Russian Lawmaker Suggests Annihilating Turkey With Nuclear Strike on Istanbul

Russian lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky suggested to annihilate Turkey with a nuclear strike on Istanbul.
Vladimir made the remarks after Turkey shot down a Russian jet near the Syrian border.

According to Russian media, MP Vladimir Zhirinovsky proposed to crush Turkey with a nuclear missile attack, Joinfo.ua reports with the reference to Korrespondent.

“Istanbul is very easy to destroy: it takes just one nuclear bomb to throw in the Strait (Bosphorus – Ed.), and it will be washed away. It would be such a terrible flood, the water column would rise to 10-15 meters, and there would be no city with nine million people,” – said the leader of the Liberal Democrats.

According to Zhirinovsky, Turkey’s NATO allies will not intervene, “not wanting to die in a nuclear fire.”

Zhirinovsky said that at present Turkey is the number one enemy for Russia.

Russian-Turkish relations have deteriorated markedly after November 24, when Russian Su-24, shot down by Turkish Air Force for violation of their air space on November 24 near the Syrian border after 10 times warning.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called this incident “a stab in the back” and said that this attack will have tragic consequences for Russian-Turkish relations.

Shots Fired As Troops Land At Ukraine Airport

Ukrainian troops defy pro-Russian separatists and take control of an air base in the eastern city of Kramatorsk.

Airborne troops have landed at an airport in the eastern city of Kramatorsk as Ukraine launches an “anti-terrorist operation” against pro-Russian separatists.

Shots rang out from inside the air base after Ukrainian troops disembarked from two military helicopters.

Ukraine’s Interim President Oleksandr Turchynov says troops have taken control of the facility.

Reuters reported that the troops withdrew into barracks at the airport following a “scuffle” with several hundred pro-Russian protesters.

Russian news reports initially said up to 11 people were in clashes at the base, however Ukraine’s defense ministry says none of its troops were killed or injured.

Armed soldiers gather at the airport in Kramatorsk

The Ukrainian state security service announced that a similar operation was launched in the town of Slaviansk, some 12 miles away.

The two cities are among 10 locations in the Russian-speaking east where separatist rebellions have broken out.

Video footage emerged on Tuesday of a group of separatists stopping a Ukrainian tank and questioning its crew near the village of Rodinskoye.

Mr Turchynov has accused Russia of harboring “brutal plans” to destabilize the region by backing separatists and refusing to force them to stand down.

“The plans of the Russian Federation were and remain brutal,” he said.

“They want not only for Donbass (Donetsk region), but for the whole south and east of Ukraine to be engulfed by fire.”

Unrest has broken out in several cities across eastern Ukraine

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Ukraine was on the verge of civil war.

“I will be brief: Ukraine is on the brink of civil war, it’s frightening,” he said.

The White House is “seriously considering” new sanctions against Russia and says its supports Ukrainian efforts to restore law and order in the country’s east.

“The Ukrainian government has the responsibility to provide law and order and these provocations in eastern Ukraine are creating a situation in which the government has to respond,” spokesman Jay Carney said.

He added that the Washington continues to plan to participate in talks scheduled for Thursday between the Russian and Ukrainian governments, the US and the European Union, Mr. Carney added.

Armed men stand guard outside a seized building in Slavyansk

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has welcomed the talks, but said any Ukrainian military action in the east could jeopardize the negotiations.

“You can’t send in tanks and at the same time hold talks, and the use of force would sabotage the opportunity offered by the four-party negotiations in Geneva,” he said.

Meanwhile, two pro-Russian politicians have been attacked by pro-Western activists as tensions remain high.

Oleh Tsaryov, a candidate in the presidential elections on May 25, was pelted with eggs and beaten as he left a TV studio in Kiev on Tuesday.

Mikhaylo Dobkin, another Russian-leaning politician, was sprayed with a green disinfectant on Monday night.

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US Military Arming Up With “Gay Bombs”

US military pondered love not war

The US military investigated building a “gay bomb”, which would make enemy soldiers “sexually irresistible” to each other, government papers say.

Other weapons that never saw the light of day include one to make soldiers obvious by their bad breath.

The US defense department considered various non-lethal chemicals meant to disrupt enemy discipline and morale.

The 1994 plans were for a six-year project costing $7.5m, but they were never pursued.

