Debkafiles: Hizbullah Heads to Golan, US Assigns 13,000 Servicemen to 1st US-Jordan-’Israeli’ Drills.

Local Editor

The "Israeli" debkafiles revealed Thursday that "under cover of conjoined military exercises with "Israel" [Juniper Cobra] and Jordan [Eager Lion], the US has moved more than 6,000 Marines to Jordan and several thousand servicemen to "Israel"."

The drill starts Sunday, May 25 and will last until June 8. The US-"Israeli" exercise began this week with the participation of another 6,000 combat personnel from the US European Command and 1,000 airmen to operate missile systems.

Sailing opposite "Israel's" Mediterranean shore are two US warships carrying Aegis Combat Systems. Due to arrive in the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba over the coming weekend are large US landing craft, that will drop marines on land. Gulf units are also taking part in the combined exercise.
This is the first time that the US has unified two large military exercises. The Jordanian and "Israeli" drills will be coordinated by US command centers.

According to the "Israeli" sources, "The two war games were planned as military maneuvers plain as simple until Wednesday, May 21, when news came in of large Hizbullah military forces heading toward southern Syria to help the Syrian army overcome the armed forces fighting for more than a week to capture the Syrian Golan town of Quneitra" opposite the Occupied Palestinian and Jordanian borders.

In the last few days, both "Israel" and Jordan have beefed up their Syrian border deployments and placed them in battle stations. Hizbullah's intervention in the Golan battle may well result in the war game being switched to combat operations for real.
Debkafile's first report on the escalating Golan situation appeared on May 20.
So far, the armed groups offensive has failed to break through to Quneitra - or even lay it to siege. The Syrian army command, although seriously short of fighting men man, has seized the moment for a counter-offensive.
The Jordanian army has accordingly deployed its 2nd mechanized division along the entire 380 km of the kingdom's porous border with its Syrian neighbor in battle formation, along with its 60th armored battalion. All leaves have been suspended for officers and men serving in the border sector.

In its counter-offensive, the Syrian army's managed Tuesday to capture the village of Um Aswaj near the southern Syrian town of Deraa and is continuing to advance on further armed groups' positions in the south.

The "Israeli" site also mentioned that the deep concern over the serious security situation evolving on "Israel's" northern frontier was strongly reflected in "Israeli" army's Chief of Staff Gen. Benny Gantz's explanation to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee Monday for the urgent need to reverse budget cutbacks.
"The national order of priorities is changing," he said, "and with it, unfortunately, national decisions relating to defense. We are in the throes of a complex challenge to our resources not encountered in the past, with dramatic repercussions for the "IDF". I come to you after a difficult week," said the chief of staff in reference to the situation on the "Israeli"- Syrian border.

"We are obliged at this time to make painful decisions which affect all systems and all spheres of action for the reserves and the regular army - when it comes to training, the situation in the field and the home front.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team.