The Saudi force that went into Bahrain Monday, March 14, along with UAE and Kuwaiti units, to stabilize the royal regime is larger than reported, consisting of a National Guard brigade, a mechanized brigade of the Saudi army and a tank battalion – altogether 3,500 men. Until recently close American allies, the two Gulf rulers flouted President Obama's policy of supporting popular uprisings, encouraged by Qaddafi gaining the upper hand against Libya's rebels and Washington's constraints against military intervention. Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas received a stern ticking-off when he called Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Saturday, March 12, to condemn the savage murder Friday night by Palestinian terrorists of the parents and three small children of an Israeli family while they slept at their home at Itamar on the West Bank. The Prime Minister, knowing Abbas had quietly tipped Fatah heads to endorse the perpetrators, accused him of hypocrisy. Does Abbas want to stir up another Palestinian uprising? Though divided between Hamas-ruled Gaza and Fatah-ruled Ramallah, the Palestinians are holding protests in both places against both their governments Tuesday, March 15, demanding that they heal the rift and reconnect the two territories. DEBKAfile's military sources report that Israel's military and police are on the highest state of preparedness lest the demonstrators storm out of Palestinian towns on the West Bank and Gaza Strip and rampage against nearby Israeli communities and towns. As Washington commended the Arab League for approving a proposed no-fly zone over Libya and European powers drew up plans for saving the anti-Qaddafi movement from defeat, Syria began sending Muammar Qaddafi supplies of arms, ammunition and weapons spare parts to sustain his effort to crush the uprising. In the last 24 hours, rebel militias were pushed out of the two key oil towns of Ras Lanuf and Brega in eastern Libya by pro-Qaddafi troops landed by sea.
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report March 15, 2011, 9:06 AM (GMT+02:00)
Saudi Special Forces cross into Bahrain
Abbas' double game: His Fatah tipped to endorse Itamar murders
March 12, 2011, 10:35 PM (GMT+02:00)
Mahmoud Abbas wants to ride Arab uprisings bandwagon
IDF on top alert for Palestinian Day of Rage spillover
March 14, 2011, 11:15 PM (GMT+02:00)
Israeli soldiers and Palestinian protesters
Syria sends Qaddafi arms. Exodus begins from Benghazi
March 13, 2011, 6:23 PM (GMT+02:00)
Bashar Assad helps Muammar Qaddafi defy West
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