Que s'est-il passé en Syrie?

[zek]

Je suis du même avis que l'auteur de cet article, pourquoi cette attaque maintenant ? J'en conclu que c'est un coup de pouce pour donner à MacCain plus de poids dans les élections ou pourquoi pas lui donner plus de pouvoir au sein du Pentagone, s'il n'est pas élu, quoi qu'il en soit, il faut s'attendre à tous les coups tordus de l'administration Bush jusqu'au dernier bulletin de vote.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Dimanche, un village syrien a été attaqué par des militaires. Au moins sept personnes ont été tuées. Damas accuse les Etats-Unis. Mais Washington se refuse à tout commentaire. Seul un responsable américain, sous couvert d'anonymat, a confirmé que cette opération avait bien été menée par des GI's et qu'elle visait des combattants d'Al-Qaïda. Paris exprime "sa vive préoccupation".

Trois jours après le raid qui a visé dimanche après-midi un village syrien situé à la frontière irakienne, de nombreuses questions demeurent. Les Etats-Unis sont-ils à l'origine de cette attaque qui a coûté la vie à au moins sept personnes? Oui, si l'on en croit plusieurs déclarations. Celle d'un officiel américain, d'abord. S'exprimant sous couvert d'anonymat, ce responsable a confirmé que le raid avait bien été mené par l'armée américaine, estimant qu'il s'agissait d'un "succès" dans la lutte contre les combattants étrangers opérant en Irak. "Quand se présente une importante opportunité, on la prend. C'est ce que les Américains attendent, particulièrement lorsqu'il s'agit de combattants étrangers entrant en Irak et menaçant nos forces armées", a-t-il déclaré, selon des propos rapportés par CNN.

Celle des autorités irakiennes, ensuite. "Le gouvernement irakien était en contact avec la partie américaine (...) sur cette attaque menée sur la frontière syrienne", a commenté le porte-parole du gouvernement, Ali Al-Dabbagh, qui précise que ce site, situé à moins d'une dizaine de kilomètres de la frontière irakienne, "est le théâtre d'activités d'organisations anti-irakiennes se servant de la Syrie comme base-arrière pour des opérations en Irak". Un autre responsable irakien a lui évoqué une attaque qui visait des combattants d'Al-Qaïda. Celle de la France, enfin. Dans un communiqué envoyé lundi soir, l'Elysée évoque "un raid héliporté américain contre un village syrien". "Hier, quatre hélicoptères des forces spéciales américaines ont attaqué un village syrien situé à huit kilomètres de la frontière irakienne", peut-on encore lire dans ce texte.

Regain de tension dans la région

Mais aux Etats-Unis, on préfère passer l'affaire sous silence. "Je le dis une bonne fois pour toutes et vous pouvez me poser la question autant de fois que vous le voulez: je n'ai aucun commentaire à faire sur une présumée opération en Syrie", a déclaré lundi aux journalistes Bryan Whitman, porte-parole du Pentagone. Son homologue à la Maison blanche, Dana Perino, a adopté la même attitude lors de son briefing quotidien à la presse. La coalition internationale en Irak, menée par l'armée américaine, a quant à elle indiqué n'avoir "tout simplement aucune information sur l'incident" en Syrie.

Ce silence a attisé la colère côté syrien. Damas, via son ministre des Affaires étrangères, Wallid al-Mouallem, a qualifié lundi le raid "d'agression criminelle et terroriste". Si une telle opération devait se reproduire, a-t-il prévenu lors d'une conférence de presse à Londres, "nous défendrons nos territoires". "Les Américains le font en plein jour (...) ce qui veut dire que ce n'est pas une erreur", a-t-il ajouté. Selon les autorités syriennes, huit civils ont été tués, dont quatre enfants. Un journaliste de l'Associated Press dit avoir vu sept corps lors des funérailles organisées lundi. La presse syrienne parle, elle, de "crime de guerre", de "terrorisme" et "d'assassinats".

Pourquoi maintenant?

