WORLD AT WAR: 10.8.16 - Are We on the Brink of World War III?

Are We on the Brink of World War III? - Bob Eschliman - http://www.charismanews.com/politics/issues/60400-are-we-on-the-brink-of-world-war-iii

 

With relations between the United States and Russia at their lowest since the fall of the Soviet Union, and with increased provocations by Russian military assets around the world, it's easy to assume a hair-trigger separates peace from World War III.

 

Adding to those concerns was a new report that the Russian government is in the midst of a "war game" in which 40 million people are preparing to respond to potential nuclear, chemical, and biological attacks. According to the Russian Ministry for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters:

 

Fire safety, civil defense and human protection at social institutions and public buildings are also planned to be checked. Response units will deploy radiation, chemical and biological monitoring centers and sanitation posts at the emergency areas, while laboratory control networks are going to be put on standby.

 

Last week, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, Commander of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that to implement a "no-fly zone" over Syria would require the U.S. declaring war on both Syria and Russia. But if you were to listen to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, the U.S. is already on a war footing:

 

The strategic resolve of our nation, the United States, is being challenged and our alliances tested in ways that we haven't faced in many, many decades. I want to be clear to those who wish to do us harm ... the United States military-despite all of our challenges, despite our [operational] tempo, despite everything we have been doing-we will stop you and we will beat you harder than you have ever been beaten before. Make no mistake about that.

 

While we focused on the counter-terrorist fight, other countries-Russia, Iran, China, North Korea-went to school on us. They studied our doctrine, our tactics, our equipment, our organization, our training, our leadership. And, in turn, they revised their own doctrines, and they are rapidly modernizing their military today to avoid our strengths in hopes of defeating us at some point in the future.

 

Milley quoted a Russian official who said he believed the former Soviet state could launch a conventional war in Europe and win. He then said that such a war would be "highly lethal, unlike anything our Army has experienced at least since World War II."

 

"It's a tall order for sure-to project power into contested theaters, fight in highly populated urban areas, to survive and win on intensely lethal and distributed battlefields, and to create leaders and soldiers who can prevail," he added. "Tough? Yes. But impossible? Absolutely not.

 

"Make no mistake about it, we can now and we will retain the capability to rapidly deploy, and we will destroy any enemy anywhere, any time."

 

Russia Warns US Not to Intervene in Syria, threatens to Shoot Down Any Airstrike Attempts - Patrick Reevell - https://gma.yahoo.com/russia-warns-us-not-intervene-syria-threatens-shoot-181512495--abc-news-topstories.html

 

Russia has warned the United States not to intervene militarily in Syria against forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, threatening that it may shoot down any aircraft attempting to launch strikes.

 

In a bluntly worded statement, a spokesman for Russia's defense ministry warned that Russia and the Syrian government had deployed sufficient air defenses to block any potential attacks.

 

It follows rumbling in Washington that the White House may be considering launching limited strikes against some Syrian regime military targets as an alternative option for moving forward in the Syrian conflict after the collapse of U.S.-Russian cease-fire negotiations.

 

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the Pentagon was presenting the Obama administration with the option of strikes at meetings this week. The strikes, which the Joint Chief of Staffs and the CIA are now said to favor, according to the Post, would see missiles fired at Assad air force bases, intended to punish the regime for its failure to abide by the cease-fire, hamper attacks against civilians and pressure it and Moscow to begin negotiating again.

 

Although, the strikes are now back on the table, President Obama is still very unlikely to approve them, according to administration officials speaking to the Post, as well as former State Department officials and outside analysts.

 

Moscow though has sought to head-off any U.S. intervention. Major-General Igor Konashenkov, the Russian defense ministry spokesman, directly addressed the reports in a briefing on Thursday, when he warned that Russia may shoot down any aircraft attacking Syrian government forces.

 

Although Konashenkov did not directly say Russia would shoot down American aircraft, his point was unambiguous.

 

"I would recommend our colleagues in Washington to thoroughly consider the possible consequences of the realization of such plans," Konashenkov said, before listing the array of anti-air defenses deployed in Syria and saying they would be used if Assad's or Russian forces were attacked.

 

Konshenkov warned that Russia had deployed advanced S-300 and S-400 anti-aircraft missiles to its bases in Syria, noting that their range "can be a surprise for any unidentified flying objects."

 

"It follows to really be conscious that there will hardly be time in the calculations of the Russian air-defense units to clarify on the "direct line" the precise flight-plan of missiles and who they belong to," Konashenkov said, referring to the hotline already established by the U.S. and Russia to prevent clashes between their aircraft conducting strikes in Syria.

