Iran and Syria are Getting Blown Up. And Sometimes Shot.
It’s all the rage. Literally. Two explosions at Iranian military/nuclear weapons sites. Four explosions in Syria, including three suicide bombers in Damascus on Saturday, two of which were aimed at Syrian security forces buildings, all in the past few days. Today’s explosion was in Aleppo, and also “near a government security building.”
The Iranian blasts are seemingly more dramatic, and probably part of the ongoing campaign being waged against the installations of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, especially, but not solely, those connected to the nuclear weapons project. One of the blasts took place at Zarin Dasht, once the site of a Russian mill, now an important component of the military/industrial complex of the country, where missile fuel and warheads for missiles are manufactured. As is often the case, much of the complex is underground, which is where the explosion took place. My sources tell me that seven people are missing and several are wounded and are being treated. So far as I know there are no reports in the Iranian media.
The more dramatic event was the explosion at Natanz, generally credited as the major uranium enrichment center in the country. The most important facilities are eight meters underground, and are among those potential military targets said to be very hard to destroy. The explosion, according to my Iranian sources, took place in the next-to-bottom level of the underground structure, leading to a shutdown of the entire complex.
No public reports of this one, either, although Natanz generates electricity and a shutdown would be hard to cover up. Nor has anyone taken “credit.” Maybe the two explosions were just accidents, although it seems unlikely. Whatever the explanation, the Iranian and Syrian regimes certainly have their security issues, don’t they? Slaughtering their people doesn’t seem to have induced an end to resistance.
Is it a single battlefield? The regimes in Damascus and Tehran certainly think so. According to a Jordanian news site,
an operations room has been opened in Damascus and…it is continuously manned by officers from Syria and Iran, as well as by Hizbullah terrorists, all of whom coordinate their military operations in the event of external military intervention in Syria. A similar operations room has been opened in Tehran, said the report, and is manned by Iranian as well as by Hizbullah terrorists…
Meanwhile, while we’re on the subject of unnoticed news, did you know that the US Navy recently killed some Iranian sailors in the Gulf? Four were killed and one is still missing, according to Kuwaiti press reports. Reza Kahlili has some details.
Funny how we hear all about it when the Navy rescues Iranian hostages from the Gulf pirates, but when an Iranian boat enters a “forbidden zone” close to an American military base, and we blast it, it doesn’t seem to make the evening news.
Par for the course. No wonder it’s impossible to have a serious debate about Iran. We don’t acknowledge simple facts: Iran is at war with us, Iran and Syria are tied at the belly button and are engaged in a joint massacre of the Syrian people, there’s a very lively resistance movement (or movements) inside Iran (as inside Syria), and our national “strategy” consists of asking these two terror masters to make nice so that we can retreat further.
“Lead from behind” is a long way of saying “retreat,” don’t you think? Or is there still some geopolitical genius who believes we can get a meaningful and credible deal with these mass murderers?
@Michael Ledeen
Just an inquiry as to that Kuwaiti news report you speak of: I’ve seen word of the original report, but I’ve also seen something from Galrahn at Information Dissemination ( http://www.informationdissemination.net/ ) reporting the incident entirely differently… IIRC, a rescue of four…
I haven’t seen R. Kahlili’s details. Might you have a link to his report?
Also, have we either something from USN or a second media source not quoting the Kuwaiti report?
I’d be most grateful if you could be of assistance.
OK, need coffee… US Army source, not USN. The article even said Army…
Also, for reference I looked into Galrahn’s history and saw his original tweet ( http://twitter.com/#!/Galrahn/status/177228424971157504 ) but *not* the follow-up that spoke of a different version of the report.
Curiouser and curiouser.
sorry about the missing link. i thought it was there, and i’ve put it in. that’s what i “know.” Kuwaitis might be wrong, there were certainly rescues, but then again there could be many different events. thanks for asking.
Thank you kindly.
Ah, here we go… surprisingly also in the Arab Times:
http://arabtimesonline.com/NewsDetails/tabid/96/smid/414/ArticleID/180428/reftab/36/Default.aspx
Key Point:
“The article, dated March 6 in the Arab Times, that reported the incident from an unnamed source in Al-Shahed newspaper, is unequivocally false and unfounded, according to Lt Rebecca Rebarich, Media Officer for COMUSNAVCENT, US Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain.”
details of the statement in the article.
Given the news of OBL wanting BHO taken out, trying to get on the good side of those who see life like OBL is as useless as lessons in how to herd cats.
Thank goodness there are people who see the cultural bankruptcy of those like OBL, and a number of them are in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt.
Hey, herding cats is easy if you have a little laser pointer. Making nice with OBLs ilk is something totally different though. It takes two to make friends and they hate us.
Im getting exhausted doing the Happy Dance over all this tragic news from the middle east.Please tell me Bill Maher is on a fact finding tour about contraception in Damascus too. It would make my week.
