Thread: Will Israel attack?

Such attack will never happen.

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli commandos seized a ship Wednesday that defense officials said was carrying more than 60 tons of missiles, rockets and anti-tank weapons bound for Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas.

The pre-dawn seizure near Cyprus was a rare interception of a suspected arms shipment by Israel, which has long accused Iran of arming its enemies. Israel offered no evidence to support its claim that the weapons came from Iran and were meant for Hezbollah.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a bitter war in the summer of 2006 that ended with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire, but occasional flare-ups occur.

The presence of Iranian proxies in the Mideast have combined with Tehran's nuclear program and arsenal of long-range missiles to make Iran the Jewish state's most formidable foe.


Israel shares the West's fears that Tehran is developing nuclear weapons, despite its assertions to the contrary. Neutralizing the Iranian nuclear threat remains Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's top priority and Israel has not ruled out a military strike against Tehran's nuclear facilities.

On Wednesday, Israeli defense officials said weapons including anti-tank missiles and Katyusha rockets were stashed on a commercial vessel operating under the guise of an aid ship, captained by a Pole and flying an Antiguan flag. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the military had not officially released the information.

Based on intelligence reports, a naval unit patrolling the area intercepted and boarded the vessel without incident, defense officials said.

Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said the crew was not aware of the cargo's contents.

The ship, the Francop, was towed to the southern Israeli port of Ashdod, where the weapons were being unloaded. The vessel is operated by United Feeder Services, a Cyprus-based shipping company that said it picked up the cargo in Damietta, Egypt.

An employee of the company's chartering department who would not identify himself said the ship had been bound from Egypt to Cyprus and from there to Lebanon and Turkey. He said the company did not know what was inside the containers or where the cargo originated.

The employee asked that his name not be used because the company had yet to formulate an official response.

UFS' niche is bringing cargo to small ports not called by big container ships.

A senior Lebanese army official refused to comment on the Israeli report, saying it happened outside Lebanon's national waters. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called the interception "another success against the relentless attempts to smuggle weapons to bolster terrorist elements threatening Israel's security." Netanyahu said the arms supply "was intended to hit Israeli cities."

The vessel was the second major arms ship Israel has seized in its campaign to quash the smuggling of weapons to Palestinian and Lebanese militants.

In January 2002, Israeli forces stormed the Karine A freighter on the Red Sea, and confiscated what the military said was 50 tons of missiles, mortars, rifles and ammunition headed for Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

Authorities from other countries, including the United States last month, have stopped ships suspected of carrying arms in the past.

The Lebanon-Israel border has been largely quiet since Israel and Hezbollah fought a fierce war in the summer of 2006. But Israel has long warned that Hezbollah fighters have been rearming and now possess some 40,000 rockets.

Gaza militants also have dramatically reduced their rocket attacks on southern Israel since a bruising winter war. But militants continue to smuggle in rockets and components through underground tunnels with Egypt, the Israeli military says.

On Tuesday, the head of military intelligence said Gaza's militant Hamas rulers recently test-fired a missile capable of striking Israel's largest urban center, metropolitan Tel Aviv.

Eli Shaked, former Israeli ambassador to Egypt, said the growing arsenals of Hamas and Hezbollah are changing the balance of power between Israel and the Iranian-backed militant groups.

"The situation is becoming more and more complex because the weapons they are acquiring are more and more dangerous to civilian targets in Israel," Shaked said.



*G, Somewhere out there someone is missing a few million dollars in arms. I wonder who?)

JERUSALEM (AP) - Hamas militants in Gaza have successfully test-fired an Iranian rocket able to reach Israel's largest urban center, the country's military intelligence chief said Tuesday.

Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin told parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee that the rocket could fly 37 miles (60 kilometers), and strike metropolitan Tel Aviv, Israeli media reported.

Until now, rockets fired from Gaza have reached up to 25 miles (40 kilometers), putting one-eighth of Israel's population within rocket range.

Yadlin said the rocket was fired in recent days, but no further details were immediately available from his testimony before the closed session.


Defense officials say Palestinian militants in Gaza generally test-fire rockets into the Mediterranean Sea.

It was not clear whether the rocket actually flew 37 miles (60 kilometers), or why Yadlin described the rocket as being of Iranian origin.

The Israeli military has said in the past that rockets that reached Israel were from Iran, citing paint, tool work and lettering on fragments from projectiles found after impact. But the military has not publicly released clear evidence proving Iranian involvement.

Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, called Israel's claims an attempt to "justify the crimes it committed in Gaza."

Tehran had no comment on Yadlin's allegations of Iranian involvement.

Speaking during a joint U.S.-Israel military exercise on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said such missiles threaten the "whole world ... but first of all, they threaten our civilians, our cities."

Israel launched a bruising war against Gaza militants last winter to quash rocket and mortar fire that had bombarded southern Israeli communities for eight years.

Although the attacks have decreased dramatically - from 3,300 rockets and mortars fired in 2008 to 250 since the war ended - Israeli officials say weapons continue to reach militants through tunnels under Gaza's border with Egypt.

Media cited Yadlin as saying that militants now had as many rockets as they did before the war, if not more. Defense officials have estimated militants had 3,000 rockets before the fighting began and fired or lost to Israeli airstrikes more than 1,000.

Most of the Hamas rockets targeted at Israel are crude projectiles cobbled together in small metal shops. But militants also have fired more sophisticated, longer-range weapons, believed made from parts originating in Syria or Iran.

