Joint US-led HQ to operate in Syria in chemical war contingency

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report – 16 March. A new US-led contingency headquarters for joint US, Israel, Jordan and Turkey operations inside Syria will go into action if any or all these allies should come under chemical or biological attack. This was the upshot of the talks US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel held with visiting Israeli defense Minister Ehud Barak at the Pentagon Tuesday, March 5. Hagel forecast imminent chemical warfare in Syria spilling over its borders, kicked off by Al Qaeda-linked militias to further their territorial expansion plans. The USS Harry Truman carrier is standing by at home port for a chemical contingency.

The abduction of 21 UNDOP Filipino UN observers Wednesday, March 6, by the Islamist Martyrs of the Yarmouk, is now seen as tying in closely with the next plans of the Islamist militias of the Syrian rebel force, headed by Jabhat al-Nusra, which are to cement their grip on the Syrian Golan, eastern Syria and the Upper Euphrates, where the important towns of Deir Azor and Abu Kemal are situated.