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Subscribe to RSSThe Syrian military is now firing Scud missiles at rebel forces in the north from the Damascus suburbs -- and so far at least two of the Scuds have landed in civilian neighborhoods. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
United States officials confirm to NBC News that for the first time in the Syrian conflict, the Syrian military has been firing Scud missiles at rebel fighters in northern Syria.
The officials report that as many as eight Scud missiles have been fired over the past several days from launchers in the suburbs surrounding Damascus at areas considered rebel strongholds. According to one official, the U.S. has tracked the Scuds by radar.
Obama says US recognizes Syrian opposition coalition
The officials say there is no evidence the Syrian military has loaded the Scuds with chemical weapons.
According to one U.S. official, the Syrians’ use of Scuds is further evidence that President Bashar Assad's regime has become increasingly desperate.
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A look back at the violence that has overtaken the country.
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Leave a Comment:
Would someone please slit Bashar Assads throat.
As long as there killing each other...whats the problem?
Why, so someone worse can take over?
It'll be nice if he manages to use up all his weapons, before he goes under. :)
.
wheres the meat to this story?
We can be fairly certain that obama is sending weapons to somebody, it's anyone's guess as to whom.
@ Xtex
I'm sorry to have to enlighten you but I support Assad and yes I'm quite American and ex military. Why you may ask? Because he is fighting not just an uprising that the US would fight as well if it were you or me in protest with guns, but also verified groups of alqaeda and other groups of insurgants being trained and supported by other countries. This last comment bascially states that he is fighting a war as would the US. he is also supporting his other countrymen (the christians, agnostics, etc...) by trying to keep the islamist factions from taking over and creating another Egypt (you can read failed state).
This isn't the first time people in another country was fighting against their own government.
I understand the USA is backing up the rebels... I don't have all the info on it why yet.
But we all know in any conflict.. both aren't angels!
Only difference here is the government has the best with weapons over the rebels..thanks to Russia and Iran.
Mike277
The only thing that keeps me from being "all in" for Assad is Iran. I hate those rotten bastard$ like nobody's business but to be truthful the Alqaeda thugs are armed as well and we have US "technical specialists" on the ground helping the oppositiion as well. Can you possibly guess what the term "technical specialist" means?
Just a wild guess..technical specialist means DRONES?
Can't be our military..not approved by congress yet...or another Bush war will be starting up!
Mike
No offense friend but you are naive. No it doenst mean drones nor does the president need an act of congress approval to put special operators on the ground.
You mean CIA or special operators (Seals,Rangers, TSA agents)???..Really they are all over the world now ( always been)..nothing new there .
TSA agents is a joke. :)
Hello folks, the sheeple continue to support these wars of aggression but when will it ever stop? Who's next? I know we want to attack Iran as they have gone off the petro dollar as did Iraq and Libya and you saw what happened to them. We in our short history have bombed over 65 countries and have been at war for 216 of our 236 years. Obama just recently announced that he supports the rebel "alliance" but yet has them on his terrorist watch list. He wants to replace Assad with a jihadist version of the muslim brotherhood. Is that insane or what? We are imperialists and the bully's on the planet! When Karma rears its head it aint going to be pretty!
LOL, it's alway about the previous president huh? Seriously Mike... are you going to keep blaming Bush for another 4 more years, and then another 4 more years, and another 4 more years?
You're an idiot.
Yep. I'm an idiot. I have no business posting what I think. Freedom of speech should be outlawed!
Fact is, the U.S and other E.U countries now support the rebels while others, but mainly Russia (have to) support Assad. It is a dangerous situation, even when everyone is trying to play cool.
The facts on the ground are getting real grim and bloody. Someone is going to blow the -hands off- bubble and take action. This one is not going to be pretty.
Forty thousand dead and counting: And where is Obama?
And now Scud missiles being used in this conflict too! I guess after Assad grew tired of just using fighter bombers and helicopter gunships to kill his own people, scuds seemed like the next logical step. And chemical weapons might also be ready for use, according to Pentagon officials.
So I guess it will take chemical warfare and tens of thousands of more dead before Obama lives up to his promises of not allowing thousands of civilians to be killed.
So much for that Nobel Peace Prize...
It's so much better with Obama in the White House instead of George W. Bush. Now we can have peace and love around the world...
Scud missiles are imprecise and can hit Turkey, Israel or Lebanon and start a whole new round of serious problems. I cannot blame Assad for becoming desperate, as he is fighting a ruthless group of AlQaida affiliated terrorists. They are not a good option for replacing Assad regime. Situation in Egypt provides a good answer for that.
The're not that "imprecise" the SCUD-D variants that Assad has have a CEP (Circular Error in Probability) of around 150 feet. The bottom line is that if they shot a SCUD at you and missed by the full CEP, you would still die in the blast. But no one is going to shoot at rebels and hit Israel, Turkey, or Lebanon by mistake. They are way too accurate for that.
