Yeah Iran will have a hard time denying this one, like usual the Jewish are a scapegoat. "Our sniper teams were sniping Syrian civilians to protect them from Israel." Makes about as much sense as any other reasoning from a government controlled by religion.

Maybe after the rebels overthrow Assad they can pay a visit to their neighbor and give us some leverage in the nuclear talks with Iran. At the very least, when the rebels win I'm sure they will remember what Iran has done and close one of the last available weapon smuggling routes into Gaza.

"may get involved if there is foreign intervention"

You Iranians are foreign and intervening. Pot meet kettle.

Tehran's IRNA news agency said Khoshnevis, identified in some reports as Cmdr. Hassan Shateri, was a military engineer during the 1980-88 conflict between Iran and Iraq, and later operated in Afghanistan.

But officials stressed Khoshnevis was engaged in civilian reconstruction in Lebanon for the last seven years and Lebanon's Al-Safir newspaper said he had been in Syria to study reconstruction plans for the northern city of Aleppo.

Yeah, right....."military engineer".......a Terrorist is just that.....a Terrorist.

Operated in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and lastly.....Syria.

Hello folks, as is clearly evidenced by the lack of posters, Americans tire of war and the ignorant who post for continued Imperialism. The hypocrisy is palpable as we support, arm and give "moral" creedence to Al Qaeda in Syria and Libya but fight them in Afghanistan and Mali.

This only serves to underscore the volatility of the situation and the massive power vacuum that is already growing in the Middle East.

1) Iraq is a predominantely Shiite country. Iraq is a majority Shiite country that is rapidly becoming a puppet of the Iranian ayatollahs and is using its majority status to screw with the Sunnis and Kurds. Syria is a predominantly Sunni country controlled by a tiny group of pseudo-Christian/Muslims (the Alawites) and a Christian minority to form the Baathist Party. The rest of the Arab World is predominantly Sunni.

2) If Assad falls, Iran loses its only legitimate Shiite ally. It sould also serve as a warning to Iraq to stop nesting up with Iran. People don't seem to understand how mujch hatred there is between Sunnis and Shiites.

3) If Assad falls, Russia will lose its only overseas military base and naval port. This means that in a crisis the Black Sea Fleet would stand about a 1 in 10 chance of not being bottled up in the Black Sea for the duration. Russia is also pulling a lot of levers and ropes behind the scenes for that reason.

4) If Assad falls, this will create a huge amount of instability in Lebanon. It is likely that this Iranian "general" was organizing Hezbollah to try to fill in that power vacuum and inciting trouble with Israel in the meanwhile.

@riverboy, You have confised Hezbollah and Hamas, two very different groups. The supply route to Gaza is via scores to hundreds of tunnels running under the Israeli/Egyptian border. The Israelis and Egyptians cooperate to try to stop this, but without much success. The major problem is that not only weapons are being smuggled in to Hamas, but food, medical supplies, tobacco products, alcohol, and other more "traditionally" smuggled goods.

"If Assad falls, this will create a huge amount of instability in Lebanon. It is likely that this Iranian "general" was organizing Hezbollah to try to fill in that power vacuum and inciting trouble with Israel in the meanwhile."

Not too many understand this fine point with Lebanon. You have it correct.

"The Iranian Revolutionary Guard public relations office said Khoshnevis would be buried in his hometown of Semnan after being "martyred on his way from Damascus to Beirut by mercenaries.""

1. Commander belongs to "Revolutionary Guard". If this is the fate, what will be the fate other of "brave" guards?

2. As this brave commander has been "martyred", will he qualify for 72 virgins?

""He served the oppressed, supporting the resistance to Israel," the ambassador, Ghazanfar Roknabadi, told reporters as he received condolences from senior Lebanese officials."

In that case, Shiites and Assad are getting flowers from Syrian rebels supported by al Qaida, MB and Salaffi!

I was wondering where are the brave Hezbollah?

While doing genocides of Christians in Lebanon, these Hezbollah were one of the best fighters.

Why can't the ungrateful Hezbollah fighters support Assad and come to his rescue?

