The Saudi-Israeli offensive to break the blockade of al-Ghouta failed

By Pierre Khalaf

Source: www.voltairenet.org

The last desperate attempt to break the blockade imposed seven months ago by the Syrian Arab Army in the eastern Ghouta, east of Damascus, is an operation mounted from A to Z by the Saudis, Americans and Israelis.
The offensive was launched from Jordan Friday, 22 November, by some 5000 Syrian and foreign mercenaries,. Their goal was to retake the strategic town of Oteiba, located 30 kilometers southeast of the capital, which was the headquarters of armed rebels in Damascus province.
According to various sources of information, the offensive was prepared by a Saudi-Israeli-American common command center, located in Jordan, where mercenaries were trained by instructors from the CIA and funded by Saudis petrodollars. The column crossed into Syria via desert roads helped by satellite photographs. With the approach of the column of the Eastern Ghouta, the Israelis launched a vast operation of telecommunications interference against the Syrian Arab Army troops defending the region. The army units were cut off their command and contacts between them were also very disturbed. It was then that the mercenaries launched their attack, while simultaneously rebels encircled within the Ghouta tried an output.
In all, some 5,000 men attacked the positions of the Syrian Armed Arab in an attempt to break the blockade of the eastern Ghouta. Despite their number, their heavy weapons provided by Saudis and logistic brought by the Israelis, the rebels have taken only a few army checkpoints in five or six villages at a cost of more than 300 dead, a third are not Syrian nationals.
After stabilizing the front line, the Syrian regular army and the National Defence Army launched a counter-offensive to regain lost ground and prevent mercenaries consolidate their positions in regions where they entered. Despite two other offensives launched earlier this week, the rebels have failed to improve their situation.
Experts from all sides confirm the failure of the “Saudi-Israeli offensive”, which military objective was to take Oteiba. At the political level, this attack is a desperate attempt to improve the Saudis’ agents uncomfortable position who represent the so-called Syrian opposition at the Geneva 2 conference, on the 22nd of January 2014.
According to informed sources, the United States granted a period of two months for the Saudis to try again to change the balance of power on the ground. Hysterical, the Saudis do not hide anymore their direct participation in the war against Syria. Reliable sources say the Saudi extremist fighters in the rebel ranks amounted to several thousand. Many of Al-Qaeda militants who were imprisoned in Saudi Arabia were released on the condition that they would fight in Syria to “establish the Islamic caliphate.” These same sources estimate at 300 the number of Saudis killed in the rebel ranks, while dozens were captured by the Syrian Arab Army.
Many Saudis have also been killed in the past two weeks, during the fighting in the region of Qalamoun, on the border with Lebanon, where the Syrian Arab Armed took the towns of Qara and Deir Attiya, and a large part of the city of Nabak. Among the dead were the Saudi Mutlak al-Mutlak, the son of an officer of the Saudi royal guard….more here