That assumes that they have been properly maintained before the launch and properly targeted at launch time. Personally, I wouldn't want to stand a quarter mile away from the presumed target.
while that may be true from our prospective, it appears that the rebels are willing to fight and die for their position.
Terrorist killing terrorist and innocent civilians being killed is a part of war.... Yes its terrible innocent people die... We kill innocent people everyday... but as long as it stays in their country what are we going to do??? NOTHING... USA supplies one side Russia supplies the other side and China is most likely making profit from it.... I wonder if the ones making a profit sleep at night?
There are no innocent civilians there. The sooner they kill each other the better!
I don't believe in innocent civilians either. I fully support the actions of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold as well as James Eagan Holmes and others.
No, no, no, didn't you hear Barry? Al Qaeda is the chosen representative of the Syrian people, if you believe HIM. The SAME Al Qaeda that 'liberated' Libya and killed our Ambassador. You know, the PEACE LOVING branch of Al Qaeda.
It is believed Ansar al-Sharia was behind the attack as a attack of opportunity. Eventually we will know, but for you to attest that our President was somehow behind it is why the republican party is slowly becoming extinct.
The problem with using SCUDs is that by doing so, Assad has escalated the conflict in a way that is easy to get out of hand. SCUDs are inaccurate --- though to say that it has NO guidance system is nonsense --- but accuracy of the North Korean Hwasong-6 (which is what the Syrians have) is a CEP of 150 feet.
By using SCUDs, Assad has committed to a very expensive weapon. It's blast radius in urban areas is small because of buildings. So, as Sadaam found out the hard way, SCUDs tend to do little damage. One way of improving their kill radius is to swap out the conventional warhead for a chemical warhead. This will automatically be a more and more likely option as the Assad regeime continues its slow-motion collapse.
Don't post about things you have no idea about. Don't believe everything you read on the internet.
Once you see a blast shockwave and fireball propagating down the street between buildings, you'll be convinced that it has a large blast radius.
I believe Assad is operating under the "smoke em if ya got em" dictum. He may eventually go, but he'll leave the cupboard bare.
If they could get to him, they would. Someone in the inner circle would have to do it.
That's the problem --- Assad's inner circle is about 30% Christians and 70% Alawite Shiites. The Christians are desparately fleeing to Jordan and Lebanon to save their own skins and fewer and fewer of the Alawite Baathists are being allowed near Assad because of the bombs that have gutted much of the military and Baathist leadership.
Who cares? If we're lucky they'll take out the terrorists who may or may not be some, all, or none of these "revolutionaries."
Thanks Jenny, now we better understand the depths of your ignorance.
She's right.
No one put a bullet in Hitlers head either. Except Hitler. No one put a bullet is Saddam's head either. Always saw a military guy standing nehind Saddam and wondered why he didn't put one in his head.
True. They just put a hood over it .... right before he was hanged.
Tomorrow we will probably read that these missiles did indeed have the chemical weapons attached .....If they do Assad is finished. The international community will remove him. What comes after Assad ? One can only assume it will be worse ...
Why don't the US worry about why decent people can not walk the streets of Detroit, Chicago,& East Saint Louis safely ? Instead they rather give alQaida rebels arms to kill innocent Christians and regime soldiers !
You are confused as to the role of government at its various layers.
The best the Federal Government can do is try to improve economic conditions. Even during the Clinton years, which are regarded as very good economically, these areas were no safer than they are now. I have first-hand experience in East St Louis--not Chicago or Detroit.
You need to look more to municipal and state resources to improve the inner cities. The majority of the problem is the lack of economic opportunity. This is a combination of 1) a population with a multi-generational welfare state and 2) no viable company would enter into these areas for fear of not being able to attract sufficiently talented resources. (Those who can leave, have.)
The East St Louis I knew of the 80s early 90s needed to be bulldozed and shoved down one of the many mine shafts in that area.
I really hope nobody is forgetting that SCUD missiles are made in Russia! Russia cannot sit by and claim they are not involved in supporting Assad's murderous ways.
most of the guns were made in america.
JENNY WERNER
Tetrapoda was correct about you.
Look up AK 47 and at who makes them.
Actually they are MOSTLY kalashnikovs... Russian made.. The odd armalite pattern weapon that finds its way to the hands of the rebels would be from the gulf oil arabs or more than likely smuggled in from iraq , leftover surplus M4a1s that were either captured or mis-appropriated by 'friendlies' during the drawdown when the majority of firearms were sold to neo iraqi police... There is a good chance turkey could be selling small batches of firearms to militants they beleive would make the best use of them... But the majority of firearms used by rebels, and ALL of the assault rifles being used by the assad regime, are KALASHNIKOV. So remember the next time you hear the word AK47, or see one, if you know what they look like, that godless communists designed and produced it. The most common and effective handheld killing machine on the market, given the number of them out there and their ease of use...
