so feeding it a 'tasty' story, you can control, seems to be a sensible precaution. No official agency will subscribe to the theory, so no Syrians with Geiger counters, but it's 'plausible' enough to snare the amateur spook.

As for testing, there is a world of difference between staged tests and real combat, hence the epithet 'proven in combat/combat tested' are much desired additions to any sales campaign. The Israeli contribution to combat testing of US weapons is a long and well documented path, which sometimes leads to the US buying back modified equipment.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/israelisystems.html

[Vanir Ausf B]

There is no evidence that I have seen that this mini-nuke idea originated from anywhere other than the conspiracist website Kettler linked to, nor is it clear why the US or Israeli governments would think that what the John Kettlers of the world think is important enough to make a directed and deliberate attempt to fool them, particularly when the truth of the matter is so mundane and uncontroversial.

As for this ridiculous testing theory, the latest and most advanced bunker-busting bomb in the Israeli arsenal is the GBU-28, which they "purchased" from the US in 2009. The GBU-28 has been in the US inventory for over 20 years. It has been both thoroughly tested by the US and "proven in combat/combat tested" in 3 wars. Why the US would be relying on Israel to test a weapon that the US already has vastly more combat experience with is a question that needs answering. The need for such testing is doubly questionable given that the US has a new bunker-busting bomb that is far more capable than the GBU-28.

[Vark]

The MOP is so large only a B-2 can carry it and the GBU-28 was described, by a USAF report, as being wholly inadequate in destroying anything better protected than its specific HDBT profile.

The Syrians know the performance of the GBU-28, and build underground storage facilities to defeat it, probably using techniques used by the Iranians, probably using Iranian engineers. The Israelis become aware of the new facilities and realise their 20year old bunker-busters are inadequate. The urgency comes when Assad plans to rearm Hezbollah with 'game-changing' weaponry and WMD's are used in Syria. The US helped, or developed, an interim bunker buster, which was tested by Israel and can now be used to take out any GBU-28 proof facilities.

As for why plant stories about mini-nukes, reference the way UFO stories were advantageously used to conceal the flight testing of the Stealth and advanced recon platforms.