Middle East Report Dec. 28, 2015

Tehran Monday, Dec. 28, further ramped up the tension between its Lebanese proxy Hizbollah, whose leader Sunday threatened to avenge the death of Samir Quntar, and Israel, which is conducting a military exercise along its northern borders. Four days after Quntar was assassinated in Damascus, Tehran appointed a successor to carry on building a new terrorist network for striking Israel from the Golan.

This successor is a Lebanese man called Raafat Al-Bakkar, about whom very little is known. The Iranians spotted Al-Bakkar as promising talent earlier this year, shortly after the Israeli air strike which on Jan. 18 killed Iranian Gen. Ali Dadi and the high-profile Hizbollah leader Jihad Moughniyeh, pictured above. They were caught touring the Golan around Quneitra in search of a site for a terrorist base. Al-Bakkar was sent to Tehran at that time for a course in building and running terrorist networks, and this week he was given charge of the new “National Resistance on the Golan” organization for deep strikes inside Israel.

When Nasrallah boasted Sunday that his jihadists were already on their way to punish Israel, he was looking forward to the arrival of Quntar’s successor.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkott explained why it was necessary to bring forward the launching of the new Commando Brigade by two months, when he addressed the formation ceremony on Sunday, Dec. 27, at the Ein Harod National Park: “The Commando Brigade is more necessary than ever in light of the threats from Hizbollah and the Islamic State,” he said, in reference to the boasts heard in the last 48 hours from Hassan Nasrallah and Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi.

The Chief of Staff introduced Col. David Zini as the first commander of the new Brigade.

The ceremony took place shortly after the Hizballoh chief Hassan Nasrallah said, “Revenge for the death of Samir Quntar is on the way… The orders have been given and execution is in the hands of resistance fighters on the ground… The Israelis are worried and rightly so - those on the borders [soldiers] and those inside the country…. We shall not let the blood of our Jihadi fighters and brothers to be spilled anywhere in the world,” he said.

Analysis of the kinds of threats posed by Hizbollah (and ISIS) at this time, which are likely to focus more on terrorism than on tank or infantry border incursions, persuaded IDF leaders of the need for a new framework for bringing under one roof some of the top-notch, highly-trained, experienced, well-armed and determined fighting men who are willing to take on new challenges.

The self-styled Islamic State's “caliph” Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, also devoted special attention to Israel, or rather “the Jews,” in his first audio speech in seven months Saturday, Dec. 26, the day before Nasrallah sounded off. His message was similar to that of his Shiite enemy, albeit in his own inimitable style:

The Islamic State would soon be in Palestine to establish an Islamic state there, he said, "Jews, soon you shall hear from us in Palestine which will become your grave… The Jews thought we had forgotten Palestinian… Not at all, Jews…The pioneers of the jihadist fighters are getting closer every day.”

If and when the Shiite Hizbollah and Sunni ISIS make good on their similar but separate threats - or sooner - they will encounter Israel’s new Commando Brigade. Its fighting men are trained for combat in miscellaneous conditions of terrain, day or night, under deep cover. They are equipped with high-tech equipment, most of it classified, for gathering visual and electronic intelligence, communications, photography and targeting. They may either kill terrorists or take them captive.

In a word, these elite troops will hit the enemy in his back yard or at home, and blow the threats heard from Hizbollah and ISIS leaders’ back on their own forces.

The 89th Commando Brigade is composed of four battalions:

Duvdevan specializes in operating amidst an Arab population under deep cover for locating and arresting terror suspects.

Egoz is a special kind of infantry battalion, whose commandos operate solo or in very small teams behind enemy lines, especially across the Syrian and Lebanese borders.

Maglan is skilled in the use of weaponry designed for precision operations against high quality enemy targets. These elite fighters go deep inside enemy territory to gather intelligence and use their specialized technology, exclusive for the use of this unit, for devastating assaults.

Rimon members are desert fighters who gained their experience in the terrain of the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Their experience as back-up for operations against drug smugglers is invaluable for urban combat in civilian environments.

Excluded from the new brigade are the separate IDF commando units: Sayeret Matkal, Shayetet 13 (Navy), the Oketz unit which trains dogs for anti-terror work, and Yahalom, of the Engineering Corps.
Syria sitrep Dec. 28, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIx25BDP0ys

Iraqi troops clear Ramadi of ISIS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzHnmDWNj9A

Yair Ramati, head of the Homa administration (missile program) at Israel’s defense ministry, was asked to resign after classified information was found on his personal computer. During his four years at this post, Ramati was responsible for managing and developing Israel’s groundbreaking three-tier missile defense system composed of Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrows 2 and 3. He was cited by the ministry as responsible for “exceptional achievements on a world scale for the active, multi-layered missile defense.”

Under a UN brokered ceasefire, dozens of Syrian terrorist fighters are being evacuated from the village of Zabadani near the Lebanese border and taken to Beirut. Hundreds of families from the towns of Kefraya and Fuaa in the northern province of Idlib were also rescued and taken to Turkey and from there to Lebanon.  Zabadani has been under siege by Syrian army and Hizbollah forces for nearly a year who never broke through toe capture the village, while the two towns lived under the siege of Sunni terrorists.

For the second time in three days, Russian intelligence Sunday marked a group of Syrian rebel commanders for assassination. Syrian commandoes booby-trapped buildings at a farm in Kfar Shams near Deraa in southern Syria and detonated the bombs during a general meeting of local rebel commanders. At least 17 are reported dead. Friday, the radical Jaysh Islam founder Zaharan Allouche and several other rebel commanders were killed by a Russian air strike while conferring at a secret venue outside Damascus. The liquidation of two large groups of commanders in three days is a mortal blow for the Syrian terrorist movement and its various branches.