DEBKAfile: Russian sources are ramping up war fever over Syria. Syrian air defense forces were reported Monday night on high alert for a possible US attack on Damascus. This was not confirmed by government sources in the Syrian capital. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that Syrian rebels in Idlib were preparing to stage a false flag chemical weapon attack against civilians in order to blame Damascus and give the US and its allies a pretext for a punitive strike against Syria. The ministry spokesman earlier claimed that the USS Ross, a guided-missile destroyer, had entered the Mediterranean on Aug. 25 armed with 28 Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of hitting any target in Syria.DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources attribute the war tensions generated by Moscow against the US to information that Iran and Syria are plotting a string of military attacks on US forces deployed east of the Euphrates near the Syrian-Iraqi border in the coming hours. These attacks may also be be aimed at Israeli targets. Neither the US nor Israel will likely take such strikes without response.