“No public reports of this one, either, although Natanz generates electricity and a shutdown would be hard to cover up.”
Why would Natanz generate electricity? Fuel enrichment plants consume electricity, not produce it.
Bushehr, the reactor that is probably generating nuclear weapons materials, generates electricty.
Much of the resistance to Assad in Syria is Sunni based and backed by the government of the KSA. There is and was a civil war going on within the House of Saud and their apparatchnniks, and OBL was part of that.
I would not be too quick to think that these particular partisans resisting Assad see a cultural bankcruptcy in OBL. Just because they are fighting a common enemy is not a completely sound reason to think they are “on our side”. They are on their own side, with their own purposes and goals.
What do you think of the reports of the Saudis arming Syrian rebels?
DaOne signed the updated Martial law plan on the 16th. Perhaps, with the US, and NATO war ships around Iran, plus NATO banks not doing business with Iran, this could be a step up in the war.
Will Iran take it, or lash out? What will Russia do?
There shooting each other? With out our help? What the hell did we do right?
Why does so little of this appear even in the Wall Street Journal? It’s positively terrifying to me. The ME/Persian Gulf is not anything like my field of expertise, but it’s important, and it makes me nervous to have so little information!
So evidence that Iran is imploding should be used to justify US intervention? Why don’t you change your slogan to Petrodollars, please.
Thanks for the great news “heads up”.
It totally blew my mind when PBS ran a documentary over ten years ago about the forced famine in the Ukraine that was implemented by the Soviet killers, which told the truth about how the New York Times’ Walter Duranty covered up this mass murder—and won a Pulitzer!
Well, here we go again.
These dark days, despite knowing what’s surely going on, at least as well as you, Dr. Ledeen, there is another massive cover up.
The MSM has its head in the sand! I also wonder why the WSJ is so remiss is reporting what you let us know on your blog, Dr. Ledeen.
I’ve come to the conclusion that there are at least three bubbles simultaneously occurring.
The financial bubble continues to ineluctably pop in its weakest areas. The public (mis)-education bubble is even accelerating its shooting out people, who know so much that isn’t true, and don’t know what is true.
However, the third bubble is perhaps the one that’s “up front and personal”, at the core of each of us. We live in a bubble of being, since we ARE human “beings”.
It’s quite enough to bring to mind the current occupant of the White House, who oh so closely reminds me of Jimmuh Carter, in that he is tightly bound or surrounded in his closed bubble, by and with his chosen advisors.
Yes—we can all learn a basic lesson, IMHO, from the Walter Duranty episode. In essence, the bubble of “silence” that he foisted on his readers closely resembles the same actions that are presently being engaged in by the vast liberal wing of the MSM, and its enablers—Hollywood, academia, politicians, unions, and other assorted radical leftists.
Oh, when will all these bubbles reach a popping climax?
The “lead from behind” group has little to offer. That’s where their brains (if they have any) are.
Maybe I’m getting a tad cynical, but the daily bombings, shootings, stonings, riots, rantings, ravings, and pervasive anti-Americanism and anti-semitism is wearing thin. Maybe should just build a fence around the Middle East, launch around the clock Predator surveillance, and step back. For you investors, consider an auto dealership specializing in anonymous white vans stuffed with Semtec. Hopefully, when increased local drilling, deep drilling and fracking liberate us from this homicidal dysfunctional area, the armpit of the world, we can get on with our lives.
it’s a happy thought carla, but i’m afraid that our enemies won’t let us “get on with our lives.” we have to defeat them first.
Dear Michael, as long as the United States is under the grip of wimps “leftists and Obamists”, you will NEVER defeat them. So, it’s time for real change inside America…It’s time to shape the world anew…a new world without tyrannical regimes and without fundamentalist Islam and also without domination of wimps and clowns…it’s time to formulate it according to the Benevolent American concept. You did it before with the Nazi, and YOU HAVE TO DO IT TODAY WITH THE EVIL REGIMES AND THEIR FOLLOWERS OF LEFTISTS!!!
There is no ‘them’ to defeat in the sense of a traditional nation state. We are battling a rabid ideology that knows no borders. Unless you are advocating a declaration of war on a sizable segment of the world Muslem population you are chasing a fantasy. Re-education is also a non-starter. While the jihadist leaders may be educated, the hordes that they command are stuck in the eight century; violent, barbaric, and illiterate. It will take generations to detatch them form their primitive world view. And there is little to suggest that they wish to enter the 21st century. The only rational approach is to quarantine them much as you would quarantine the plague. Isolate them. Let them kill off each other to satisfy their blood lust. And above all, choke of their petro-dollars.
