Two planeloads of Basij militia reportedly arrive in Syria. Protesters opposing Iran and Hezbollah as well as Assad regime.

Elder of Ziyon relays reports that Iran is sending their brutal secret police force to put down Syrian anti-government protests. He also reports that YouTube has video of mourners at a funeral for a slain Daraa protester chanting "Neither Iran nor Hezbollah ... only to be a Muslim who is afraid of God."

read here: Elder of Ziyon: Report: Two planeloads of Basij militia arrived in Syria on Saturday

A commenter has complained that the sources for this report are weak, or as he puts it "the story is complete crap".  Although it has been reported by the Beirut Observer and by Kol Israel's Arabic edition, with details including the airlines and airport used, flight numbers and the times of arrival, both articles rely on anonymous sources.  I'll keep an open mind with respect to information contradicting these articles, but feel that they're worth reporting here with a grain-of-salt alert based on the anonymous sources and lack of corroborating reports from other media outlets.

(Thanks to the commenter.)


UPDATE (3/25/2011 7PM):  According to a report on Ynet (read here):

Deraa's Mukhtar (village chief) Muhammad al-Mehamid claimed that protestors in the city captured an Iranian sniper brought into the area to fire at protestors. "What's happening in Deraa is a great embarrassment to President Assad," he said in a TV interview. "Images of weapons which Syrian TV said came from Deraa are baseless. The Syrian intelligence cooked it up. The fire came from one source only – the Syrian's regime."

According to al-Mehamid "we have captured a man and we're waiting for the media to publish the truth. See that the man caught is a bearded Iranian who can't speak Arabic and has come to shoot us. We ask the international media – come see the truth."

UNIFIL hides info about Hezbollah war prep from Security Council

from Haaretz: Israel: 'UNIFIL is hiding information about Hezbollah from Security Council'


The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is intentionally concealing information about Hezbollah activities south of the Litani River in Lebanon to avoid conflict with the group, senior sources in Jerusalem have said. In the last six months there have been at least four cases in which UNIFIL soldiers identified armed Hezbollah operatives, but did nothing and did not submit full reports on the incidents to the UN Security Council.

The Israel Defense Forces and the Foreign Ministry are reportedly very angry about UNIFIL's actions in recent months, especially about the fact that its commander, Major General Claudio Graziano, is said to be leniently interpreting his mission, as assigned by Security Council Resolution 1701, passed at the end of the Second Lebanon War.

Senior IDF officials said recently behind closed doors that Graziano is "presenting half-truths so as to avoid embarrassment and conflict with Hezbollah," and that Resolution 1701 has been increasingly eroded in recent months.

A senior government source in Jerusalem said that, "There is an attempt by various factors in the UN to mislead the Security Council and whitewash everything having to do with the strengthening of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon." The source also said, "The policy of cover-ups and whitewashing will not last long and, hopefully, now that the concealing of information has been revealed, things will change."

Israeli anger reached boiling point over a week ago after the release of a new report by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with regard to another Lebanon-related Security Council resolution, 1559. The report briefly mentioned an incident at the beginning of March in which UNIFIL soldiers encountered unidentified armed men, and included no additional details. Officials in Israel, familiar with the incident, reportedly were aware that the Security Council had not been apprised of numerous details of the incident.

A day after the release of the report, Haaretz revealed that the incident described in the report had actually been a clash between UNIFIL and armed Hezbollah activists. The latter, driving a truck full of explosives, threatened the Italian UNIFIL battalion with weapons. Instead of using force as required by their mandate, the UN soldiers abandoned the site. A diplomatic source at the UN told Haaretz that senior officials in UNIFIL and in the UN Secretariat brought heavy pressure to bear to have the incident erased from the report or at least to blur it.

When the incident was made public, UNIFIL was forced to admit that it had indeed occurred and to request Lebanon's assistance in investigating it. UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane said that during the incident, which took place near the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon, five armed men had threatened UNIFIL troops. Bouziane said the identity of the armed men was uncertain.

A day later, a second report was transmitted to the Security Council on the matter, this time including all the details. However, the report stated that this was the first incident of its kind. According to a security source in Israel, this was a misrepresentation; he said that in fact there had been many similar incidents in the past. A response from UNIFIL with regard to Israel's claims was unobtainable.

New definition of chutzpah

Nasrallah blames Israel for killing anti-Syrian pols in Lebanon

from Haaretz

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday accused Israel of killing anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon to cause strife and drag his militant movement into fighting other Lebanese communities.

In a televised speech broadcast to his supporters to mark "Al Quds" day, Nasrallah said Israel has a network of agents working in Lebanon who are responsible for the political killings.

Nasrallah, whose group leads the pro-Syrian opposition to Lebanon's U.S.-backed government, also warned the parliamentary majority against picking a president of their own to run the country if talks with the opposition failed, and called for polling the general population on their choice if the lawmakers fail to reach agreement.

The Hezbollah chief said attacks against members of Lebanon's anti-Syrian parliamentary majority in the last two years have automatically drawn condemnation from that coalition against Damascus, Hezbollah's ally, and that was the reaction the killers expected, Nasrallah said.

"The hand that is killing is Israel's," he told thousands of supporters who occasionally interrupted his speech with roars of approval.

By the way, this Haaretz article ends with an inexplicable zen koan: "Nasrallah ended the speech with a quote from the Koran which relates to the Children of Israel." The reader must meditate upon that phrase for many years to discover meaninglessness of whatever Nasrallah said.

Hezbollah offers Bishara asylum in Beirut - Israel News, Ynetnews

Hizbullah offers Bishara asylum in Beirut - Israel News, Ynetnews:

Hizbullah offers Bishara asylum in Beirut. Shiite group says Azmi Bishara is 'fighter in Arab resistance movement,' offering him asylum in Lebanon.

Bishara recommended that Hizbullah attack south of Haifa - Israel News, Ynetnews

Bishara recommended that Hizbullah attack south of Haifa - Israel News, Ynetnews:

Details of former MK's investigation reveal tactics police resorted to in attempts to summon evasive Bishara for questioning. Investigators reveal Bishara's contacts with Hizbullah, say he recommended long-range rocket attacks would serve Hizbullah cause"

Harvard study finds media treated Israel unfairly

The Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006: The Media As A Weapon in Asymmetrical Conflict

Evidence that the media co-operated with Hezbollah's disinformation campaign.

"Throughout the conflict, the rarest picture of all was that of a Hezbollah guerrilla. It was as if the war on the Hezbollah side was being fought by ghosts."