 

The strikes described by the Post would be launched from ships and aircraft belonging to the international anti-ISIS coalition assembled by the U.S., conducted covertly to avoid legal blocks as well as direct clashes with the Russians.

 

Konashenkov, however, suggested Russia would target any unidentified aircraft attacking Syrian government targets and warned "American strategists" not to assume a covert intervention would go unanswered. "The illusions of dilettantes about the existence of 'stealth' aircraft may encounter a disappointing reality," he added. Konashenkov also warned that Russian troops were now widely deployed across Syria, implying any strikes could hit them, pulling the U.S. into conflict with Russia.

 

Konashenkov referred again to a strike on Sept. 17, when U.S. military aircraft killed dozens of Syrian government troops accidentally. The Pentagon has said the strike was a mistake, but Konashenkov said Russia was prepared to prevent "any similar 'mistakes'" against Russian troops.

 

The White House has been examining more so-called "kinetic" options since the cease-fire deal brokered by Secretary of State, John Kerry with Russia collapsed at the end of September amid mutual recriminations and Russian and Syrian government aircraft launched a ferocious air assault on the besieged city of Aleppo.

 

The bombardment has been described as among the most intense of the conflict, with Western countries accusing Russia and the Syrian government of committing war crimes and prompting calls for the U.S. to intervene more muscularly to pressure the Kremlin and Assad to halt them and begin negotiating again. Kerry this week formally suspended the talks with Russia, with the State Department saying there was now nothing to talk about. The rapid unraveling of the talks has sent the Obama administration back to the drawing board on Syria. The intensity of the Russian strikes, even as the cease-fire foundered, has persuaded some observers that without hard pressure Moscow and Assad will never negotiate in good faith. Former State Department officials and Syria watchers have suggested that the strikes could take the form cruise missiles hitting Syria air facilities and cratering runways to cripple Assad's air force. Besides the strikes, the U.S. is said to be considering providing rebels inside Syria with heavier weaponry.

 

While it remains unclear whether Russia would actually down an American plane attacking a target in Syria, the possibility threatened to push the conflict out into a new stage, with Russia and the U.S. placed in the most direct stand-off of anytime since the Syrian war began.

 

The odds, however, that the Obama administration will approve military intervention in Syria still seem very long.

 

"I will be shocked," Robert Ford, the last U.S. ambassador to Syria, said in an interview earlier his week.

 

Throughout the Syrian civil war, President Obama has made it clear he is reluctant to use direct force against the Assad regime. Although coming close in 2013 when Assad crossed the much criticized "red-line" over chemical weapons, the White House called off strikes after Moscow forced Assad to hand over his chemical arsenal. In recent interviews, the president and administration officials have suggested that reluctance has only become stronger as Syria has slid further into chaos and Russia and Iran have increased their involvement.

 

"To me it's remarkable that the administration is even considering it again," said Ford, who resigned discontented by the administration's unwillingness to provide more support to rebels. "Because it's going to be out of office in three and a half months. And you know Obama doesn't really want to do it."

 

"But the drums are loud over here," he said.

 

Ford and other former State Department officials said they believed some new steps were relatively likely, such as sanctions on Russia, as well as increased and heavier weapons to the rebels, though they expressed doubt the administration would dramatically change its tactics.

 

"Sanctions could happen," said Frederic C. Hof, a former adviser to the State Department on Syria, who also left frustrated by the U.S.' refusal to back the rebels more heavily. "What's really needed is anti-aircraft defense and I just don't know that the United States is ready to lift its veto on that."

 

"There are things the Americans could do that would certainly get the Russians attention and cause them to re-engage," Ford said, suggesting the U.S. could consider supply 3 or 4 anti-aircraft missiles for bringing down a small number of Russian military planes.

 

"That wouldn't be so hard," he said.

 

Such steps would be intended to return the Russians to negotiations at some point, observers said. Even as Russia has threatened the U.S. and accused it of shielding terrorists in Aleppo, Russian officials have held out the possibility that talks could one day resume. Former diplomats noted that the U.S. had suspended not terminated its contacts with Russia over Syria.

 

"This is not a transformative or a terminative event." said David Aaron Miller, a former long-term State Department adviser on Middle East negotiations, referring to the collapse of the cease-fire talks. "It's another twist."

 

"In the Middle East, something can be dead or something will be dead and buried. And if you ask me, the notion of a political process with the Russians is not dead and buried."

