Syria war: Why was Shayrat airbase bombed? - BBC News Wikipedia A similar possibility regarding Syria was also considered during those years at the research branch of Military Intelligence. It was then 2:00 A.M. on Wednesday. One of the presidents close advisers later told a senior Israeli official that Bush replied in his typical Texas style: A mans gotta do what a mans gotta do. Bush also had another crude observation, about Olmert: You see why I love him? USS Shamal - Wikipedia Ahmad Suwaydani, one of the new members of the Military Committee, was appointed Head of Military Intelligence and Mazyad Hunaydi became Head of the Military Police. According to him, he did not recommend attacking a hot reactor, but rather said that it was necessary to prepare for any eventuality and that the reactor becoming operational should not cause the decision-makers in Israel to despair. He was waiting for us outside the plane as we landed, with hugs. Assad conducted the nuclear project in great secrecy, with very few partners to the secret. Rather, the question is whether to take a risk in order to prevent greater risks and for that reason there is no alternative to demolishing the reactor., Associates of Olmert describe an angry correspondence with Barak that day, which was conducted via messengers. The material was analyzed on a Wednesday night, recalls Amnon Sufrin. We had a number of kinds of weapons, a mix that wouldnt leave you with a single malfunction point without the ability to compensate for it. In Israel they saw this mendacious statement without many details as reinforcement of the assessment that Assad intended to show restraint. Syrian Civil War | Facts & Timeline | Britannica [15] The establishment and the dissolution of the UAR was a catastrophe for the Ba'ath Party as it divided among those who supported the UAR, those who opposed it and those who opposed or supported the traditional leaders of the party. We made certain five times that it was all systems go., Even today, he remembers the moment of impact. Ten years of silence on Syria strike. It was decided to attack but to authorize a small forum the trio of Olmert, Barak and Livni to decide upon the timing of the attack and the nature of the operation. Olmert conducted himself in this affair with courage and skill and did not shy away from making decisions. Shortly thereafter Olmert phoned call President Bush, who was on a visit to Australia that week. Its only rarely that a Mossad chief calls and says: I have to see you. The Mossad chief arrives and sits in my office. Therefore, the findings from the reactor were presented as findings at a low level of certainty. In Israel they were surprised by that conclusion. Following the 1948 ArabIsraeli War, the 1949 Armistice Agreements created three demilitarized zones on the Israel-Syria border. The dilemma Israel faced with respect to the choice between effectiveness and secrecy did not end with the question of the operation itself. [26], Assad led a small group of conspirators to capture the al-Dumayr air base, 40 kilometers (25mi) north-east of Damascus the only unit that resisted the coup. The Syrian military said the strike had left six personnel and a number of others injured, and caused "huge material damage". Subscribe here for top stories and breaking news straight to your inbox. Olmerts behavior toward top people in the defense establishment seemed too folksy to him too much hugging and backslapping, not enough considered judgment. The official Sana news agency reported that nine civilians living in villages near the airbase, including four children, had also been killed in the strike. [41] President Lu'ay al-Atassi subsequently resigned, signalling his disapproval of the executions. Israel fires missiles on border positions inside Syria Ultimately, however, the bombing of the reactor would not have happened without three people who believed in the mission and pushed the operation forward, unstintingly, throughout: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Mossad chief Meir Dagan and Israel Air Force commander Eliezer Shkedi., >> Ten years of silence on Syria strike. The vast majority of those who took part in the meetings describe a very sharp, determined leader, almost chomping at the bit. From the beginning, the military committee members formed state policies behind the backs of other NCRC members when the civilian leadership found out, al-Atrash said: "Why do not these gentlemen speak? Explore in 3D: The dazzling crown that makes a king. He did not revise his opinion when they sat together in sensitive deliberations in the cabinet and in smaller forums. For other water conflicts, see, Arab League summit meeting convened in Cairo, "Turning Water into Fire: the Jordan River as the Hidden Factor in The Six Day War", http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu18ce/uu18ce0a.htm#10.%20principles%20for%20confidence%20building%20measures%20in%20the%20jordan%20river%20watershed, http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/80858e/80858E0m.htm, "An American in Palestine: Elwood Mead and Zionist Water Resource Planning, 1923-1936", Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, Wave of violence in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 194, UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 242, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=War_over_Water_(Jordan_river)&oldid=1146917736, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 27 March 2023, at 19:01. USS Shamal (PC-13) is the thirteenth Cyclone -class patrol ship. [41] Relations with Egypt immediately soured, with Nasser, still popular with the Syrian masses, issuing broadcasts denouncing the Ba'athists as "murderers" and "fascists",[40] and representing the forces of heresy and atheism, a derogatory reference to the party's embrace of strict secularism and the numerous leadership positions held by non-Sunni Muslims. The prime minister warned the American president that setting the diplomatic channel in motion would make it possible for the Syrians to play for time in the talks while hastening the completion of the construction of the reactor. When the F-16I crew reported Arizona, it was 12:25 A.M., Israel time, on Friday, September 6. [10] Of the 150 delegates to the founding congress of the Arab Ba'ath Party in 1947, the majority were either middle-class professionals or intellectuals. Syria Russia is reported to have used Shayrat as a base for its Mil Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunships, The US said these were the paths of the Syrian Air Force jets that bombed Khan Sheikhoun, The Russian defence ministry claimed that only 23 Tomahawk missiles reached Shayrat, This photograph taken after the