Both Scuds and Kalashnikovs are Russian designs, but both are made by a variety of other countries--the Kalashnikov variants by well over a dozen, the Scuds by North Korea and Iran in addition to Russia.
What about the money & Arms that hillary gives to the Muslim rebels that behead the Syrian Christians and loot Churches ?
This is a sure sign the Assad regime is desperate and their days are numbered. I firmly feel the U.S. needs to stay out of this conflict. WE have our own problems here at home to take care of. Lets nation rebuild the United States? How bout it ???
It won't be long before the " you're about to cross the red line " speech again.
It'll probably be more like ' you crossed the red line this time, here we come '... Good 'ol capitalist conquest. NATO @ its best.
NATO is nothing but a huge waste of US dollars. Sanctions never work and just serve to hurt the poor because the governments just raise taxes and steal from the people.
What exactly is the U.N. supposed to be doing again??????
A Scud is'nt that like WWII technology what is that going to do land on a random building or a parking lot. Might as well drop a waterheater loaded with exlosives out of a 747. The Scud was Saddams feared super weapon. They could load a Scud2 if they have one with chemical weapons I think but that still is'nt going to do much
Gee....where did Syria get scud missiles from?
Better them than US soldiers. Hope they fight till the last two idiots are standing, then we should take those two guys out. Problem solved!!
Personally, I can't wait for Assad to use chemical weapons on the rebels. The more of themhe kills now,the less we'll have to worry about later (or should I say sooner?).
So what? These rebels can take it just like they expect Israel to. If they weren't in a civil war, they'd be attacking Christians or Jews.
Assad truly is getting desperate. Probably since learning the U.S. has sided with the rebels. Not a good indication nor confidence building act. Though the rebels must take some comfort in that knowledge. I think we all know what is coming. Whether we or the international community are willing to do much about this or not.
The Middle East is heating up folks. It won't matter who starts it, what matters is who finishes it. With people running around with chemicals and nuclear weapons and some working to finish theirs.A bang is coming.
Like Iran-and its claims of only wanting it for energy, who are they kidding.Egypt is going to go ballistic, Syrian will find itself in possibly chemical battle soon enough. Turkey in civil war. Israel arguing with Palestine who has the Hamas picking fights.Did I mention the Islam extremists everywhere it seems? And everybody is scared to death about Muslims in every country they happen to be found in, willing to have them killed out right. Men, women and children. We are way overdue for World War 3.
Look at history on the larger time scale. So many more fires going on now. It sure looks like things are building up to something. The tension is so thick one could cut it with a knife. I would say God help us, but there are plenty who don't believe in Him. They keep mistaking him for a fairy, though, pardon the pun, only God knows why. Judging from the hatred spilled on posts so easily, war will come.
Windancer,where have you been,it's been hot for quite some time now,around 3000 years.Let them kill each other off,just proves Darwin was right..
I am in President Obama's corner now since he has stepped up to the plate for the Syrian opposition who
deserve freedom. And, in effect, he stuck it to the Russians who back Assad. The president has
redeemed himself for the "more -flexibilty- after- the- election" remark. The Election is over, Pres. Putin!
Yo Mohammed, put CAMEL TEAM6 on standby alert.
Scuds, as a conventional weapon, really aren't all that effective against small groups of mobile targets. If he's trying for fixed rebel resources, maybe. I guess there's also a psychological factor to consider. And it appears he's firing these weapons into areas where his aircraft won't go because the rebels have anti-aircraft weapons.
Where his aircraft ARE able to go, he's dropping incendiary munitions, which are much harder to avoid.
Another aspect to consider, is he may be testing the waters to see how readily we are able to identify conventional vs. chemical ordinance.
15 year old technology or older? Weren't SCUDs used in the first Gulf War? If you eliminate Asshat, you might end up with the Muslim Brotherhood ruling Syria. Considering what is happening in Egypt, everyone needs to leave Asshat alone.
Significatly older than 15 years lol!
The first Gulf War was over 20 years ago, I know I was there. 1990-1991.
Scuds were outdated and crappy tech even then.
Check this wiki link for info on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scud
It actually first went into service in 1957!
We should not be involved in this conflict or support the rebels. Who cares if Assad kills his own people? The Syrian people don't like us and nothing will change no matter who we support. We should sit back and relax and see what is the outcome.
I'm with you! Grabbing a beer and my lawn chair.
Can we chuckle a little?
I agree with you. At least we shouldn't be more involved than Russia, China, one of the Koreas (that was a joke) or any other country is.
Oh sh!t, let's just ramp up our forces and begin the invasion- it's inevitable anyway. The media has been dropping hints long enough, we get it.
Firing scuds eh?
Well at least we are guaranteed that they won't hit their targets!
May as well say they are firing cheap bottle rockets.