The US Air Force Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, sought Pentagon funding for research into what it called “harassing, annoying and ‘bad guy’-identifying chemicals”.

The plans were obtained under the US Freedom of Information by the Sunshine Project, a group which monitors research into chemical and biological weapons.

‘Who? Me?’

The plan for a so-called “love bomb” envisaged an aphrodisiac chemical that would provoke widespread homosexual behavior among troops, causing what the military called a “distasteful but completely non-lethal” blow to morale.

Scientists also reportedly considered a “sting me/attack me” chemical weapon to attract swarms of enraged wasps or angry rats towards enemy troops.

A substance to make the skin unbearably sensitive to sunlight was also pondered.

Another idea was to develop a chemical causing “severe and lasting halitosis”, so that enemy forces would be obvious even when they tried to blend in with civilians.

In a variation on that idea, researchers pondered a “Who? Me?” bomb, which would simulate flatulence in enemy ranks.

Indeed, a “Who? Me?” device had been under consideration since 1945, the government papers say.

However, researchers concluded that the premise for such a device was fatally flawed because “people in many areas of the world do not find fecal odor offensive, since they smell it on a regular basis”.

Captain Dan McSweeney of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate at the Pentagon said the defence department receives “literally hundreds” of project ideas, but that “none of the systems described in that [1994] proposal have been developed”.

He told the BBC: “It’s important to point out that only those proposals which are deemed appropriate, based on stringent human effects, legal, and international treaty reviews are considered for development or acquisition.” 

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HORROR! ‘Syrian Rebels Behead Pro-Gov’t Prisoners In Front Of Children’

Photos have leaked out of Syria that appear to show rebels beheading allegedly pro-Assad government supporters…in front of children. (via in Serbia)

  

Disgusting culture of death. How much tax payer cash has gone to supply these lunatics with weapons? How come this is what we have been seeing from the rebels and have not seen such things from the Assad “regime” which the media portrays him as the lunatic monster?

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Thousands Flee In S Philippines As Islamic Violence Spreads

Philippine President Benigno Aquino said he would deploy the “full force of the state” if needed to protect civilians as a standoff between troops and Muslim rebels dragged on for the fifth day in the restive south.

“There’s a thin line that can’t be crossed, putting civilians’ lives at risk,” Aquino said in a televised briefing yesterday from Zamboanga city, occupied in parts by rebels since Sept. 9. “When that line is crossed, I will be forced to not only show, but use the full force of the state,” he said.

 Philippine soldiers look at enemy positions as they try to protect residents putting out fires in their homes during a fire fight with Muslim rebels in Zamboanga City, Mindanao island on Sept. 12, 2013. Photograph: AP/Getty Images

The rebel Moro National Liberation Front “will be starting war” if its forces are attacked, Emmanuel Fontanilla, a spokesman for the group’s leader Nur Misuari, told ABS-CBN by phone yesterday.

The violence is complicating efforts to end four decades of insurgency on the island of Mindanao. Nearly 30,000 people are displaced, Adriano Fuego, a regional spokesman for the Office of Civil Defense, said by phone yesterday. At least 22 people have been killed, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala said in a mobile phone message, while about 100 members of a separate rebel group tried to enter nearby Lamitan city yesterday and a two-hour firefight wounded six soldiers.

Aquino needs to reach out to Misuari and ask his men to stop the attacks, Rommel Banlaoi, executive director of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research said by phone. “Without opening the channels of communication, there’s no other direction but continuing violence, which can spill over to other areas,” he said.

‘Strategic Advantage’

A prolonged standoff in Zamboanga would give the MNLF a “strategic advantage” and highlight Aquino’s difficulty in bringing peace to the area, Banlaoi said. “People are clamoring for decisive action,” he said.

Escalating violence could be “very damaging” to the business and investment climate in Mindanao, which accounted for 15 percent of the Philippine gross domestic product last year, IHS Global Insight Asia-Pacific Chief Economist Rajiv Biswas said in a note yesterday.

The fighting coincides with the resumption of peace negotiations with a separate rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, threatening government efforts to end an insurgency that has killed about 200,000 people and stifled development in Mindanao.

The violence “is a reflection of the inability of the Aquino administration to come up with a much more inclusive approach to creating peace in Mindanao,” said Richard Javad Heydarian, a political science lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University. “What is needed is an expanded table of negotiation.” The MNLF and founder Misuari are not involved in the peace talks which resumed this week.