 

 

ISIS Prepares for Armageddon Battle Against US Special Forces - By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz - http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/76735/isis-fighting-end-days-battle-dabiq-bring-muslim-messiah/#0ZUqj4qG7jMIRQMb.97

 

"Therefore son of man prophesy and say unto Gog: Thus saith the Lord GOD: In that day when My people Yisrael dwelleth safely shalt thou not know it?" Ezekiel 38:14 (The Israel Bible�)

 

While God's judgement of the world hangs in balance during the Days of Awe between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, a battle is being fought in a small, dusty town in Syria that ISIS and many of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims believe will usher in Mahdi, the Islamic concept of Messiah.

 

ISIS believes Mahdi will come after the final apocalyptic battle between "Rome" (or America, in its modern incarnation) and Islam is fought in Dabiq, Syria. Though the current has little strategic military importance and the outcome seems certain, as a small group of ISIS fighters face off against American-led troops, the Koran prophesies that this battle, win or lose, will set off a process resulting in all infidels choosing between conversion and death.

 

One expert sees this battle as a catalyst setting off intensified ISIS terror attacks around the world in an attempt by the Islamic State to fulfill the prophecy.

 

"ISIS believes quite strongly that the primary eschatological battle between the Muslims and the Christian forces will be fought there," Dr. Timothy Furnish, an international media commentator and author on radical Islam, explained to Breaking Israel News. "They have been trying to goad the West, primarily the US, into inserting ground forces at that locale."

 

Dr. Furnish cited a hadith (Islamic teaching attributed to Mohammed) which states that the "Last Hour would not come" until a vastly superior Roman army composed of "the best soldiers of the people of the earth at that time" came to battle Islam in Dabiq.

 

Islam's vision of Messiah is the resurrection of a Muslim Jesus, who will convert all Christians to Islam. Those who do not convert will be killed.

 

Dabiq is a small Syrian town with a population of 3,000, about 10 miles from the border with Turkey. Rebel troops, including 300 US Special Forces, are currently moving to take the town back from ISIS. Fighting has been fierce and casualties are already high on both sides. Despite its relative unimportance, Islamic State has been focusing all of its efforts on the city.

 

The battle began on Monday, when the Free Syrian Army - Syrian rebel forces supported by America and Turkey - captured Turkman Bareh, four miles east of Dabiq. The anti-ISIS forces predicted they would capture Dabiq within 48 hours, but their advance slowed after they encountered extensively mined areas, mortars, and explosive devices in their path. Fighting was reported to be especially fierce as ISIS reinforcements poured into the region.

 

ISIS has put great effort into attracting American attention to the backwater of Dabiq, naming its online propaganda magazine after the town of Muslim armageddon. The magazine's front cover quotes former terrorist leader and killer Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who proclaimed in 2004, "The spark has been lit here in Iraq, and its heat will continue to intensify - by Allah's permission - until it burns the crusader armies in Dabiq."

 

The small town was prominently featured in a video of Mohammed Emwazi, a British citizen dubbed "Jihadi John", who joined ISIS and murdered five Western hostages in 2014. He taunted American viewers with the severed head of American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, a former US Army Ranger, at his feet.

 

"Here we are, burying the first American Crusader in Dabiq, eagerly waiting for the remainder of your armies to arrive," Emwazi said in the video.

 

Their efforts to attract America's attention seems to have succeeded, as the US-led coalition brings "the best soldiers of the people of the earth" directly to Dabiq. Nonetheless, it is not holding onto the city or even winning the battle that is significant to ISIS, but the fact of the battle itself.

 

Dr. Mordechai Kedar, an Israeli scholar of Arabic literature and a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University, believes that ISIS will not relinquish its twisted version of Messiah, even if it is defeated in the prophesied Battle of Dabiq.

 

"No doubt, Dabiq carries a very heavy Islamic meaning," Dr. Kedar told Breaking Israel News. "I think that the Islamic State will not turn Dabiq into a fight for eternity, and will withdraw eventually from Dabiq as well as from other parts of Syria."

 

But Dr. Khedar believes an ISIS defeat in Dabiq will be even more catastrophic for the West than an ISIS victory.

 

"They will claim that the war on Dabiq can be carried out in the streets of Paris, London, Berlin, Washington DC and Jerusalem," Dr. Kedar warned. "Meanwhile we can see a war between Russia and the US on Syria. Put simply, Gog and Magog."

