A paper tiger. That is how Osama bin Laden characterized the United States after Mogadishu. Whether the Obama administration will engage in a war throughout the Middle East is not the point of this article. The point is that Iran and Syria see his failed foreign policy as a sign of weakness. This will be an interesting week based on the situations unfolding in Syria, Iran and North Korea.
David DeGerolamo
Syria launches its heaviest air-ground assault yet against the opposition
Certain he is safe from Western-Arab intervention, Bashar Assad Sunday unleashed an across-the board air and ground offensive against the last surviving rebel locations. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that starting Sunday noon, April 8, 30 towns and villages were hit simultaneously. For the first time since the outbreak of revolt thirteen months ago, heavy long-range artillery and air force helicopters pounded the rebel positions remaining in the northern mountains of Idlib near the Turkish border. The scale of the onslaught was such that it is hard to come by casualty figures, but they certainly run into hundreds.
The mountains of ordnance and numbers of tanks and artillery the Syrian army is pouring into the embattled sectors attest to Assad’s determination to root out with no holds barred the last rebel and protester however long it takes.