Ce regain de tension dans cette région du monde inquiète la communauté internationale. Dans son communiqué, l'Elysée exprime "sa vive préoccupation et déplore la perte de civils syriens". La présidence française "appelle à la retenue et souligne son attachement au strict respect de l'intégrité territoriale des Etats", peut-on lire dans ce message clairement adressé à Washington. Lundi, certains responsables irakiens ont dit craindre que l'attaque ne soit utilisée par des opposants au pacte de sécurité actuellement en négociation avec les Etats-Unis, qui porte essentiellement sur le statut des troupes étrangères. Quant au sous-secrétaire du ministère irakien des Affaires étrangères, il dit souhaiter que "l'incident n'ait pas d'impact négatif sur les relations avec la Syrie". L'opération a aussi été vivement critiquée par le Hamas, le Liban et le Hezbollah.

Ce raid - le premier du genre planifié par les Etats-Unis en territoire syrien - pose de nombreuses questions. Les relations entre Washington et Damas sont loin d'être au beau fixe, les Américains reprochant notamment aux Syriens de ne pas faire assez d'efforts pour lutter contre l'entrée, via leur territoire, de combattants étrangers en Irak. Mais ce raid, s'il est confirmé par la Maison blanche, marquerait une étape supérieure dans la lutte contre le terrorisme prônée par Washington, qui semble élargir sa stratégie mise en oeuvre au Pakistan, à savoir "poursuivre les terroristes là où ils sont". Islamabad ne compte plus les raids menés sur son territoire afin de déloger les combattants pro-taliban. Mais le calendrier interroge: pourquoi maintenant, alors même que les attaques terroristes diminuent en Irak, que la Syrie multiplie les contacts avec la France ou même Israël et que l'administration Bush s'apprête à laisser le pouvoir? Certains murmurent déjà qu'il pourrait s'agir d'un "cadeau" fait à John McCain, histoire de reposer la question de la sécurité nationale à quelques jours du scrutin et de permettre au républicain d'enfiler son costume préféré, celui de "commander in chief".

source JDD

[pax]

Ouhais j'approuve, il y a une volonté de foutre le ****** et pourquoi pas de faire annulé les élections. On connait ça en Algérie. Tout est possible. Les militaires américains et Israël appréhendent un 'black' à la tête des USA

[absente]

A qui profite le raid américain ?

Au lendemain du raid américain en Syrie, Washington a parlé de « succès » et Damas « d’agression terroriste ». Dans ce théâtre d’ombres, à qui profite cette opération militaire ?

En matière de contre-terrorisme, il faut toujours se méfier des apparences. Il n’est, de ce fait, pas certain que l’opération héliportée, conduite dimanche par l’armée américaine à l’intérieur du territoire syrien, soit le grand succès que clame Washington. Au lendemain du raid, les Américains affirment qu’ils ont tué, lors de cette opération, « l’un des plus importants passeurs de combattants étrangers dans la région », ce qui est possible, mais pas sûr... Les autorités syriennes affirment, quant à elles, que huit civils ont été tués dans ce raid, le ministre syrien des Affaires étrangères, Walid al-Mouallem, parlant d’« agression terroriste ».

Un théâtre d’ombres


Pour les Etats-Unis, il s’agit bien d’atteindre les bases arrière des fauteurs de troubles en Irak, quand bien même les services secrets américains ont entrepris une forme de rapprochement avec leurs homologues syriens. Dans le théâtre d’ombres de la lutte antiterroriste, bien des ennemis d’hier deviennent des alliés de circonstance, et inversement ! Les règles communément admises des relations internationales ne sont plus de mise depuis septembre 2001, et Washington ne s’interdit plus rien. Il faut dire que les condamnations ont été rares... Quand le Quai d’Orsay fait savoir, hier, que, « s’il devait se confirmer que les faits se sont déroulés en territoire syrien, nous rappelons notre attachement au respect de l’intégrité territoriale des Etats », il n’assure que le service minimum, alors que Nicolas Sarkozy avait invité le président syrien, Bachar al-Assad, à assister au défilé parisien du 14-Juillet.