 

 

IDF launches second wave of Gaza strikes after rocket attack - By Judah Ari Gross - http://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-hits-gaza-for-second-time-after-rocket-attack-palestinian-media/

 

Israeli airstrike targets northern and southern Strip in fresh raid after projectile fired from Hamas-run territory lands in Sderot

 

Israeli warplanes struck Hamas sites in the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday afternoon, in the second such attack of the day after a rocket fired from the coastal enclave struck Sderot, according to Palestinian media.

 

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the airstrikes, saying it targeted "a number of terror installations belonging to the Hamas terror group."

 

In its statement, the IDF called Hamas "the sovereign in the Gaza Strip, which bears responsibility for every terror incident emanating from it."

 

According to Palestinian media, Israeli jets hit targets in both the al-Tufah neighborhood of Gaza City in the northern Strip and in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. According to Channel 2 television, the targets included Hamas rocket stockpiles.

 

Earlier in the day, Israeli tanks fired on Hamas targets in Beit Hanoun in the northeastern corner of the Strip, the army said. There were no immediate reports of Palestinian injuries.

 

The rocket, which was fired from the Gaza Strip, struck a street in the Israeli city of Sderot - a few miles from Beit Hanoun - just before 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, police said.

 

IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said in a statement, "Today's attack, the second since the beginning of August in the city of Sderot, is the direct result of Hamas' terror agenda in the Gaza Strip that encourages deliberate attacks against Israeli civilians. The IDF remains committed to the stability of the region and the defense of the residents of southern Israel in the face of terror."

 

The strike caused damage and sent ten people to the hospital suffering from anxiety attacks.

 

The Islamic State-affiliated Ahfad al-Sahaba-Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis terrorist group took responsibility for the rocket launch in statements released in both Arabic and Hebrew.

 

"Oh you cowardly Jews: You don't have safety in our land. [Former defense minister Moshe] Ya'alon, the failure at giving security. [Defense Minister Avigdor] Liberman to fail will be a certainty," the Salafist group said in its statement, in poorly translated Hebrew.

 

The attack against Israel was apparently a response to the Strip's Hamas rulers arresting several members of the Salafist organization, according to the group's statement.

 

Though the Salafist group claimed the attack, Israel has said it holds Hamas responsible for any attacks emanating from Gaza and routinely responds to such launches with strikes inside the Palestinian territory.

 

"We can't go after every little group in Gaza with a couple of dozen members that goes out one night and fires a rocket," a senior officer in the IDF's Southern Command told reporters last month.

 

Ahfad al-Sahaba-Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis released a similar statement last month after a failed attempt to launch a rocket at southern Israel on the first day of school. The group also claimed responsibility for a rocket attack that hit Sderot in August, landing between two houses in the southern Israeli city.

 

In Wednesday morning's rocket attack, ten people in Sderot "suffered anxiety attacks" and were treated by medical teams, but no one was physically hurt by the attack, according to the Magen David Adom medical service.

 

The ten - including a 15-year-old girl and a 60-year-old man - were taken to Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center for further care, MDA paramedics said.

 

The street where the rocket landed was damaged in the attack, as were several nearby cars and homes.

 

Police sappers were called to the scene, and the area was closed off to pedestrians and traffic, police said.

 

Last month, a mortar shell was launched from the Gaza Strip and landed in a field in southern Israel, causing neither injury nor damage, the army said. The projectile hit an empty field in the Eshkol region, next to the southern Strip, according to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces.

 

 

 

Deployment of S-300 to Syria signals surge in Russia-US tensions - Yaakov Lappin - http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Analysis-US-Russia-tensions-in-Syria-a-new-threat-to-regional-security-469408

 

Washington and the West have looked on as pro-Assad ground troops have begun amassing in the thousands around Aleppo.

 

Tension between the US and Russia over recent events in Syria have escalated rapidly in recent days, casting a new shadow over regional, and to some extent, global security.

 

A Fox News report on Tuesday cited American officials as saying that Russia deployed its advanced S-300VM surface-to- air missile system to Syria.

 

The deployment appears to be a clear signal to Washington, aimed at dissuading it from taking military action against the Assad regime.

 

Since entering the Syrian conflict, Russia's goal has been to preserve the existence of its ally, the Alawite Assad government, and assist it in fighting a myriad of Sunni rebels. The US-led coalition's goal has, until now, been aimed at targeting the jihadists of ISIS and the Nusra Front. For a while, these two coalitions were able to pursue their goals in the crowded Syrian arena and prevent conflict between them.