There is a “them”. Find a way to get rid of the rule of clergy (I use that term very loosely) in Iran and the rest of them will fall like a house of cards. The nucleus of evil is the Islamic Republic of Iran, not to be ever confused with the people of Iran who, for the most part, are true friends of the West and the values associated with it. Iran is neither Afghanistan nor Pakistan. As the Soviet Union fell so did the satellites. Sometimes impossible looking problems are really easy in reality. Occam again? The beard sure needs a shave.
I hadn’t heard about these latest incidents in Iran. What is the source of this info? Any links, please?
no links. i said there was nothing in the press…my own sources. they’ve been very accurate on these things. so far, anyway.
Thanks. Interesting. Are the Iraq attacks likely linked to reprisals by the Iranian regime, or internal?
reprisals? for what? Iran’s working to dominate Iraq.
“an operations room has been opened in Damascus and…it is continuously manned by officers from Syria and Iran, as well as by Hizbullah terrorists, all of whom coordinate their military operations in the event of external military intervention in Syria…”
Yes, indeed, all of whom coordinate their military operations today against the USA and Israel, that’s with the help of their close allies “Russians and perhaps North Koreans.” For instance, in Syria, the Russian military advisers are currently stationed in the country to help train Assad’s troops…According to Russian news reports, an elite units of Russian marines and special operations forces have arrived today in Syria in the pretext of conducting anti-terrorism missions in the country. In fact the Russians have sent that special forces to support Assad’s crackdown against the revolution…The troops were reportedly aboard two Russian warships that arrived at the country’s naval base in the Syrian port city of Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea.
Very true and here we have an administration who bows down at every whim and wham of the snake Russians! Who in the world has the courage to stand up against the audacity of the Russians? Media is quiet because they are trolls of all anti Americans with all its different faces, Islamist, leftists, communists, ultra liberals, socialists, and goes on.. and then again the Western leaders just sit idle and quite watching the Russians marching on…Hey aren’t they the permanent member of the fake corrupt UN security council?!!!
If you ask me the Russians can come in and try to occupy America and still our leaders prefer to sit down and watch all outcome..
Indeed we are living in a world of deception, corruption both morally and economically, and still pretending we are defending and promoting decency?????
Shame is the word!!!
These explosions likely occurred because the nuclear weapons plants were not inspected by OSHA, EPA, and Nuclear Energy Commission. We can export bureaucrats to Iran to make sure they fill out the required paperwork
The USA and Israel must destroy Islamic and NON-Islamic nuclear weapons..They should use the nuclear option in any large-scale confrontation…yes, Islamists pose a real threat to America and Israel,,,but today the most dangerous weapon on America and on Israel are “the leftist idiots and their followers of wimps” around the world…..Einstein and Oppenheimer were a “Jews” and they were the God’s great gift to these selfish and fickle creatures, called “mankind”. while the great philosopher “Machiavelli” was quite right when he described this ungrateful race in his book “the Prince”.
Yes, the humans are the worst creatures on the earth…muslims are wicked, christians are wicked, Arabs are evil, Poles and Russians are evil…, so, let them “muslims and christians” to shooting each other, they love that,,,let them murdering each other, they love that…let them blow up themselves, and each other, they love this….Here on the soil of this country “Poland”, Millions of Jews were massacred during the World War II in cold blood “for no reason” by the Nazis and their collaborators, but the West did NOT prevent the Nazi from the continuation of its atrocities against Jews. Indeed everything is bad in this world, per se this world is very bad…so, let the rest massacring each other…,I think ONLY Israel and the USA have the right to possess a nuclear weapons, NO OTHER ELSE!!!
And now the Russians have sent in “anti terrorist” troops into Syria as reported by ABC News. Things must be getting dicey for Assad.
Tell the truth about Islam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INll6Y5iqbM&feature=player_embedded
Will look forward to your take: http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?ID=262877
Just in the focus Michael.
Michael,
This news blackout, if your contacts are correct, reminds me of the refusal to comment by the Israelis after the bombing of the nuclear reactor in Syria. It sounds like an active war where no one wants to humiliate the other and force retaliation. Neither party especially wants to get the United States involved. The Iranians have nothing to gain by engaging in full-scale conflict with the US Navy and the Israelis have nothing to gain by the perception that ‘Zionists’ have dragged the US into ‘another’ war.
The bet that the Israelis seem to be making is that the Mullahs view keeping power, as being more important than long-term considerations of national power that nuclear weapons would provide. In the face of national humiliation at successful attacks in their most secure sites, the Iranians would rather remain silent, than fuel whispers of internal weakness and dissent by lashing out at the Israelis.
All well and good, just as long as the explosions keep happening on the Iranian side.
Hope your having a good vacation!
Hope you see it now that US policy is, and has been: to keep the dictators in Iran, that parade as religious, in power at all cost.
You must know by now that that is the only possible conclusion.
Dr Ledeen – what’s the word on Kassem Sulimani?