Un élément de la campagne US

Pourquoi ce raid est-il intervenu maintenant ? Quels sont les éléments dont disposaient les Etats-Unis pour violer la souveraineté territoriale syrienne ? Et ne faudrait-il pas voir plutôt dans ce raid un élément de la campagne intérieure américaine ? Dans une semaine, rien ne pourra aider davantage le candidat républicain en très mauvaise posture, John McCain, qu’une bonne opération militaire réussie. Les républicains s’estiment les seuls capables d’assurer la sécurité de leurs concitoyens, et le font aussi savoir en multipliant les raids meurtriers au Pakistan. L’un des problèmes de ces « assassinats ciblés », c’est qu’ils ont déjà fait des centaines de victimes collatérales, alors que les attentats continuent de se produire.

« La Surprise d’octobre »

Voici bientôt trente ans, le père de l’actuel président Bush avait participé à une sinistre opération de marchandage clandestin des otages américains en Iran, qui visait à faire élire Ronald Reagan, et que l’Histoire a retenue comme la « Surprise d’octobre ». Espérons que le raid syrien n’a rien à voir avec une telle manipulation de l’électorat !

Jean Guisnel.

[absent]

pour moi c'est une provocation deliberrée et surtout une mise à l'épreuve de l'armée syrienne, imaginez-vous, pour qu'un officier americain donne l'ordre de franchir la frontière syrienne, que ses helico vont atterir dans une localité syrienne, que des soldats sortent et abattent tout ce qui bouge, c'est clairement une provocation et une mise à l'épreuve. les syriens, qui collaborent avec la CIA en torturant des islamistes capturés en afghanistan devraient prendre de la graine, leur allié entre sans hesiter chez eux et fait ce qu'il veut, c'est à eux de mettre la limite maintenant !

[pax]

Les choses ne sont pas aussi évidentes. Je suis étonné que cette opération ait pu se produire en plein jour sans aucune réaction de la Syrie.
Qui prouve que la Syrie qui n'a jamais été tendre avec les islamistes ne soit pas complice et feigne d'être offusquée.
rien n'est moins sûr.

[absente]

Questions raised over Syrian complicity in US raid

Pas étonnant aussi pax, voilà ce que dit Sundaytimes aujourd'hui!!!
---------------------
Syria has denounced a US strike on its territory but sources say Damascus secretly backed the raid
Marie Colvin and Uzi Mahnaimi

The 38-year-old farmer was watering his maize in the scrubby vastness of eastern Syria when four Black Hawk helicopters swooped in low over the palm trees, heading from the border with Iraq formed by the Euphrates River.

It was late afternoon. The light was fading and the chill of the desert winter night was setting in. The helicopters, following their leader in a disciplined arc, hovered just above the one-storey concrete and mud homes of the village of Sukariyeh before the attack began.

Two of them landed next to a ramshackle building site and uniformed men hit the ground firing. Two other helicopters gave aerial cover.

“To begin with I thought they were Syrian helicopters, but then I saw eight or nine soldiers armed to the teeth. They carried big black M16s,” said Mohammad al-Ali, the farmer. His land lies closest to the site where an American commando squad last week staged an unprecedented strike in Syrian territory.

The guns were the clue to their identity – only Americans or their allies carry M16s; the Syrian army has Russian-made AK47s.

Ali said the troops raced to a compound of new homes, where men of the al-Hamad family were working. “Even before they ran from their helicopters they began to shoot at the workers,” Ali said. “The whole operation took 10 to 15 minutes and they left behind seven corpses.”

According to one eyewitness, the Americans took two men, alive or dead, back with them.

The Americans’ target was an Al-Qaeda commander identified as Badran Turki Hashim al-Mazidih, also known as Abu Ghadiya, an Iraqi-born terrorist in his late twenties. It is believed that he died in the firefight and his body was removed.

The Syrian regime immediately denounced the raid for violating its sovereignty, froze high-level diplomatic relations with Washington and protested at the United Nations in a ritualised show of anger.

However, sources in Washington last week revealed to The Sunday Times an intriguingly different background to the events in Sukariyeh.

