Jawad in American Spectator: "Bashar's Iron Fist Goes Airborne and Thermobaric"

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Please take a moment to visit and log in at the subscriber area, and submit your city & country location. We will use this information in future to invite you to any events that we organize in your area. Bashar's Iron Fist Goes Airborne and Thermobaric by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi and Oskar Svadkovsky The American Spectator April 2, 2012 http://www.meforum.org/3203/syria-thermobaric-bombs Print Send RSS Share: Be the first of your friends to like this. Huge balls of fire and mushrooms of smoke seen on the latest videos from Homs indicate that the Syrian army is using more powerful weapons in its assault on the remaining rebel strongholds in the city. This is what the daily shelling of Homs used to look like when the Baba Amro district was still under rebel control: February 8, 2012 Explosions seen on the latest videos look rather different: March 24, 2012 There is an oil pipeline passing through Homs that can produce similar effects when hit with shells. However, it seems unlikely that so many shells would repeatedly hit the pipeline or that the refinery is still operating. One YouTube video identifies these as napalm bombs. Well, the balls of fire are certainly not entirely unlike videos of napalm bombing that can be found on YouTube. However, napalm is normally delivered with bombs and these are probably thermobaric or fuel-air bombs of the kind the Russians used in Chechnya. Given the regime's connections to Russia, it comes rather natural that Mr. Putin would share with Bashar Assad his rich experience in waging counter-insurgency in the Caucuses. March 24, 2012 To the best of our knowledge, the first video starring a fireball in Homs hit YouTube on February 14. By now they have become a regular feature in opposition videos. February 14, 2012 Though the Syrians usually call them rockets, they actually appear to be shells. At least in the next video some kind of a howitzer exit clearly precedes the shriek and the explosion. March 29, 2012 Anyway, whatever the source of these fireballs is, the rebel strongholds in Homs and elsewhere now seem to be subjected to attacks with even more powerful types of weapons. And now for the first time here comes a video with a very clear view of a military helicopter firing a missile, though it's not obvious what the target was. No-fly zone, anybody? March 25, 2012 Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a student at Brasenose College, Oxford University, and an adjunct fellow at the Middle East Forum. Oskar Svadkovsky is a computer networking professional based in Tel Aviv, and the owner of the Happy Arab News Service blog. He graduated in Indian and Chinese Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Related Topics: Syria | Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi | Oskar Svadkovsky This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.
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