 

Now, things may be changing, and as a result, tensions between the two global powers are on the rise.

 

In recent days, the US walked away from cease-fire attempts with Russia, after watching with despair the carnage and misery inflicted on Aleppo by Syrian and Russian warplanes.

 

Since the collapse of the cease-fire, the Russian-led coalition, which includes Hezbollah and Iranian elements, has made gains in Aleppo. Washington and the West have looked on as pro-Assad ground troops have begun amassing in the thousands around Syria's largest city, a portion of which is under rebel control.

 

Western media reports have been filled with harrowing images of civilian casualties from Aleppo, and pressure has been growing on the Obama administration to take bolder action in light of the futility of diplomacy.

 

It remains highly unclear whether those factors are sufficient to facilitate a dramatic change in direction from President Barack Obama, who has thus far evaded every opportunity the US has had to target the Assad regime. With just four months left in office, Obama remains reluctant to involve the US in another Middle Eastern war, on top of current anti-ISIS air operations.

 

It appears as if President Vladimir Putin does not wish to wait and see what Obama's decision will be, sending an aggressive preemptive signal by deploying the S-300VM, which is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, aircraft and other aerial platforms. It joins Russia's S-400 surface-to-air system, which was deployed by Russia to the Hmeimim airbase, on Syria's northern coastline, in December 2015.

 

This system enables Moscow to shoot down aircraft within 400 kilometers.

 

These systems give Russia an anti-access ability, meaning that it can challenge aircraft and missile movements through Syrian airspace and use that formidable technology to defend not only Russian forces, but also, if needed, the Assad regime from US attack.

 

Israel, for its part, will be monitoring events closely, and keeping a low profile. It has maintained good working relations with Russia, and has a firm anti-conflict mechanism in place, meaning that Israel has been able to pursue its red lines in Syria, aimed at stopping Iran and Hezbollah from trafficking weapons to Lebanon, or setting up terrorist bases in southern Syria.

 

 

ISIS terror cell found in Jerusalem planning attacks - http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/126837-161002-police-uncover-is-terror-cell-in-jerusalem-planning-attacks-against-israelis

 

Indictments filed against all six members of the cell, which was planning major attacks, kidnappings

 

Israel's Shin Bet domestic security service and Jerusalem Police uncovered a terrorist cell run by the Islamic State group in East Jerusalem that planned to carry out attacks across Israel, the Shin Bet cleared for publication Sunday.

 

Six residents from the Shoafat refugee camp and the neighborhood of Anata are accused of establishing an IS terror cell, attempting to reach Egypt or Syria to join IS fighters, and of planning to carry out terror attacks in Israel on behalf of the group. with attempting to join the Islamic State.

 

Indictments were filed against four members of the squad Sunday morning at the Jerusalem District Court, while indictments were filed in the Magistrate's Court against two other squad members. The group members face charges of attempting to aid an enemy during war, membership in an illegal organization, membership in a terror organization, and aiding a terror group.

 

According to the investigation, the members of the cell planned several serious attacks, including mass attacks around the country and kidnappings.

 

The indictment said the network had been established in 2015 by 29-year-old Ahmad Shweiky, Ha'aretz reports. He is said to have set up a weekly study group that met to study IS ideology.

 

Members of the group allegedly cut their hair, grew out their beards, and folded the hem of their pants in a fashion customary among Islamic State supporters.

 

Two of the suspects, Amer Al-Baiyeh and Mohammed Hamid, are said to have travelled to Israel's southern border with Egypt six months ago where they made an unsuccessful attempt to obtain visas to cross into the Sinai peninsula, a hotbed of jihadist activity in Egypt.

 

In June 2016, two of the suspects allegedly travelled to Turkey via Jordan where they attempted to cross into Syria, Ha'aretz reports. The two were detained by Turkish police in the city of Gaziantep and deported back to Jordan before returning to Israel.

The indictment says that once back in Israel, the group began planning to carry out an attack, including a possible shooting attack on Tel Aviv beaches.

 

The group later planned to make explosives, targeting the Teddy Stadium in west Jerusalem or Israel's parliament buildings, and had saved nearly 1,000 NIS (around $266) to finance the attack before being arrested, Ha'aretz says.

 

Israel's Shin Bet said that when one of the group members was detained, two others made plans to kidnap an Israeli soldier to be used as collateral and demand his release.

 

Several Arab Israelis have been arrested on suspicion of links with IS and plans to carry out attacks inspired by the Sunni extremist group.

