Syria is firing SCUD missiles at the rebellion forces

'Syrië schiet Scudraketten af op rebellen'
BRUSSEL - Het leger van Syrië heeft vermoedelijk Scudraketten afgevuurd op rebellen. Dat hebben Amerikaanse en NAVO-functionarissen woensdag gemeld.
Foto: ANP

De melding komt in de week nadat Nederland had besloten Patriots naar Turkije te sturen tegen raketaanvallen vanuit Syrië.

Volgens een NAVO-functionaris in Brussel is deze week de lancering van een aantal ballistische raketten in Syrië gedetecteerd, waarschijnlijk van het type Scud. Een Amerikaanse regeringsfunctionaris bevestigde even later dat het om Scuds ging.

Het zou de eerste keer zijn dat de raketten zijn gebruikt in Syrië. Volgens de Amerikanen duidt de inzet op verdere escalatie van het conflict. De Scud is een raket van Russisch ontwerp voor relatief korte afstanden. Ze kunnen springstof bevatten, maar ook andere ladingen, waaronder chemische wapens.

Patriotraketten

Nederland besloot vorige week twee eenheden met Patriotraketten naar Turkije te sturen. Dit moeten Turkije en de lokale bevolking beschermen tegen raketaanvallen vanuit Syrië.

De Nederlandse eenheden zijn eerder uitgezonden naar het zuiden van Turkije en naar Jeruzalem. Toen was dat ter bescherming tegen Iraakse Scudraketten.

www.nu.nl...

Well the article says that Syria has escalated the conflict with firing SCUD missiles at the Syrian rebels.
The american forces have confirmed this.
Our country (holland) has delivered and deployed missiles defense systems (Patriots) along the boarder of Turky.

Furthermore, the article says that SCUD missiles can be armed with chemical weapons.

Why in the world would a country bomb itself? It makes no sense to me...
Hope it will quiet down from here, but I fear it will only escalade further...

How is this an escalation? The goverment has been doing its best to kill the rebels for months now.

reply to post by Ravinski


Unusual weapon to use in a civil war. Scud missiles are notoriously unreliable and not very accurate. As far as i can find the most accurate version is only precise up to 50m. Not a very good missile to use if you're trying to keep friendly civilians safe.

Originally posted by Ravinski

Well the article says that Syria has escalated the conflict with firing SCUD missiles at the Syrian rebels.
The american forces have confirmed this.


Why in the world would a country bomb itself? It makes no sense to me...
Hope it will quit down from here, but I fear I will only escalade further...

edit on 12/12/12 by Ravinski because: (no reason given)

It makes no sense to you, but does the question not come up? US forces confirmed something.. Confirmed for who? Themselves?

I don't trust this at all. If it is true though I expect the US to start bombing not too long from now. Or even if they can convince you it's true they will go in..

Syria is not going to use Biological/chemical weapons.. Think about spreading Toxic deadly chemicals around your own street... Think about dropping a small pox bomb on the house next door... Sound safe to you????

No I must fight Alqueda on this one. Those rebels must be stopped!

reply to post by December21st2012


Well ok that's true... but not with this kind of heavy rockets
That's a first time...

reply to post by Hopeforeveryone


Yeah the article says they are relative short range rockets, but Turkey can be reached by them.
That's the reason why our country is deploying patriots at their border...

Didn't Russia just give them some high tech missiles. So why are they using these SCUDs?

reply to post by TerrorAlertRed


Ah the Russian missiles are hypersonic anti shipping missiles, not much good for taking out rebels. Also bit pricey too i'd imagine.

reply to post by TerrorAlertRed


Well scud missiles are from russian design, don't know if there have been upgrades in their performance?

Okay.... Boo Hiss Boo on whatever Media moron throw Biological into the mix like it was interchangeable with Chemical. If Syria had BIO weapons in routine warhead production and in full deployment ready form ...I'd be for putting Syria into a freeze right now. Whatever that took. Chemical weapons can kill a city. Bio weapons can kill humanity.

As far as I know, Syria may have played with Bio as much as anyone on the edge they've been...but nothing beyond that. Nothing sitting in a bunker and contained inside a warhead ready to shoot, to be sure. Anyone else hear different on that? I mean, I hate to key on one point for an op, but that one point would be a huge game changer with little or not past history to support it?

* Per Op note, it wasn't a media moron but an honest mistake on the OP wording. Members make mistakes ..MSM are morons.. right? (and thank goodness it isn't Bio..it'd be a global nightmare not just regional, indeed)

Originally posted by TerrorAlertRed
Didn't Russia just give them some high tech missiles. So why are they using these SCUDs?

none of these stories are confirmed.. but those missiles if Syria does have them, cost way too much for that.. Only anti air batteries in Israel or Turkey would be the Targets of those. I am pretty sure that story was false though, same as the loading chemicals into warheads, same as this story in the OP..

The Acceleration of "News" is something I havn't seen since 2002-2003 (Iraq)...

And to Wrabbit: No I have not heard any good sources on Bio Weapons in Syria. I think they are just throwing as many key trigger words as they can into this. different fears in different people and whichever stick helps the agenda of: FEAR, REACTION, DESTRUCTION...

