Military tensions are building up around Syria's borders. Wednesday, Jan. 4, Turkish military sources reported an Israeli Eitan drone hovering for four hours over the Turkish Hawk Brigade 14 stationed on the Syrian border at Kirikhan in the Hatay district – the expected jumping-off point for any foreign military intervention in Syria. In the south, fierce battles raged Tuesday, Jan. 3 between Syrian troops and the mutinous 38th Mechanized Brigade in the Syrian-Jordanian-Israeli border triangle. Sounds of gunfire were heard in Israel. Armed US-Iranian hostilities are dangerously close – more so even than the six-to-eight months widely predicted. By posting a Keep Out sign over the Persian Gulf for the USS Stennis, Tehran is goading the Obama administration into action sooner rather than later. DEBKA-Net-Weekly out next Friday assesses the nail-biting face-off generated by US pressure on Iran and Tehran's tactics for throwing it back in America's face. Israel must weigh how far to join US action against the cost of Iranian retaliation. To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly,click here In another heated escalation over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, Iran Tuesday, Jan. 3, threatened to take action if the US aircraft carrier USS Stennis, which "moved to the Sea of Oman because of our drill returns to the Persian Gulf." Army chief Lt. Gen. Ataolla Salehi said:" Iran will not repeat this warning." It is hard to see Washington caving in over Tehran's ultimate challenge to the freedom of this vital international waterway and accepting Iran's assumed right to control passage. Monday night, Jan. 2, Al Qaeda claimed to have established its first Jerusalem operational cell calling it the "Sunni Youth Movement Cell in Greater Jerusalem." Bulletin No. 1 with details of the organization and its targets was promised in the next few days. DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources report Israeli security services are taking the development very seriously. They tie it in with Palestinian plans for a West Bank uprising and the jihadist trend spreading through Palestinian centers in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
DEBKAfile Special Report
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
Wednesday 4 January 2012
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 4, 2012, 11:48 AM (GMT+02:00)
Israeli Eitan drone
January 3, 2012, 4:15 PM (GMT+02:00)
Iranian Qader test-fired near Hormuz
Iran provokes showdown, warns US carrier not to return to Persian Gulf
January 3, 2012, 12:49 PM (GMT+02:00)
USS Stennis near Strait of Hormuz
First Al Qaeda operational cell in Jerusalem area
January 3, 2012, 9:19 AM (GMT+02:00)
Al Qaeda claims to land in Jerusalem
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