 

Israeli security officials have said two Palestinians who shot dead four Israelis in Tel Aviv in June had drawn inspiration from IS.

 

And Shin Bet said an Arab Israeli who killed three people in a January 1 shooting spree in Tel Aviv may have been inspired by the jihadist group.

 

Last month an Israeli court jailed five Arab Israelis for terms from 30 months to six years for seeking to join the Islamic State group in Syria.

 

Agents of the Shin Bet arrested one of the suspected IS sympathizers at Ben Gurion airport in 2014 as he attempted to leave Israel for Turkey, on his way to Syria, court documents said.

 

The man, Karim Abu Saleh from the northern Israeli town of Sakhnin, also "decided to carry out an attack with a firearm against security personnel in Israel," said the charge sheet.

 

Abu Saleh attempted unsuccessfully to obtain a Kalashnikov assault rifle for that purpose, it said.

 

He was sentenced to six years in prison.

 

All the men shared IS videos which encouraged the killing of non-Muslims, carried out combat drills and practiced making petrol bombs, said the charge sheet.

 

"The accused were charged with membership and activity in a banned organization," it said.

 

Abu Saleh was also charged with conspiracy to commit a firearms offence.

 

The men had all confessed under a plea bargain arrangement, the document said.

 

Israel has so far largely avoided IS-inspired attacks, though it estimates that around 50 of its citizens have traveled to Syria to fight with Sunni rebels.

 

 

US, Russia on brink of military showdown in Syria - http://www.debka.com/article/25696/US-Russia-on-brink-of-military-showdown-in-Syria-

 

There is a sense in Washington and Moscow alike that a military showdown between the US and Russia is inevitable - direct this time, not through proxies, like the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkish jets last year. When the big powers are in direct confrontation, minor players step aside and run for cover.

 

When President Barack Obama Friday, Sept. 30 attended the funeral in Jerusalem of the Israeli leader Shimon Peres, he must have realized he was only 514km as the crow flies from Aleppo, the raging crux of the escalating big-power conflict.

 

The moment after the ceremonies ended the president and his party, including Secretary of State John Kerry and his security adviser Susan Rice, made haste to head back to Washington to navigate the crisis.

 

The first step toward a direct showdown was taken by the United States.

 

By now, it is no secret in Moscow, or indeed in any Middle East capital, that the American A-10 air strike of Sept. 17 against a Syrian military position at Jebel Tudar in the Deir ez-Zour region of eastern Syria was intentional, not accidental, as originally claimed. Scores of Syrian soldiers died in the attack.

 

The fact that President Obama instituted a secret inquiry to discover which link in the American chain of command ordered the attack pointed to his suspicion that a high-up in the Pentagon or possibly the CIA, had ordered the air strike, in order to sabotage the US-Russian military cooperation deal in Syria, which Secretary Kerry obtained after long and arduous toil.

 

The concessions he made to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov in those negotiations, especially his consent for extensive sharing of intelligence, were found totally unacceptable in the US Defense Department, its military and intelligence community.

 

The Russian-Syrian reprisal came two days after the A-10 strike. On Sept. 19, an emergency aid convoy was obliterated on its way to the desperate population of Aleppo. Moscow and Damascus denied responsibility for the deadly bombardment, but no other air force was present in the sky over the embattled city.

 

On the ground, meanwhile, an unbridled onslaught on rebel-held eastern Aleppo was launched Wednesday by the Russians, Syria, Hizballah and pro-Iranian Shiite militias under the command of Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers.

 

The fall of Aleppo, Syria's second city after Damascus, would give Bashar Assad his most resounding victory in the nearly six-year civil war against his regime.

 

On Sept. 29, Kerry threatened Moscow that "the United States would suspend plans to coordinate anti-Islamic State counter-terrorism efforts if Moscow does not stop attacking Aleppo."

 

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov answered with a sneering: "Once again there was a certain emotional breakdown yesterday against the backdrop of the Obama administration's unwillingness to fulfill its part of the agreements."

 

This was a strong hint of the knowledge in the Kremlin that someone in the US administration was holding out against the implementation in full of the cooperation deal agreed upon and was therefore responsible for its breakdown.

 

The United States is left with two options:

 

Either stand idly by in the face of the Russian-Syrian-Iranian onslaught on Aleppo, or shelve the coordination arrangements for US and Russian air operations in Syria, with the inevitable risk of a clash in the air space of Syria or over the eastern Mediterranean.