He is Watching Our Backs

From the blog In From the Cold

Disaster in the Desert, Redux

For the second time in barely two years, Iran and Syria have suffered a serious accident in their joint WMD development program. A report from Japan's Kyodo news agency--re-printed by the Jerusalem Post--indicates at least 20 Syrians died (and 60 more were wounded) during the failed test of a Scud missile in May. Intelligence sources tell the agency the missile was one of two fired from a launch site in southern Syria during the test. One of the missiles apparently veered off course
and landed in a village near the Turkish border. All of the victims were Syrian civilians.

Details of the mishap remain vague. At this point, it's unclear if chemical or biological weapons caused the casualties, or the victims died as a result of the missile's impact in a local market. Residents were reportedly told that a gas leak had the explosion; the area was quickly sealed off by Syrian military personnel.This latest accident comes only 25 months after a similar disaster involving Syrian missile forces. In July 2007, a short-range missile (probably a SCUD derivative) exploded during a warhead mating exercise. Israeli intelligence sources reported that 15 Syrian officers died in the blast, along with "dozens" of Iranian scientists and engineers. The test reportedly involved the mating of a Sarin nerve gas warhead to a missile that was already fueled.

All you former military would be very interested in this blog as a daily read, the man who writes it is definitely watching our backs.