missile strike appears to show a damaged hangar at Shayrat, The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. Then, he in fact presented opposite arguments: Suddenly there wasnt a problem in rushing to bomb, even though an attack in Iran was a far greater challenge than bombing in Syria. They negotiated their surrender even though, according to Assad himself, their forces could have defeated his rebel company in combat. [The threat] at the existential level is of an unprecedented order of magnitude.. The detailed intelligence helped convince those countries of the justice of the Israeli move and neutralized the possibility that the attack would become the cause of an international scandal. Before taking control, the Ba'ath Party gambled that it would be allowed to share power with Gamal Abdel Nasser in the United Arab Republic (UAR). Since the attack in Syria we have also improved wonderfully in intelligence, in our range of action, in our ability to attack secretly., During the course of the past decade, the two operational air force squadrons have fiercely guarded the secret of the attack. A Russian defence ministry spokesman said an equipment depot, a training building, a mess, six Syrian Air Force MiG-23s in repairing hangars, as well as a radar station were destroyed. The Syrian reactor, before and after the Israeli strike. The Syrian branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party was able to recruit youth from radical peasant movements and thus was able to mobilise large sectors of the population. There was silence. They put on the table an intelligence finding of the type rarely encountered in this country. The odds were low but they did exist. [42] After evading the authorities for a short period, Alwan and his chief co-conspirators Raef al-Maarri and Muhammad Nabhan were apprehended and brought to military trial, where they were found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. The first indication of the Syrian regimes interest in purchasing nuclear research facilities came to the notice of Israel and the Western countries in the late 1990s, toward the end of the elder Assads rule. The intelligence people say they told him: There are no more question marks. What actually is/was 'Shallal'? I can't find mention of it anywhere. Asia. Al-Hariri led a brigade from the Syrian front towards Israel, while Ba'athists were able to gain control of a second brigade stationed in Suwayda. Satellite imagery obtained by Stratfor that December showed construction work to improve the airbase. At the cabinet meeting I had already warned the ministers: Anyone who talks will be responsible for Assad reacting. They are the best in the world. As was its wont, Damascus denied everything, and the IAEA did nothing about all this despite Syrias blatant violation of a treaty to which it was a signatory. After the coup, the Ba'athist Military committee initiated a series of purges that altered the structure of the Syrian armed forces; by replacing 90% of its officer corps with Alawites. Rescue workers said many children were among those killed or injured in the suspected chemical attack in Idlib. As in Mughniyehs case, Israel was accused of the killing but Jerusalem never officially responded. We were able to say with certainty: This reactor is intended to produce plutonium and for military purposes only, says Yadlin. [42] Nasser also announced his withdrawal from the 17 April unity agreement.[40][42]. It was an extraordinary process, at the end of which the reactor was destroyed., Ido Nechushtan believes that this is the kind of problem that its important for Israel to know how to solve on its own. In 2005, Col. (today reserve brigadier general) Eli Ben Meir had taken up the position of head of the technology field in the research branch. In the Israeli defense establishment, the concern was that if the diplomatic channel were employed, Assad was liable to position anti-aircraft batteries near the reactor or even to establish something like a kindergarten there as a human shield. The prime minister was also afraid of a leak to the media by American officials who opposed an Israeli attack. In 1965, there were three notable border clashes, starting with Syrian shootings of Israeli farmers and army patrols, followed by Israeli tanks and artillery destroying the Arab heavy earth moving machines that were used for the diversion plan. He had been killed in 2008 in Damascus while leaving a reception at the Iranian embassy. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. In some public opinion polls, the level of support for the premier didnt rise above the single digits. The prime minister was imbued with a sense of urgency and a desire to act. Fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and Iranian-backed Iraqi militias supporting the Syrian army on the ground are also believed to have used Shayrat. Uranium fuel rods. There, his deputy had already convened the men of the General Staff. Amos Yadlin. As far as is known, it was carried out without the advance permission or involvement of Iran or Syria. I said to him: The air force did what it was assigned to do., The prime minister celebrated the achievement by raising a toast. While Atassi and Hariri held powerful posts, they did not possess enough personal or political power to threaten the NCRC. Bash Dulki Village, 5 km southeast; The southernmost, and also the largest, stretched from the south-eastern part of the Sea of Galilee eastwards to the Yarmuk River where the borders of Israel, Jordan and Syria converge. All the intelligence people who knew Bashar told me: Its not like Bashar. [5] The landownerpeasant alliance was based on class differences, and social antagonism between each other this would lead to the landowner's downfall. Husni al-Za'im became the first military dictator of Syria in 1949, but in 1950, military officer Adib Shishakli gained power behind the scenes, and by 1953 had established another military dictatorship. Gradually, it became clear that there were three competing approaches within the administration, and that the president was trying to choose among them. A quiet and relatively clandestine action would probably be perceived in Syria less emotionally but in such a case, there would be no certainty that the nuclear threat had been eradicated. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Syria The military committee decided it had to capture al-Kiswah and Qatana, two military camps, seize control of the 70th Armoured Brigade at al-Kiswah, the Military Academy in the city of Homs and the Damascus radio station. WebShallal is a village in Syria. At both MI and the Mossad, they started to act to confirm or refute the hypothesis proposed by Major Y.