Meeting Delay

At Misuari’s request, Indonesia postponed a meeting between the MNLF and Philippine government representatives on a review of their 1996 peace deal, Aquino’s peace adviser, Teresita Deles, told ABS-CBN by phone yesterday. Misuari was head of the MNLF when the accord was signed and later served as governor of the autonomous Muslim region in the south.

Soldiers are keeping a tight cordon around areas in Zamboanga, Zagala told ABS-CBN by phone yesterday. The military supports negotiations with rebels loyal to Misuari, Zagala said.

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Mass casualty exercise drill on post, do not be alarmed

FORT BLISS, TX (KTSM) — Fort Bliss will conduct a mass casualty exercise Wednesday and that means there may be traffic delays in that area.

The Exercise Iron Response 13 is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The exercise will take place near the Buffalo Soldier Gate and Carter, Doniphan and Holbrook streets.

Motorists are encouraged to avoid this area if possible because traffic delays are expected.

Area residents, spectators and those passing near the area should not be alarmed, the exercise may appear to be real however, it is only an exercise.

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Video Tour Of A Few Deep Underground Military Bases

Do you have your ticket to the Deep Underground Military Bases? Check your mailbox. Not in there? You didn’t get a ticket? I got mine in a cereal box while eating my GMO’s and drinking my fluoride water. Maybe yours is coming and you just haven’t got it yet. The government definitely wants you there, they care about all the people that is why they feed us GMO and put fluoride in our water, vaccines that save your life and spray aluminum in the atmosphere. Just relax and breath deeply, I’m sure your ticket to the D.U.M.B.’s is on it’s way.

US strike on Syria to turn into a nuclear catastrophe

An American military operation against Syria might provoke a nuclear catastrophe in the whole region. A nuclear reactor located near Damascus may be damaged during an attack on the city. Even if the reactor itself is not damaged, the defeat of the government troops will allow extremists to seize radioactive materials.
There is a China-made compact reactor near Damascus. It uses uranium-aluminum fuel containing weapons-grade uranium. In his time, the Chinese supplier transferred to Syria almost one kilogram of weapons-grade uranium as fuel for the reactor. So, the damage of this reactor will be a real catastrophe, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich warns:

“In case of a combat charge intentionally or unintentionally hitting the miniature reactor (a source of neutrons) near Damascus, the consequences can be catastrophic, without exaggeration. This means a probable contamination of adjacent territories with highly enriched uranium and decay products and actual impossibility to provide subsequent registration, control and safety of the nuclear material positioned on this site.”

Another danger is the fact that after the attack on Syria, the government forces may lose control over the nuclear facility. In this case, extremists may take possession of the radioactive materials. And although they will certainly not manage to create a real nuclear bomb, the consequences will be extremely dangerous, employee of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Igor Khokhlov notes:

“The matter is that the reactor, which is now located in Syria, does not contain technologies allowing to make a nuclear bomb. But on its base you can make a so-called “dirty bomb”. And, most important, in this case it will be impossible to control these nuclear materials. And we have to understand, given quite a tense situation in Europe and in extremist Muslim communities, that this dirty bomb can be used, first of all, against the Europeans themselves, including the countries that are so actively supporting the military operation. Against France, for example”.

To avoid the catastrophic consequences of the attack on Damascus, the Russian Foreign Ministry has urged the world community to pay attention to this problem, Alexander Lukashevich told the Voice of Russia:

“In order to prevent the development of events according to a negative scenario, we urge the Secretariat of the International Atomic Energy Agency to react to the situation and to provide this organization’s member-states with an analysis of risks associated with the alleged US strikes on the miniature reactor, a source of neutrons, and other objects on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic”.

