Syrian President Assad and Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah
As Assad continues to spin region into disarray,
Palestinian terror group with connection to Hezbollah raises head after almost 40 years under the radar, promising to retake Golan
Reuters
A Palestinian terror group in Damascus said it is forming combat units to try to recapture Israeli territories, in particular the Golan Heights, after Syrian President Bashar Assad and Hezbollah said that they would support such operations.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) said it was preparing for new operations after nearly 40 years of quiet on the Israel-Syria border.
The group, designated terrorists by the United States and others in the West, was most active in the 1970s and 80s but retains influence with Palestinians in Syria and Lebanon.
"The leadership of the PFLP-GC announces that it will form brigades to work on liberating all violated (Israeli-occupied) territories, first and foremost the occupied Golan," it said in a statement late on Friday.
"The Popular Front's leaders have opened the door to all Syrian citizens to volunteer in the formation of the resistance."
Israel allegedly launched a series of air strikes around Damascus last week that did little to ease regional tensions already on the rise as Syria's two-year civil war slowly seeps across its increasingly chaotic and porous borders.
Game changer
Intelligence sources said Israel was trying to take out "game-changing" Iranian weapons destined for Lebanon's Shiite militant and political group Hezbollah.
Assad is a pivotal ally of regional Shiite power Iran, and is believed to serve as its arms conduit to Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.
Assad and his father, who ruled for 30 years before him, maintained calm in the Golan despite an official state of war between the two countries and Syria's support for militants inLebanon and Gaza.
But following last week's strikes, which shook the Syrian capital and set its skyline alight with flames, Assad was quoted by state media as saying he would turn the Golan into a "resistance front" and would allow combatants to attack Israel from the area.
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"We announce that we stand with the Syrian popular resistance and offer material and spiritual support as well as coordination in order to liberate the Syrian Golan," the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Thursday.
Nasrallah said Syria would defy Israeli strikes by sending his group sophisticated weaponry, which he hinted may change the balance of power in the region.
The regions bordering the Golan Heights have already collapsed into disarray, with daily battles between state forces and rebels fighting to topple four decades of Assad family rule.
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Bee's note:
Israel, are you ready for some target practice? Assad seems to be bored with his Civil War and wants to play more war games. See if you can locate Nasrallah if that should happen - he'll be hiding behind a group of children.
UPDATE:
Reports: IAF jets fly low over southern Lebanon
Lebanese channel also says Israeli helicopters, patrols are observed in the area
Lebanese media reported Israeli Air Force warplanes were hovering since Sunday noon over southern Lebanon and conducting mock attacks at a low altitude. The report comes one week after Israel allegedly launched a series of airstrikes at military research facilities around Damascus from Lebanese territory.
According to the report by Lebanese news channel Al-Nashra, four F-16 jets circled low over the Lebanon-controlled territories of the Hermon Mountain, the towns of Marjeyoun and Khiam in southern Lebanon, and the western Beqaa Valley of Lebanon. It was also reported that Israeli helicopters flew over the Shebaa Farms and the Golan Heights, and that IDF patrols were also observed in the border area.
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