If democratically elected Syria wishes to survive, it need only make clear it will distribute its chemical & biological weapons to Hamas, Hezbollah, ect.
These rebels are committing their own human rights crimes such as blowing up a mosque to make people think the government did it
www.abovetopsecret.com...
They have already confirmed (such as by turning people into unwitting suicide bombers www.youtube.com... ) that they will bring as much economic chaos, daily fear & anarchy to the people of Syria as these foreign backed mercenaries already have in Libya.

I can understand supporting Syria’s terrorist army as a way of getting Assad to change foreign policy by no longer supporting Iran. However regime change in Syria will mean chemicals & germs all over the 7 million population of Israel.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


You are absolutely right it was my bad...
In the rush of writing this thread I used Biological instead of Chemical...
The article says: Scud missiles can be armed with chemical weapons

Will change it now!

Thanks for pointing that out!

Syria 'fires Scud-type missiles at rebels

Forces loyal to the Syrian government have fired "Scud-type missiles" at rebels, media have quoted US officials as saying.

A number of short-range, unguided ballistic missiles had been launched, US and Nato officials said.

The US state department would not confirm the type but said missiles had been deployed. It said Syria was resorting to "more vicious weapons".

Separately, a series of blasts has hit the Syrian capital Damascus.

'Napalm-like bomb'

A US official quoted by Reuters and Associated Press confirmed the use of Scud-type missiles.

AP quoted the official as saying that more than half a dozen missiles were fired from the Damascus area into northern Syria. There was no indication any chemical weapons had been used, the official said.

Syria Fires Scud Missiles, Burning Bombs and Even Sea Mines at Rebels

The Syrian regime isn’t using its chemical arsenal on its opposition, at least not yet. But it’s starting to look like Bashar Assad is throwing everything else he has against the rebels from Scud missiles to incendiary weapons. He’s even chucking naval mines onto dry land to attack his foes.

Yes Assad is escalating the war on the invasive terrorists rebel force
but he knows the red line not to use any chemical weapons
Russia probably made sure to give the memo to Assad
because it would open the door wide open to a big Nato invasion

I'm still waiting for them to find Sadam's weapons of mass destruction !

Not sure i believe anything i hear in the mainstream these days, especially during an ongoing war in a country that has been an "enemy" of the west for decades.

reply to post by Ravinski


Syria is using scuds, because it appears the rebels have anti-air weapons.
As the Times reported:

"Military experts said the Assad government's use of Scuds might reflect worries that its aircraft have been vulnerable to rebel air defenses. In recent weeks, rebel forces have captured Syrian military bases, seized air-defense weapons and used some of them to fire at Syria warplanes. But one expert said that the government may have decided to use large missiles in order to wipe out military bases — and the arsenals they hold — that had been taken over by the opposition."

I agree with December21st2012 that it is not actually an escalation, but it does seem it is getting worse by the minute. It is my fear as well that this will not end soon.

reply to post by TerrorAlertRed


Saving those for when the UN invade etc.

There is another factor in all this too. Russia wouldn't permit Assad to lose control of those weapons any more than we would or Israel can afford to. The United States has had 1993, the African Embassies and 9/11. We don't need to go into what Israel has for background. What may be missed and just crossed my mind again is Russia having it's very own 'war on terror' that well predates our own. Russia was fighting in Chechnya before 9/11 all happened.

If anyone needed any reminders of how brutal a thing it is and how immediate an issue it must be for Moscow in those weapons getting out of Syrian Government control, I'd just point to the Beslan School Massacre as what keeps them losing sleep at night.

I don't believe Assad will use them because Israel hasn't even been shy about saying they'll toast his bun almost immediately like a cause/effect problem. You do this, we do that, so to speak. So that would cuff him pretty hard unless it's his own Samson option, in which case..hell..the whole region has little time left because at least two have that battle plan and they overlap everyone else.

*I used Wiki on that because it's the cleanest and least graphic of what came up. For those not familiar with it, it's NOT a story to just pop open sites to look at without some care. Some of the real sensitive people could be REAL badly effected by what happened at that place and how well photographed it was in particular.

Originally posted by Dustytoad

Originally posted by Ravinski

Well the article says that Syria has escalated the conflict with firing SCUD missiles at the Syrian rebels.
The american forces have confirmed this.


Why in the world would a country bomb itself? It makes no sense to me...
Hope it will quit down from here, but I fear I will only escalade further...

edit on 12/12/12 by Ravinski because: (no reason given)

It makes no sense to you, but does the question not come up? US forces confirmed something.. Confirmed for who? Themselves?

I don't trust this at all. If it is true though I expect the US to start bombing not too long from now. Or even if they can convince you it's true they will go in..

Syria is not going to use Biological/chemical weapons.. Think about spreading Toxic deadly chemicals around your own street... Think about dropping a small pox bomb on the house next door... Sound safe to you????

No I must fight Alqueda on this one. Those rebels must be stopped!

Think about the rebels catching you and ending up like the last few dictators in arab states. Maybe using those chemicals weapons becomes much more appealing then. Even more so when all your yes men are telling the West is to weak to do anything about it.

WOW . The words "SCUD" and "chemical" used in a context to invoke fear? Where have we heard that before

What's next - Assad taking babies out of incubators and leaving them on the cold floor?