It is worth adding that in addition to direct threats to nuclear security, the strike on Syria is fraught with indirect ones. The thing is that this campaign will become a weighty argument for Iran in favor of creating nuclear weapons of its own. The regimes of Saddam Hussein or Muammar Gaddafi were no more odious than the regime of Kims in the DPRK. However, nobody dares to attack North Korea, because it is known that this state possesses a primitive nuclear bomb. If Bashar al-Assad is ousted with the help of the US, Iran will, obviously, be the next on a waiting list for a forced «democratization». To avoid this fate, the authorities of the Islamic Republic will try to protect themselves with the help of their own nuclear bomb. If it happens, their neighbors, such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, will, probably, do the same and their example will be followed by other «threshold» countries. In the end, the non-proliferation regime will suffer an irreparable damage.
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Discovery of unmarked military base in Las Vegas sparks concerns over martial law coming to America

For many, the discovery of yet another military base in Las Vegas has become another sign of martial law preparation in America. A car dealership has been turned into a massive military base, complete with the kind of machinery better prepared for use in Iraq or Afghanistan than America. With a potential FEMA death camp being discovered in nearby Arizona and FEMA camp delivery trucks being spotted on the roadways in nearby New Mexico, it seems that America is reaching ‘the point of no return’. (VIDEO)

A stockpile of military vehicles were recently discovered occupying a secluded commercial property on the outskirts of Las Vegas at the address of 5750 Sky Pointe Dr.

It doesn’t seem as if the Humvees and other military-grade vehicles are for sale, even though they are stationed at a former car dealership that has been stripped of its business logo and signs.

It would appear as if the equipment is deliberately being hidden from the public on this secluded property surrounded by barbed-wire fences.

The front of the building, which can be seen while driving north on US Highway 95 while departing from Vegas, or from the upscale Painted Desert Mall on the other side of the freeway, is littered with pedestrian vehicles.

After closer investigation, it was clear that the former United Dodge dealership is some sort of military station, judging from the soldiers on the property all dressed and outfitted in army fatigues. However, there is no clear indication or signage posted certifying that it is a United States military base.

One eighteen-year-old boy named Jonathan who lives in the area proclaimed “The military [has] been there for six months now.” His friends added, “We think it is a secret undercover operation or military base.”

Commenting on the video, Youtube user D Whaley asserted that he was “not surprised by this video at all”, it is “happening in all major cities in preparation for martial law”.

US police establish ‘unconstitutional’ checkpoints in Austin, TX

According to eyewitness reports, US police together with the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) establihsed random checkpoints on the road outside Austin-Bergstrom International Airport early Monday morning. The reports come amid other rather scandalous appearances of TSA all over the US. During the past few months such checkpoints encroaching on Americans’ constitutional rights emerged at train stations, sporting events, concerts, and even shopping malls.

Not content with treating people like prisoners in the nation’s airports, the TSA is rapidly expanding its operations with random spot checks. This is in full evidence in Austin, Texas, as people travelling to or from Austin airport were treated to random checks at the hands of agents and drug sniffing dogs.

“The security at airports has increased so the bad guys are now traveling on the trains and buses,” said TSA official George Robinson. Of course, no “bad guys” were actually discovered. In fact nothing was discovered, other than a few disgruntled travellers who did not appreciate the government rifling through their bags.

“These facilities are not necessarily protected as well,” Robinson added, noting “We do impromptu visits at locations throughout the country.”

The random checks are labeled as “voluntary”, purely because if they were anything but, they would be unconstitutional, violating the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches.

In May, the TSA was seeking permission from the Office of Management and Budget to conduct “security assessments” on highways as well as at 140 other public transportation hubs, including bus depots and train stations.

Since then, the TSA has expanded outside of airports, and is now in the process of transforming itself into a security force that will have a presence at virtually every major public venue, from sports events, to political functions, to music concerts.

Last year, the TSA was responsible for over 9,000 checkpoints across the United States, a number set to increase thanks to the agency’s bloated budget and its expansion beyond anything vaguely related to transportation.

Since its inception in the US after 9/11, the TSA has grown in size exponentially. The agency was slammed in a recent congressional report for wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on security theater.

One such checkpoint involving TSA agents took place last year in Tennessee, where Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams checked trucks at five weigh stations and two bus stations in the state, as well as making trucks pass through x-ray scanners. TSA officials also used the checkpoint to try and recruit truck drivers to become citizen snitches under the First Observer Highway Security Program.

US army helicopters spotted in the skies of Downtown Chicago

Following recent and unannounced training exercises in Florida and Washington state, the US military is conducting a drill in Chicago. The drill comes just after US police together with the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) established largely unconstitutional random checkpointson the road outside Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Earlier this year, Nashua, NH, residents witnessed armored vehicles patrolling the streets of their usually peaceful town and blogger Pamela Rae Schuffert reported getting numerous phone calls from West Virginia, Florida, and Georgia regarding military transport jets landing in numerous cities across the country. What is America preparing for?

