White House to Congress:Assad chemicals, Hizballah drone opposite Haifa

http://www.debka.com/article/22924/White-House-to-Congress-Assad-has-used-chemical-weapons-Israeli-jets-down-Hizballah-drone-opposite-Haifa





White House to Congress: Assad has used chemical weapons. Israeli jets down Hizballah drone opposite Haifa






DEBKAfile
Special Report
April 25, 2013, 6:56 PM (GMT+02:00)







Tags:


drone



Hizballah



Israel Air Force



Binyamin Netanyahu



chemical weapons



Bashar Assad



Chuck Hagel



















Hizballah drone


In a remarkable reversal, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in Abdu
Dhabi Thursday afternoon, April 25, that the US intelligence community
believes the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against its own
people, determining with "varying degrees of confidence" that Syrian
President Bashar Assad's forces have used the nerve agent sarin against
civilians and forces fighting to remove Assad from power.

The White House is informing Congress about the chemical weapons use
now, Hagel said, hours after he voiced reservations about the assessment
Tuesday by senior Israeli military intelligence officer Brig. Gen. Itai
Brun that the Assad regime had begun to practice chemical warfare.
Earlier Thursday, Israel Air Force F-16 warplanes downed a Hizballah
drone 8 kilometers out at sea from the big port of Haifa. It flew south
from the direction of Lebanon. Witnesses on Haifa’s Mt. Carmel watched
the smoke trails of the Israeli jets and heard exploding rockets.
Israeli Navy ships are out searching for debris in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Israeli army spokesman issued a statement: An attempt by an
unmanned aerial vehicle to enter Israel’s air space was thwarted. The
UAV was identified flying from the north past the coast of southern
Lebanon and continuing south. It was tracked continuously until it was
downed by Israeli fighter planes and attack helicopters.

They went into action after the drone was identified as not coming from
a friendly source. The Air Force gave the order to shoot it down.”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said: “We take an extremely grave
view of this attempt to violate our borders and will continue to guard
them and keep our citizens safe.” He added, “We are watching events in
Syria and Lebanon with extreme concern. Syria is breaking up and Lebanon
is unstable. Both places pose not inconsiderable perils to Israel – two
emanating directly from Syria. The first is the possible transfer of
sophisticated weaponry to terrorist organizations and the second,
attempts by terrorists to break through our borders and attack our towns
and villages. Israel stands ready to counteract any threats from Syria
or Lebanon by sea, air and land.”



debkafile adds:
The drone, which was launched from the Lebanese coast of Sidon towards
the Israeli coast, was but the first move in a larger plan. Just as the
Syrian civil war is already spilling over into Lebanon and threatens to
crash through another border into Jordan, there are plans afoot to
spread the violence into Israel.

The Hizballah’s UAV intrusion thwarted by the Israeli Air Force and the
repeated shooting attacks from the Syrian side of the Golan were omens
of more to come. Syria’s Bashar Assad, Hizballah and Iran will not put
up with any intervention in the Syrian conflict by the US, Israel,
Jordan or Turkey – even though foreign intervention is already present
in the form of 3,000 Hizballah commandoes fighting with Assad’s army in
Qusayr and Damascus sectors.