The first link reports that ABC News broke the story that a “unit of Russian counter-terrorism commandoes” was sent by Russia to Syria. The story does not specify how many commandoes were in this unit, but I think it is obvious that the Russian troops were sent to Syria not only to prop up Syrian leader Assad, but to send a message to the West that Russia will not stand by idly and allow Syria to become another “Libya” in terms of NATO intervention to accomplish regime change. The Russian troops (seen in the second link) are basically a “trip-wire” force to discourage western attacks against Syria as this deployment strongly hints that Russia could send a lot more troops to Syria to bolster the Assad regime if it feels the need to do so. Russia also wants to keep Assad in power as Russia maintains an important Russian naval station in a Syrian port which would be in jeopardy if Assad falls. The arrival of known Russian forces in Syria also begs the question of how many other Russian forces have arrived in Syria secretly.
A previous post indicated Iranian forces were operating in Syria as well (they were apparently captured by rebel forces in Syria). This would not be surprising as Iran is Syria’s sponsor and wants very much to keep Assad in power as does Russia. The presence of both Iranian and Russian forces in Syria would also send a strong warning to Syria’s armed forces not to abandon Assad.
As discussed in my previous post, this struggle going on in Syria will determine whether Syria stays in the Gog-Magog alliance prophesied in Ezekiel 38 to include Russia, China and Iran or whether Syria is moved out of that alliance and becomes allied with friendly Sunni regimes in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, etc. The outcome will be very important not only for Sunni Arab regimes in the region, but for western nations and Israel as well. If Assad falls, it will be greatly welcomed in Sunni Arab capitals as well as western-friendly capitals around the world. The outcome is clearly in doubt, and bears watching.
My thanks to a friend who sent me this link below.