The Windy City’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) told the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday it is providing support for “routine military training exercises,” including flying helicopters in the downtown area of the city at night.

However, it seems that the official statement didn’t calm down Chicago citizens as plenty of people took to Twitter about what they saw or heard.

Many were claiming that “it’s been an all-night invasion.”

One woman shared her rage onFacebook: “Blackhawk helicopters flying over my condo in the Loop, and all news stations are covering the royal birth, what’s up?”

In July, a similar army exercise was conducted in Port Angeles, Washington, that turned the small city into a simulated war zone and terrorized residents. Frightened citizens flooded the police with phone calls complaining about low flying Chinook helicopters.

Resident Richard Lord said he was concerned about the military’s presence over the city and the lack of notification.

“We’re all wondering why we’re being treated this way,” Lord said.

Cherie Kidd, mayor of the Olympic Peninsula city about 60 miles west of Seattle, added that “no one had any warning about the helicopters, no one said anything afterward, and today city officials had to spend hours just trying to find out what had happened – who had invaded Port Angeles.”
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Naval Face Off In Mediterranean Sea Off Of Syria

Mounting pressure for a Western strike on Syria has seen naval forces both friendly and hostile to Damascus build up off the embattled country’s coastline.

The potential of a US strike against Syria in response to an August 21 chemical weapons attack in a Damascus suburb gained steam on Wednesday, when a resolution backing the use of force against President Bashar Assad’s government cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on a 10-7 vote.

President Obama has decided to put off military action until at least September 9, when the seemingly recalcitrant US House of Representatives reconvenes to vote on the measure.

Following the August 21 Ghouta Attack, which killed anywhere between 355 to 1,729 people, the diplomatic scramble to launch or stave off a military strike on Syria was mirrored by the movement of naval forces in the Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Syria.

The deployment of US and allied naval warships in the region has been matched by the deployment of Russian naval warships in the region.

While the Western vessels have in many cases been deployed in the event a military strike against Syria gets a green light, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia’s naval presence is needed to protect national security interests and is not a threat to any nation.

Below is a brief summary of the naval hardware currently amassed off Syria’s shores.

USA

The US Navy has five Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers off the coast of Syria, which its top admiral says is “fully ready” for a wide range of possible actions.

The USS Ramage, USS Mahan, USS Gravely and USS Barry are each armed with dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles, which have a range of about 1,000 nautical miles (1,151 miles) and are used for precise targeting.

The ships are also equipped with surface-to-air missiles capable of defending the vessels from air attacks.

On August 29, the USS Stout was sent to relieve the USS Mahan, but a defense official told AFP that both ships might remain in the area for the time being.

Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations, told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute on Thursday that the US ships are prepared for what he called a “vast spectrum of operations,”including launching Tomahawk cruise missiles at targets in Syria, as was done in Libya in 2011, and protecting themselves in the event of retaliation, AP reports.

In addition to the destroyers, the United States may well have one of its four guided missile submarines off the coast of Syria. At one time these subs were equipped with nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. Nowadays, they are capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles.

It was also announced on Monday that the US had deployed the USS San Antonio, an amphibious transport ship, to the Eastern Mediterranean.

The USS San Antonio, with several helicopters and hundreds of Marines on board, is “on station in the Eastern Mediterranean” but “has received no specific tasking,” a defense official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The deployment of the USS Antonio comes despite promises from President Obama that no amphibious landing is on the agenda, as the US has ostensibly ruled out any “boots on the ground.”

While the wording of the draft resolution set to be put before the House does not permit a ground invasion, the wording of the text could potentially allow troops to carry out non-offensive operations within Syria, including securing chemical weapons stockpiles and production facilities.

On Monday, it was also announced the USS Nimitz super carrier had moved into the Red Sea, though it had not been given orders to be part of the planning for a limited US military strike on Syria, US officials told ABC News.

The other ships in the strike group are the cruiser USS Princeton and the destroyers USS William P. Lawrence, USS Stockdale and USS Shoup.

The official said the carrier strike group has not been assigned a mission, but was shifted in the event its resources are needed to “maximize available options.”

The USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and strike group is also in the northern Arabian Sea.

Russia

Russia, Syria’s longtime ally and primary arms supplier, has its only overseas naval base located in the Syrian port of Tartus, which has reportedly been used to support Russia’s growing number of naval patrols on the Mediterranean. However, Russia insists recent efforts to bolster its naval presence in the region are not in response to Western threats of a military strike.

