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Source: http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.544786
A Game-Changer for Assad
(Ha'aretz) Zvi Bar'el - Based on opposition reports, the Syrian army has transferred soldiers to dozens of schools and mosques near the sites expected to be targeted in the U.S. attack, under the assumption that the U.S. will avoid attacking such civilian sites. In addition, hundreds of prisoners have been moved to the expected target sites to serve as human shields. Additional reports tell of the killing, on the order of the army high command, of the head of the chemical weapons department of the Republican Guards who is responsible for the use of chemical weapons. Yet the living fence Assad is building at the target sites cannot hide the shock that has hit his closest allies: Russia and Iran. Russia has decided to freeze the shipment of refurbished MiG jets, S300 antiaircraft missiles, and Yak training planes to Syria, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reports. The Kremlin will have to deal with the evidence presented to it - most likely during the G-20 summit this week - that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons.