US Navy pulls two aircraft carriers from Syria shores

Two aircraft carriers stationed off the Syrian coast were sent back to the US this week in a move that the Obama administration thought would ease tensions, but angered Turkish officials who hoped for significant US military presence in the region. 

The USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier and the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and its 2,500 marines were recalled after being stationed on the Syrian coast, allegedly in preparation of potential military invasion. 

The USS Eisenhower, which has the capacity to hold thousands of men, joined the other warship during the first week of December, ready to launch an American-led military intervention “within days” if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were to use chemical weapons against the opposition, Time reported. But as the violence escalated in the past few days, the warships took off and headed back to the US.

The US usually has two aircraft carriers stationed in the Persian Gulf at all times, but will only have one deployed this month –  the USS John C. Stennis, which is stationed nowhere near Syria. By recalling the USS Eisenhower and the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, the US simply outraged its key ally in the region – Turkey. 

An unnamed senior Turkish officer told Israel's DEBKAfile that America’s removal of the aircraft carriers is “hard to understand and unacceptable to Ankara.” Turkey became one of the main opponents of the Assad regime on the international stage and fears that the Syrian missiles with chemical weapons might be used against it. Syria never recognized that it has a chemical stockpile. Nevertheless Syrian officials repeatedly said that their country would never use such weapons "even if they had them." 

None of Syria’s neighbors, which include Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Israel, have officially criticized the Obama administration for its recall of its naval forces, but unnamed officials told DEBKAfile that Turkish officials are very upset about the move. 

According to the Israeli news outlet, Washington hoped to “to appease the Turks” by sending to the region US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to sign a deployment order for the Patriot Air and Missile Defense System, which would be stationed at the Syrian border. While Panetta visited Turkey on Friday, the defense secretary allegedly visited an air base where US strike aircraft are stationed alongside Turkish warplanes. 

But the US attempt to ease tensions and calm Turkey had little effect: Turkish officials remain outraged at the US abandonment at a time when violence with its neighbor has escalated and relations with Iran and Syria are at its worst. 

Meanwhile  the deployment of the Patriot missile interceptors has escalated tensions between Turkey and Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad canceled a trip to Turkey for an annual ceremony this week, claiming the missile interceptors might lead to a “world war.”

Satellite images point to airstrike destruction of Sudanese arms factory

Sixteen-meter craters at the site of Wednesday’s Sudanese weapons factory explosion point to a surgical airstrike, a US-based monitoring group said. Earlier, Khartoum accused Tel Aviv of destroying the plant, reserving the right to retaliate.

­The shots released by the Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP) to the Associated Press support the Sudanese government accusation that Israel was behind the bombing of the Yarmouk military complex in which two people have been killed.

Experts consulted by the SSP have confirmed air bombardment of the site which destroyed the complex.

Military specialists found the site, “consistent with large impact craters created by air-delivered munitions,” Satellite Sentinel Project spokesman Jonathan Hutson told the SW.

The group also said that the images indicate that the explosion “destroyed two buildings and heavily damaged at least 21 others,” adding that there was no sign of fire damage at the fuel depot inside the military complex.

The observed craters were centred in the area of the complex where some 40 shipment containers had been stacked, the SSP further noted.

“If the explosions resulted from a rocket or missile attack against material stored in the shipping containers, then it was an effective surgical strike that totally destroyed any container” that was at the location, the project said.

SSP did not comment on the allegations of Israeli involvement in the destruction of the munitions plant. 

Initial official reports from the accident suggested an accidental explosion in a storage room, but Sudan later blamed Israel for launching the attack. “We believe that Israel is behind it,” said Information Minister Ahmed Belal Osman, adding that the planes had approached from the east.

Tel Aviv has so far neither confirmed nor denied striking the site, but has accused Sudan of being a key transit partner in supplying Hamas and Hezbollah with weapons.

Israeli officials suggest that arms smuggled to Gaza and Lebanon originate in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas then get to Sudan before crossing Sinai desert into Gaza through underground.

The explosion on October 23 caused the ammunition to explode for hours, threatening homes in the neighborhood adjacent to the factory and causing chaos among residents. Besides the two killed many people suffered from smoke inhalation.

Sudan accuses Israel of bombing weapons factory, threatens to retaliate

Israel was behind the bombing of a military factory that killed two people, claims Sudanese Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman. Now, the Arab North African state is threatening to respond in kind.

"We think Israel did the bombing," Osman told a news conference, adding that Sudan reserves “the right to react at a place and time we choose." He also told reporters that his government may take the issue up with the United Nations Security Council.

The minister said four planes were involved in the attack at the Yarmouk military manufacturing facility in south Khartoum, and claimed evidence recovered at the scene points to Israel’s involvement.

The Yarmouk complex was built in 1996, and is one of two known state-owned weapons manufacturing facilities in the Sudanese capital.

Residents from the area told local newspapers that they saw planes flying overhead just before the explosion. The blast blew roofs off houses, shattered windows and set nearby trees ablaze. Several people suffered from smoke exposure.

Thick smoke blackened the sky over the complex, and firefighters fought the blaze for hours.

It's not the first time Sudanese officials have blamed such an incident on Israel.

One person was killed when a car blew up on the country's Red Sea coast in May, about a year after Sudan blamed Israel for an air strike on a vehicle in the same area. Witnesses to the May incident said they heard a big blast that set the car ablaze and left two holes in the ground.

In January 2009, foreign aircraft struck a truck convoy reportedly laden with weapons in the country’s east, killing dozens. The shipment was rumored to be headed for Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, though Sudanese parliamentarians denied the claims.

Osman told the news conference that his country was certain the previous attacks were ordered by the Israeli government. “The main purpose is to frustrate our military capabilities and stop any development there and ultimately weaken our national sovereignty,” he said.

Israel, as is its policy, has neither admitted nor denied carrying out the attack.

Khartoum is seeking the removal of United States sanctions imposed in 1997 over support for international terrorism, its human rights record and other concerns.

In 1998, US cruise missiles bombed a Khartoum pharmaceutical factory suspected of links to al-Qaeda in the wake of the terrorist group's bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.

UK to double number of drones in Afghanistan

The UK military reportedly aims to double the size of its armed drone fleet in Afghanistan to ten by purchasing five US-made Reaper drones, which for the first time will be controlled from a UK base. The first five were controlled at US stations.

The Royal Air Force (RAF) announced the expedited purchase of the US-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), with operations set to begin in six weeks, AFP reported. The drones will be flown and operated from a tech hub built 18 months ago in the British region of Waddington in Lincolnshire, a leap forward in technological prowess for the UK.

The other five drones the UK operates in Afghanistan were controlled from a US Air Force base in Nevada, and target suspected insurgents in Afghanistan’s southwest province of Helmand.

"The new squadron will have three control terminals at RAF Waddington, and the five aircraft will be based in Afghanistan," an RAF spokesperson told the Guardian. “We will continue to operate the other Reapers from Creech though, in time, we will wind down operations there and bring people back to the UK.”

It is not known whether the drones will remain in Afghanistan following the NATO withdrawal in 2014.

Drone controversy deepens

The use of UAVs in Middle East is a controversial issue, as drones airstrikes frequently kill large numbers of innocent civilians.

Last month’s study from Stanford and New York universities titled ‘Living Under Drones’ claimed that only two percent of drone strike casualties in Pakistan are the top militants targeted in the attacks, and that the large number of collateral civilian deaths have turned Pakistanis against the US.

The “best available information,” according to the study, is that between 2,562 and 3,325 people were killed in Pakistan from June 2004 through mid-September of this year. An estimated 474 to 881 of those killed were civilians, including 176 children.

In early October, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that an overwhelming majority of those killed by US UAV strikes in Pakistan are innocent civilians. Malik asked the US to share its drone technology with Pakistan, claiming his government could do a better job at targeting terrorists than Washington.

"The Americans themselves often don’t know who they’ve hit,” anti-drone activist and filmmaker Carol Grayson told RT. “And this huge discrepancy over the figures… we’re finding out that a lot more civilians are being killed. But these are the people that the Americans don’t tell you about. And they actually class these people as ‘other.’”

The CIA has not responded to these calls for restraint, and recently asked the White House to increase the number of drones it employs, effectively transforming the program into a paramilitary force.

This summer, the UN lashed out against US drone policy, and asked Washington to clarify the legal basis for drone strikes against terror suspects rather than trying to capture them. The body argued that the airstrikes, which frequently kill innocent civilians, may be violating international law.

The US uses drone technology across the Middle East and North Africa, including in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia.

In the first nine months of 2011, leading up to the ten-year anniversary of the Afghan War, US-led spy drones operating with NATO conducted nearly 23,000 surveillance missions in Afghanistan. At around 85 flights a day, this figure nearly doubles the rate of such missions from two years previous.

As the Pentagon increases the number of drones used in NATO missions in Afghanistan, insurgent attacks have risen nearly 50 percent since 2009, according to a media brief released in the fall of 2011 by the Afghanistan International Security Assistance force.

The UK has operated UAVs in Afghanistan since 2008 for combat missions and surveillance operations. According to the UK’s Ministry of Defense, Britain’s five drones were flown for 39,628 hours and fired 334 laser-guided missiles and bombs at suspected insurgents.

The Ministry of Defense said that it does not know how many insurgents have died from drone attacks because of the risks involved in verifying who has been hit. The ministry also said that it relies on Afghans to handle complaints of civilians killed by such strikes, and gather statistics.

Heather Barr, a lawyer for Human Rights Watch, believes this system of verification is flawed because it lacks uniformity, and not all Afghans have ready access to NATO military bases where such complaints can be made. For some Afghans, there is “a certain sense of futility in doing so [reporting civilian deaths] anyway,” due to lack of trust in the West, she said.

Armenia-to-Syria flight lands in Turkey for 'security check'

Turkish authorities have searched an aircraft traveling from Armenia to Syria after it landed in the eastern city of Erzurum. Ankara demanded in advance the on-the-ground cargo inspection as a condition of flying through Turkish airspace.

“There was nothing extraordinary about it,” Air Armenia head Arsen Avetisyan assured the Interfax news agency.

The aircraft was grounded for about two hours and then cleared to continue its flight. The cargo plane is carrying humanitarian aid to war-torn Aleppo.

This incident comes days after the Turkish military forced a Syrian plane traveling from Moscow to Damascus to land in Turkey. Ankara claimed that the civilian aircraft was transporting weapons to Syria. Authorities seized equipment they found in the plane’s luggage before allowing it to resume its flight.

The equipment was spare parts for radar, not weapons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. The components were legally purchased in Russia, and were being delivered to the buyer in Syria.

Turkey and Syria denied each other the use of their respective airspaces after the incident, fanning tensions between the two countries. Ankara is an outspoken supporter of Syria’s armed opposition, which aims to topple the government in Damascus in the bloody 19-month-long standoff.

Report revives speculations on Azerbaijan-Israel plot against Iran

Israel might resort to Azerbaijan’s strategic geographic position to strike Iran’s atomic sites, Reuters has reported, reviving rumours officially denied by both Israel and Azerbaijan.

­Leaked intelligence from two former Azeri military officers with links to serving personnel and two Russian intelligence sources all told Reuters that Baku and Tel Aviv are considering the Azeri bases for military use against Tehran.

If Tel Aviv is to act without Washington’s support, the Israeli war plan would need to compensate for the handicap of acting alone – notably carrying out long-range reconnaissance, bombardment and rescue missions.

Such a possibility could potentially be drawing near as last week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the UN’s General Assembly that Tehran is only a year away from the "red line" for atomic capacity.

Washington has on numerous occasions stressed that the time for diplomacy and sanctions to deal with Iran has not run out. Israel continues to lobby for a potential military solution to concerns over Iran’s atomic facilities; something that many analysts believe will have dire consequences for the region.

Nevertheless, a member of the Azeri parliament's foreign affairs committee admitted to Reuters that Israel would need Baku’s support if it were to attack Iran as it would face a “refuelling” problem if it goes so far as taking the military option.

“I think their plan includes some use of Azerbaijan access,” Rasim Musabayov added. “We have (bases) fully equipped with modern navigation, anti-aircraft defenses and personnel trained by Americans and if necessary they can be used without any preparations.”

But officials in Azerbaijan’s president office have denied the speculation.

"No third country can use Azerbaijan to perpetrate an attack on Iran,” said Reshad Karimov from President Aliyev's staff.

Yet, in February Israeli defense officials confirmed a 2011 deal to sell to Azerbaijan 60 drones as well as antiaircraft and missile defense systems for some $1.6 billion.

"With these drones, (Israel) can indirectly watch what's happening in Iran, while we protect our borders," Musabayov says.

One of the sources linked to the Azeri military reportedly said: “There is not a single official base of the United States and even less so of Israel on the territory of Azerbaijan. But that is 'officially'. Unofficially they exist, and they may be used.”

The Reuters’ source also claimed that Iran was the main topic of discussion during Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman’s visit in April.

But this spring, Baku firmly denied reports that an agreement has been reached between Azerbaijan and Israel, granting the latter air base access for potential strikes on Iran. A spokesman from the Azeri defense ministry earlier refuted these claims as “absurd and groundless.” Those statements came on the back of a Foreign Policy report that claimed cooperation between Azerbaijan and Israel was "heightening the risks of an Israeli strike on Iran".

Azeri- Iran relation have seen better days. An Azeri-language television channel which is streamed by Tehran portrays president Aliyev as a puppet of Israel and the West. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan sees Iranian hands behind its Islamist opposition and both countries have arrested alleged spies.

“We live in a dangerous neighbourhood,” one presidential aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. “That’s the most powerful driving force behind our relationship with Israel.”