Assad to ramp up crack-down against Syrian oppostion, Turkey continues military build-up on Syrian border

July 2, 2012 – MIDDLE EAST –In a phone call to the Kremlin Sunday, July 1, Syrian President Bashar Assad said he needed just two months to finish off the revolt against his regime. “My new military tactics are working,” he said in a secret video-conference with Russian intelligence and foreign ministry officials who shape Moscow’s policy on Syria. Reporting this exclusively, debkafile’s intelligence sources also register the fleeting life span of the new plan for ending the Syrian war which UN envoy Kofi Annan announced had been agreed at a multinational Action Group meeting in Geneva on Saturday, June 30. Within 24 hours, the principle of a national unity transitional government based on “mutual consent” was rejected by the regime and the Turkish-based opposition leaders alike, as the violence went into another month. On the first day of July, 91 people were reported killed in the escalating Syrian violence after a record 4,000 in June. The new military tactics to which Assad referred are disclosed here: The sweeping removal of most of the veteran Syrian army commanders who led the 16-month bloody assault on regime opponents and rebels. They were sent home with full pay to make way for a new set of younger commanders, most of them drawn from the brutal Alawite Shabiha militia, which is the ruling family’s primary arm against its enemies. The regular commanders had shown signs of fatigue and doubts about their ability to win Assad’s war. Their will to fight on was being badly sapped by the mounting numbers officers and men going over to the opposition camp in June. But a higher, unthinkable level of violence is the key to Assad’s “new tactics.” He has armed the new military chiefs with extra fire power – additional tank and artillery units, air force bombers and attack helicopters – for smashing pockets of resistance and unlimited permission to use it. Already the level of live fire used against the rebels has risen to an even more unthinkable level which explains the sharp escalation of deaths to an average of 120 per day. On the Syrian-Turkish border, tensions continue to mount. Monday morning, Turkey was still pumping large-scale strength including tanks, antiaircraft and antitank guns, artillery, surface missiles and combat helicopters to the border region. Saturday, half a dozen Turkish jets were scrambled to meet Syria helicopters approaching their common border. –Debka

NATO plays down potential Turkey-Syrian clash: NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has played down the risk of a military confrontation between Turkey and Syria. Rasmussen also said Ankara was justified in beefing up its defenses along the Syrian border, as cited by international media. Turkey, a key NATO member, has strengthened its troop presence and air defenses along its southern border after Syria shot down one of its jets on June 22, heightening tensions between the neighbors caused by an uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Asked if he was concerned about Turkey’s military buildup and whether there was a risk it could lead to a confrontation with Syria, Rasmussen said told a news conference: “I commend Turkey for having shown restraint despite the very tragic aircraft incident,” Rasmussen told a news conference in Brussels on Monday. “I find it quite normal that Turkey takes necessary steps to protect its population and its territory,” he said. He added NATO had received no request from Turkey to deploy AWACS surveillance planes or other military equipment. At an emergency meeting in Brussels last week, NATO allies condemned Syria’s shooting down of the Turkish military plane, but stopped short of threatening a military response. Syria says it shot down the Turkish jet in self-defense and that it was brought down in Syrian air space. Turkey says the jet accidentally violated Syrian air space for a few minutes but was brought down in international air space. Turkey scrambled six F-16 fighter jets in three separate incidents responding to Syrian military helicopters approaching the border on Sunday, its armed forces command said on Monday. –Novinite