Well then. Less than a week after Syrian government air defenses shot down a Turkish RF-4 Phantom recconnaisance jet, Syrian rebels appear to have seiezed a government radar station.
The video below, apparently filmed on June 26, shows Syrian rebels combing through the ruins of a freshly captured radar site in the hills around Idilb, which lies about 10–15 miles away from Syria’s Border with Turkey. WHo knows what kind of intelligence they were able to glean from the base or if they were able to hold the radar installation, unlike this surface-to-air missile site.
This comes as rumors, emphasis on the word rumors, circulate that NATO special operations troops are beginning to covertly make their way into Syria.
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
While this may be BIG for the Islamist rebels who captured a isolated SAM site and probably had to withdraw when Army troops countered attacked to regain it. For the overall situation it doesn't matter. Overall the Army destroys the radar before any Islamist techiction come from Turkey to operate the radar for the rebels defense. Think they poster for American audiences states some BIG WHOPPERS the radar site is NOT a airbase.
I wonder if this place was a pile of rubble before the rebels ever did anything to it. Sometimes in the ME rubble is the normal state of affairs.
I think nato special operations forces have BEEN in syria for quite some time and in jordan and northern iraq training the frappin rebels.
What a coincidence these anomyous rebels (Some armed with brand new kraut machineguns) have made no serious anouncements, nor do they have a public face to the world. And everyone is busy decrying ANY action by the syrian govt while paying little notice to any 'rebel' bombings etc.
Waiting now for a US surveillance plane to be fired upon, or a destroyer to be engaged by 'syrian' gunboats.
Yeah maybe in the Gulf of Tonkin….oh wait…..lol. Yeah it sure seems like they are building up to a Tonkin like event for justification. I really thought the RF-4 was the thing they were going to use as a way in but the way it is moving so slow I think something has to happen to U.S. assets before anything major will happen. That or something more to Turkish assets, in that event, Turkish units on the border would prolly roll in for a holiday excursion.
the turks…dont make me laugh.last war they fought was in cyprus 1974 and look how that ended…
1974 is not 2012
right the turkish military became more efficient in the past 30+ years? Just like the US military?
I can't believe we have a super secret force of allied troops in Syria – because I have not read about it in the front pages of the Washington Post!
Every other secret thing we have done lately has ended up there. In detail.
Have to wait for a member of the obama staff to leak the details in order to make the obamanation look more presidential and tough on terror.
But the Syrian Gov has one less SAM sight.
Dude, cut your fingernails, that is just gross.
Did you see the fingernails on the cameraman? Jeez either he has no clippers or he's related to Wolverine!! Dont mess with a Syrian freedom fighter with nails like that!
http://geimint.blogspot.com/2007/09/syrian-sam-ne… doesn't cover Idilb If anything, it's a conspicuous blackhole on the charts.
Then again, much may have changed in the years, or they just moved it after being outed.
The post implies the value of the radar station to the rebels is in the intel that was there. The value may be in putting a hole in radar coverage of the Syrian-Turkish border, making it easier to penetrate the border with aircraft. If that's so, it's unnecessary for the rebels to hold the site – they would only have to discourage the Syrian government forces from putting it back into use.
Any one know what's in those crates?
Machine gun ammo (RPD)
that is the Pechora SA-3 (possibly upgraded system) …great video, you can sense their happiness..
promo video for upgraded SA-3 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHzNsuhZEZU
Definitely an SA-2 or SA-3 site.
Though it looks unused for a very long time, could be an abandoned site left as a diversion for any SEAD's.
Could be, but Syria is tearing itself apart. It makes more sense that it was just abandoned.
First a SAM site, now a radar? Are they trying to encourage NATO to come in? o.O
Why nobody is talking about the amazing image stabilization system? I never saw it before!! This is not filmed with a regular camcoder!
It was probably a raw video that popped up on a less traveled website and was downloaded then put into a stabilization system like that of adobe and re-uploaded.
I’m pretty sure that the video was made with an optical stabilitation (not digital) and probably with a portable steadicam like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-j3mUTQrkI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Did no one else notice the camera guy's crack nail right around the 1 minute mark??