According to one source, the special forces operation had taken place with the full cooperation of the Syrian intelligence services.

“Immediately after 9/11, Syrian intelligence cooperation was remarkable,” said the Washington source. “Then ties were broken off, but they have resumed recently.”

Abu Ghadiya was feared by the Syrians as an agent of Islamic fundamentalism who was hostile to the secular regime in Damascus. It would be expedient for Syria if America would eliminate him.

The threat to the Syrian government has made the regime of President Bashar al-Assad jittery. In September a car bomb exploded in Damascus near its intelligence headquarters. Many of the 17 victims were Shi’ite Muslim pilgrims at a nearby shrine.

The Washington source said the Americans regularly communicate with the Syrians through a back channel that runs through Syria’s air force intelligence, the Idarat al-Mukhabarat al-Jawiyya.

In the time-honoured tradition of covert US operations in the Middle East, this one seems to have gone spectacularly wrong. The Syrians, who had agreed to turn a blind eye to a supposedly quiet “snatch and grab” raid, could not keep the lid on a firefight in which so many people had died.

The operation should have been fast and bloodless. According to the sources, Syrian intelligence tipped off the Americans about Abu Ghadiya’s whereabouts. US electronic intelligence then tracked his exact location, possibly by tracing his satellite telephone, and the helicopters were directed to him. They were supposed to kidnap him and take him to Iraq for questioning.

According to defence sources, when the four US helicopters approached the Syrian border, they were detected by Syrian radar. Air force headquarters in Damascus was asked for permission to intercept.

After an Israeli airstrike against a suspected nuclear reactor in the same region last year, Syrian air defence has been on high alert. The request was turned down by senior officers because the American operation was expected.

It is not clear what went wrong, but it is believed that the helicopters were spotted by the militants on their final approach and a gun battle broke out. That is supported by an account from a local tribal leader, who said a rocket-propelled grenade had been launched from the compound at the helicopter. The firefight blew the cover on a supposedly covert operation.

Ninety minutes after the raid, according to a local tribal leader, agents of the feared Mukhabarat, the Syrian intelligence service, flooded into the village. “They threatened us that if anyone said anything about what happened in this area, their family members would die,” he said.

Local residents were happy to identify the seven dead villagers as Daoud al-Hamad, who owned the land, and his four sons, who were helping him to build the new houses, along with the site watchman and his cousin. The area is isolated and poor. Locals speak with Iraqi accents, as their tribe extends across the border, and smuggling is the most lucrative local profession.

The tribal leader revealed that everyone in the village knew that “jihadis” – extremist Islamic fighters – were operating in the area.

“You could often hear shooting from close to the border, which was not clashes but fighters training,” he said.

“There are areas along the border where the Mukhabarat doesn’t let people go and that’s where I think the jihadis are. The areas are some of the best ways into Iraq.”

Despite the furore over the raid, there can be little doubt that the Americans will celebrate the death of Abu Ghadiya, whom they described as the “most prominent” smuggler for Al-Qaeda in Iraq. He allegedly ran guns, money and foreign fighters along the “rat lines” that lead across the desert into northern Iraq and sometimes led raids himself.

In February the US Treasury Department identified Abu Ghadiya as a “high value” Al-Qaeda commander in charge of smuggling “money, weapons, terrorists and other resources . . . to Al-Qaeda in Iraq”.

It described him as a Sunni Muslim born in the late 1970s in Mosul and said he had been an aide to the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in 2006.

Damascus may have other motives for its cooperation with Washington. Some diplomats in the capital think the regime would like to stage its own cross-border strikes against terror groups in Lebanon, which it sees as a threat.

“Syrian cross-border incursions into northern Lebanon in pursuit of Fatah al–Islam [a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda] are plausible,” said one source. They may be relying on the United States to turn a blind eye to do so.

American officials refused to apologise for the botched raid on Syria. They said the administration was determined to operate under a definition of self-defence that provided for strikes on terrorist targets in any sovereign state.

For Al-Qaeda militants, the safe haven of Syria will be looking decidedly cooler as winter sets in.

