About that strike in Syria

Taking a quick look around online this morning, the most illuminating piece I can find on last night’s strike on the Syrian army base in Hama is Avi Issacharoff’s analytical Times of Israel column “Resonant Syria strike suggests coordinated US-Israel message to Russia and Iran.” Here is the opening of Isacharoff’s analysis:

Hours after a mysterious “earthquake” — 2. 6 on the Richter scale — registered on the devices of the European Mediterranean Seismological Center, the circumstances behind the series of explosions that shook Syria overnight Sunday-Monday are starting to become clear.

An increasing number of media organizations associated with the Syrian regime and Hezbollah are hinting that Israel was responsible. According to a report in the Al Akhbar newspaper, identified with Hezbollah, bunker buster missiles, which do not explode on impact but rather deep in the ground, hit bases in the Hama and Aleppo areas. Hence the “earthquake.”

The base that was attacked in the Hama area belongs to the 47th Brigade of President Bashar Assad’s Syrian Army, but apparently there were many Shiites and/or Iranians in the area. The Syrian Human Rights Observatory (based in London) reported that 26 people were killed in this attack, Iranians among them. Another report spoke of 38 fatalities. Whatever the case, it is clear that the strike was highly unusual in several respects.

First and foremost was the sheer power of the attack….

Whole thing here. The first message I take from the attack: I have a feeling we’re not in Obamaland anymore. There is much more, to which Issacharoff is a good guide (with map and video).

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