I can't wait either until every society in that part of the world is destroyed and under control of our good friends Al Qaida or some other Sunni terrorist group. Let the 'inadvertent' US supported ethnic cleansing begin. (sarcasm)

I was wondering why Shiites are so cowards against Sunnis?

Why can't all Shiites (Iraq, Iran and other ME nations) join hands and attack Saudi Arabia and take revenge for attacking Assad and his team?

Iran should buy nukes from Pakis and start their nuke attacks from Mecca and Medina.

Iran and Syria are allies. Allies stick together, unless the ally is Israel. Israel never fights to help their allies, in fact, they sometimes attack their own allies, as they did the USS Liberty and in the Lavon Affair.

I am guessing the Iranian was some kind of advisor.

Iranian ralph -

You are working very hard to make us forget your government attacked USS Stark. Then Khobar towers in SA killing 100 US families. Also 243 US Marines are not forgotten either - all attacked and murdered by your theocratic dictators. We will not forget.

You know Farideh,

I suddenly don't even care that Ralph is pushing his Liberty-angle again. Today, even if he starts telling us that Jews killed Kennedy. That's because the impossible happened, and Ralph actually said something I like:

"Iran and Syria are allies. Allies stick together"

That's right, Iran, stick by your ally, avenge your "some kind of adviser", rescue your good buddy Assad.

Go get those Al Qaida-supported rebels, take on Egypt if you have to, take on Turkey if you have to.

We are all rooting for you. USA is rooting for you. Israel is rooting for you too.

Go nuts.

And please don't be in a hurry, take all the time you want. Don't let heavy casualties stop you either.

farideh: I have to slightly disagree with you.

Shiites should fight Sunnis all over if they believe in Allah.

Or else they are bunch of infidels.

Iran, Hezbollah, Shiites of Iraq should all side with Assad and his team and eliminate all Sunni Syrian rebels.

They should start cleaning Islam by eliminating al Qaida, Salaffi, MB and all other Sunni killers.

Also wherever Shiites form more than 10 percent they should ask for Shiastan.

They should start from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other Muslim nations.

As I am for the oppressed/underdogs I fully support Shiastan and Shiites of Syria and other places.

Can Israel take a break and clean up Hamas and Hezbollah during the breaks?

Are not all winners?

sorry that it is only one!

If it becomes more than a million, I would take it as good news.

Why were "advisors" sent to Viet Nam? To try to get the war to come out our way. Iran is doing the same but Assad will be a hanging burnt hot dog in a public square soon......

As we should have been against the 'rebels' in Libya; they're the same group of people.

Obama should drop the bull and just say we support people we still call terrorists.

I am not even sure that really matters. We learned not to put boots on the ground in that area, but they learned that we can still lay waste to them without boots on the ground.

If the bad guys take hold there, then that is what happens, but it happens with the stark reality that the US could and probably would lay waste to them if they act like children. It would not have mattered what party or person was in control of the US government, this situation would have still ended up being the same. a civil war with the possibility that extremists would win and take over. Besides, it would have been a political blunder of the republicans if they where in office and decided to support Assad.

This situation is a no win for the US. They do not want to see Assad stay and they do not want the extremists in power there ether.

That pretty much sums of the modern day ignorant, egotistical mindset of most Americans.

If you where pointing the word "egotistical" at me, you can stop right there. I was stating a fact. The US has the ability to do those things and more. Will the US bother? I think it depends on the treat level. As a whole, you can expect the US and it's people to become a bit more xenophobic and without willingness to involve it's self around the world.

I can say though that if there is ever a major biological, chemical, or nuclear attack on the US, our ignorant egocentric ways will be the absolute least of the worlds problems. You will see all out war against no only terrorists but anyone known to or even thought to have given them shelter or support and that retaliation will include nuclear weapons.

So, sit back and hope that there is never a major attack with WMD on the US.

They also deny their are going after the big bomb. Guess we should beleive them...

I was with you till this comment "To bad Bush Jr. wasn't still in office neither terrorist leader would be still alive."

If bush jr. was still in office bin laden would still be living at his awesome compound and the U.S. would be suffering a great depression