Additional reporting: Hugh MacLeod in Beirut

[absent]

les services secret surrement, mais l'armée traditionnelle je ne sais pas, elle a prevenu, la prochaine fois elle ripostera (c'est ce qu'elle dit toujours mais ne fait jamais d'ailleurs) !

[langar]

slt le silence de l'onu me stupefait

[pax]

Ouhais, on a l'impression que comme pour le pakistan, l'irak , au sein de l'armée syrienne, il doit y avoir des pro usa et des anti usa.
Y'a qu'à voir en Algérie, au sein de l'armée entre les anti islamistes et ceux qui les manipulent au détriment du peuple algérien. y'a pas à dire la grande muette aime les intrigues

[absent]

le silence de l'onu me stupefait

parceque l'ONU est aux ordres des USA

[absente]

Ouhais, on a l'impression que comme pour le pakistan, l'irak , au sein de l'armée syrienne, il doit y avoir des pro usa et des anti usa.

Et Bachar Assad!!! il est de quel côté?

[pax]

Bachir el assad ne veut pas finir comme Sadaam Hussein, il tient à sa tête alors il va se démerder pour satifaire un peu tout le monde. Ce n'est que le fils de .

[absent]

information qui vient du gouvernement iraken : la syrie viens de reduire ses troupes militaires pres de la frontiere irakienne, là où les americains ont attaqué le village Abu-Kamal !

les syriens seraient t-ils des lâches ?

[DZone]

Les militaires américains et Israël appréhendent un 'black' à la tête des USA

C'est peut etre vrai pour les militaires américains mais ce n'est pas le cas en ce qui concerne le lobby sioniste; en effet Obamma a donné plus de garanties d'allégence à l'AIPAC que Mc Cain et si jamais il prend Denis Ross comme secrétaire d' etat, les Palestiniens vont regretter les Républicains.

[absent]

From The Sunday TimesNovember 2, 2008

Questions raised over Syrian complicity in US raid
Syria has denounced a US strike on its territory but sources say Damascus secretly backed the raid

Marie Colvin and Uzi Mahnaimi


Video: Syrian minister criticises US raid

The 38-year-old farmer was watering his maize in the scrubby vastness of eastern Syria when four Black Hawk helicopters swooped in low over the palm trees, heading from the border with Iraq formed by the Euphrates River.

It was late afternoon. The light was fading and the chill of the desert winter night was setting in. The helicopters, following their leader in a disciplined arc, hovered just above the one-storey concrete and mud homes of the village of Sukariyeh before the attack began.

Two of them landed next to a ramshackle building site and uniformed men hit the ground firing. Two other helicopters gave aerial cover.


US says attack on village was 'warning to Syria'
A warning Syria's President Assad must heed
Syrian minister condemns US 'terrorism'
“To begin with I thought they were Syrian helicopters, but then I saw eight or nine soldiers armed to the teeth. They carried big black M16s,” said Mohammad al-Ali, the farmer. His land lies closest to the site where an American commando squad last week staged an unprecedented strike in Syrian territory.

The guns were the clue to their identity – only Americans or their allies carry M16s; the Syrian army has Russian-made AK47s.

Ali said the troops raced to a compound of new homes, where men of the al-Hamad family were working. “Even before they ran from their helicopters they began to shoot at the workers,” Ali said. “The whole operation took 10 to 15 minutes and they left behind seven corpses.”

According to one eyewitness, the Americans took two men, alive or dead, back with them.

The Americans’ target was an Al-Qaeda commander identified as Badran Turki Hashim al-Mazidih, also known as Abu Ghadiya, an Iraqi-born terrorist in his late twenties. It is believed that he died in the firefight and his body was removed.

The Syrian regime immediately denounced the raid for violating its sovereignty, froze high-level diplomatic relations with Washington and protested at the United Nations in a ritualised show of anger.

However, sources in Washington last week revealed to The Sunday Times an intriguingly different background to the events in Sukariyeh.

According to one source, the special forces operation had taken place with the full cooperation of the Syrian intelligence services.