Reported movements of many Russian ships in the region are coming from anonymous Russian defense ministry sources and have not been confirmed. RT contacted the Russian Navy to ask for confirmation of the reported ship movements, though no comment was forthcoming.

On Friday, for example, the large landing ship, Nikolai Filchenkov, was reportedly dispatched from the Ukrainian port city of Sevastopol for the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, from where it is eventually expected to reach the Syrian coast, a source told Interfax News Agency.

“The ship will make call in Novorossiisk, where it will take on board special cargo and set off for the designated area of its combat duty in the eastern Mediterranean,” the source said.

RIA news agency quoted an unnamed senior naval source as saying on Friday that the frigate, Smetlivy, would leave for the Mediterranean on September 12-14, and the corvette Shtil and missile boat Ivanovets would approach Syria at the end of the month.

The Russian destroyer Nastoichivy, which is the flagship of the Baltic fleet, is also expected to join the group in the region.

Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov, who was unable to comment on specific reports, said on Thursday the Russian navy currently had a “pretty strong group” there.

“The Russian navy does not intend to take part directly or indirectly in a possible regional conflict,” he told the state Rossiya 24 broadcaster.

“Our navy vessels are a guarantee of stability, guarantee of peace, an attempt to hold back other forces ready to start military action in the region.”

Also reportedly in place in the eastern Mediterranean are the frigate Neustrashimy, as well as the landing ships Alexander Shabalin, the Admiral Nevelsky and the Peresvet.

They are expected to be joined by the guided-missile cruiser Moskva.

The Moskva, set to arrive in a little over a week’s time, will take over operations from a naval unit in the region.

“The plans of the naval unit under the command of Rear Admiral Valery Kulikov had to be changed a little. Instead of visiting a Cape Verde port, the cruiser Moskva is heading to the Strait of Gibraltar. In about ten days, it will enter the eastern Mediterranean, where it will replace the destroyer Admiral Panteleyev as the flagship of the operative junction of the Russian Navy,” a source told Interfax on Wednesday.

Panteleyev incidentally, only arrived in the east Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday after leaving the Far-Eastern port city of Vladivostok on March 19 to join the Russian standing naval force as its flagship.

The SSV-201 reconnaissance ship, Priazovye, is also reportedly on its way to join the group in the Eastern Mediterranean. Accompanied by the two landing ships, Minsk and Novocherkassk, the intelligence ship passed through the ‘Istanbul Strait’ on Thursday, which helps form the boundary between Europe and Asia.

FRANCE

On August 31, French military officials confirmed the frigate Chevalier Paul, which specializes in anti-missile capabilities, and the transport ship, Dixmude, were in the Mediterranean. French officials denied they are in the region to participate in military action against Syria, but were rather taking part in training and operation preparations.

Despite their presence in the region, France currently has no ship-based missiles, so any offensive action would come from the air in the form of long-range Scalp missiles, similar to those the nation used in Kosovo in 1999 and in Libya in 2011, Time reports.

Italy

Two Italian warships set sail for Lebanon on Wednesday in a bid to protect 1,100 Italian soldiers in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, Syria’s southeastern neighbor, Agence France Presse reported.

The Italian ANSA news agency reported that a frigate and a torpedo destroyer boat departed from Italy’s southeastern coast on Wednesday and would provide additional protection to the soldiers in the event the Syrian conflict further deteriorates.

UK

As of August 29, the Royal Navy’s Response Force Task Group was deployed in the Mediterranean as part of long-planned exercise Cougar 13. The force includes helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious, type-23 frigates HMS Westminster and HMS Montrose, amphibious warship HMS Bulwark and six Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships.
The Trafalgar-class nuclear submarine HMS Tireless was also believed to be in the area at the time, after it was detected in Gibraltar.

On the same day that British media started touting Britain’s “arsenal of military might” which would be available in the event of intervention, British Prime Minister David Cameron lost a vote endorsing military action against Syria by 13 votes. In light of the shocking parliamentary defeat, Foreign Secretary William Hague said the UK would only be able to offer the US “diplomatic support.”

The UK’s Conservative Chancellor, George Osborne, confirmed that the UK would not seek a further vote on action in Syria.

Source: RT News