“Immediately after 9/11, Syrian intelligence cooperation was remarkable,” said the Washington source. “Then ties were broken off, but they have resumed recently.”

Abu Ghadiya was feared by the Syrians as an agent of Islamic fundamentalism who was hostile to the secular regime in Damascus. It would be expedient for Syria if America would eliminate him.

The threat to the Syrian government has made the regime of President Bashar al-Assad jittery. In September a car bomb exploded in Damascus near its intelligence headquarters. Many of the 17 victims were Shi’ite Muslim pilgrims at a nearby shrine.

The Washington source said the Americans regularly communicate with the Syrians through a back channel that runs through Syria’s air force intelligence, the Idarat al-Mukhabarat al-Jawiyya.

In the time-honoured tradition of covert US operations in the Middle East, this one seems to have gone spectacularly wrong. The Syrians, who had agreed to turn a blind eye to a supposedly quiet “snatch and grab” raid, could not keep the lid on a firefight in which so many people had died.

The operation should have been fast and bloodless. According to the sources, Syrian intelligence tipped off the Americans about Abu Ghadiya’s whereabouts. US electronic intelligence then tracked his exact location, possibly by tracing his satellite telephone, and the helicopters were directed to him. They were supposed to kidnap him and take him to Iraq for questioning.

According to defence sources, when the four US helicopters approached the Syrian border, they were detected by Syrian radar. Air force headquarters in Damascus was asked for permission to intercept.

After an Israeli airstrike against a suspected nuclear reactor in the same region last year, Syrian air defence has been on high alert. The request was turned down by senior officers because the American operation was expected.

It is not clear what went wrong, but it is believed that the helicopters were spotted by the militants on their final approach and a gun battle broke out. That is supported by an account from a local tribal leader, who said a rocket-propelled grenade had been launched from the compound at the helicopter. The firefight blew the cover on a supposedly covert operation.

Ninety minutes after the raid, according to a local tribal leader, agents of the feared Mukhabarat, the Syrian intelligence service, flooded into the village. “They threatened us that if anyone said anything about what happened in this area, their family members would die,” he said.

Local residents were happy to identify the seven dead villagers as Daoud al-Hamad, who owned the land, and his four sons, who were helping him to build the new houses, along with the site watchman and his cousin. The area is isolated and poor. Locals speak with Iraqi accents, as their tribe extends across the border, and smuggling is the most lucrative local profession.

The tribal leader revealed that everyone in the village knew that “jihadis” – extremist Islamic fighters – were operating in the area.

“You could often hear shooting from close to the border, which was not clashes but fighters training,” he said.

“There are areas along the border where the Mukhabarat doesn’t let people go and that’s where I think the jihadis are. The areas are some of the best ways into Iraq.”

Despite the furore over the raid, there can be little doubt that the Americans will celebrate the death of Abu Ghadiya, whom they described as the “most prominent” smuggler for Al-Qaeda in Iraq. He allegedly ran guns, money and foreign fighters along the “rat lines” that lead across the desert into northern Iraq and sometimes led raids himself.

In February the US Treasury Department identified Abu Ghadiya as a “high value” Al-Qaeda commander in charge of smuggling “money, weapons, terrorists and other resources . . . to Al-Qaeda in Iraq”.

It described him as a Sunni Muslim born in the late 1970s in Mosul and said he had been an aide to the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in 2006.

Damascus may have other motives for its cooperation with Washington. Some diplomats in the capital think the regime would like to stage its own cross-border strikes against terror groups in Lebanon, which it sees as a threat.

“Syrian cross-border incursions into northern Lebanon in pursuit of Fatah al–Islam [a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda] are plausible,” said one source. They may be relying on the United States to turn a blind eye to do so.

American officials refused to apologise for the botched raid on Syria. They said the administration was determined to operate under a definition of self-defence that provided for strikes on terrorist targets in any sovereign state.

For Al-Qaeda militants, the safe haven of Syria will be looking decidedly cooler as winter sets in.

Additional reporting: Hugh MacLeod in Beirut