While rockets cannot match the firepower of Israel's military, they have killed 21 civilians and four security personnel over the past eight years and have been highly effective in terrorizing residents of Israel's southern communities.

Israel is also vulnerable to rocket fire from the north, where Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas have amassed tens of thousands of projectiles, some capable of reaching southern Israel.

Israel fought a monthlong war with Hezbollah in 2006 after it captured two soldiers in a cross-border raid. Militants bombarded northern Israel with some 4,000 rockets during that conflict.


*If one strikes Tel Aviv and they can prove its Iranian made beyond doubt, then it should start raining in Tehran. Share the love. Eye for an Eye.

Reuters

Iran will stage large-scale air defence war games next week to help protect its nuclear facilities against any attack, a senior commander was quoted as saying Saturday.

An Iranian Tondar missile is ready for launch during a test at an unknown location

Brigadier General Ahmad Mighani also suggested Iran could itself produce an advanced missile defence system which Russia has so far failed to deliver to the Islamic Republic and which Washington and Israel do not want Tehran to have.

Iran believes Russia's delay in supplying high-grade S-300 missiles was due pressure by Israel, not technical problems as cited by Moscow, Mighani said.

"We are hopeful the Russians would ignore the pressure of the Zionist lobby," the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted him as saying. Iran refers to Israel as the "Zionist regime."

The military manoeuvres will begin Sunday and involve both the elite Revolutionary Guards and the regular armed forces against a hypothetical enemy, Iranian media reported.

The United States and Israel have not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the row over Iranian nuclear work that the West suspects is aimed at making bombs.

Iran, which says its nuclear program is solely to generate electricity, has threatened to hit back at Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf if it is attacked.

"This week's air defence manoeuvres will be held with the intention of protecting the country's nuclear facilities," Mighani said, Fars reported. He heads the armed forces' air defence headquarters.

"ZIONISTS' PRESSURE"

Iran often holds defence exercises and announces advances in military equipment in order to show its readiness to counter any threats over its disputed nuclear program.

The official IRNA news agency said the exercises would take place in western Iran and that they would be "huge."

Iranian officials have over the last few weeks voiced growing frustration at Russia's failure to deliver the S-300.

Moscow, which is under Western pressure to distance itself from Iran over the nuclear dispute, has not followed through on proposals to supply the missiles to the country.

"They have declared technical problems as the underlying reason for this delay, but we think it has been due to the Zionists' pressure," Mighani said, according to Fars.

"In various manoeuvres, new and modern missile networks will be used and evaluated, including the advanced S-300 missiles, for which the production capability exists in Iran," IRNA quoted him as saying, without elaborating.

A senior lawmaker, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, earlier this month also said Iran would be able to produce the S-300 system itself, appearing to refer to missiles with similar capabilities.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised Russia last month for failing to provide the arms to Iran.

The truck-mounted S-300PMU1, known in the West as the SA-20, can shoot down cruise missiles and aircraft. It can fire at targets up to 150 km (90 miles) away

Here is a synopsis if you like, on the effect of nuclear earth penetrators and other weapons from the National Academic Press - Been using it as a reference for a few years now.

Effects of Nuclear Earth-Penetrator and Other Weapons

Flexing of muscles begin , up 2,3 down 2,3 , i hope they see sense and comply with demands .




Iran's armed forces launched large-scale air defence war games on Sunday to show off the country's deterrence capabilities in the face of pressure from the West over its nuclear programme.

The display of military muscle comes at a time of rising tension between Iran and six major powers, which fear Tehran's nuclear programme is aimed at producing nuclear weapons. Tehran denies this is the programme's purpose.

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards and military forces jointly started five days of manoeuvres in various parts of the Islamic state, Brigadier General Ahmad Mighani said, according to state television.

"It is the biggest war game, which takes place over an area 600,000 sq km (230,000 sq miles). The aim of this war game

is to promote military power of the armed forces against any attack," the television quoted Mighani as saying.

The United States and Israel, which Iran does not recognise, say they want a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff, but refuse to rule out military action if diplomacy fails.

Iran has warned of a "crushing" response to any military action against its nuclear facilities.

"The aim of the drill is to display Iran's combat readiness and military potentials," Mighani said.

"Defence policies, psychological operations and innovations during the war game are among the objectives of the drill."

Iran has staged several war games in the past, including firing long-range Shahab-3 missiles, which it says have a range of 2,000 km (1,250 miles), putting Israel or U.S. bases in the Gulf in range.

World powers have urged Iran to reconsider its rejection of a U.N.-drafted deal which aimed to delay Tehran's potential ability to make bombs by at least a year by divesting the country of most of its enriched uranium.

The deal, brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), calls on Iran to send some 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France, where it would be turned into fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor.

Iran ruled out on Wednesday sending enriched uranium abroad for further processing, saying it would consider swapping it for nuclear fuel provided it remained under supervision inside the country.

U.S. President Barack Obama has warned Tehran of a package of sanctions against the country within weeks. Iran has been hit by three rounds of U.N. sanctions over its refusal to halt sensitive uranium activities

Originally Posted by Chunder

Here is a synopsis if you like, on the effect of nuclear earth penetrators and other weapons from the National Academic Press - Been using it as a reference for a few years now.

Effects of Nuclear Earth-Penetrator and Other Weapons

If Israel attacks the Iranian regime nuke program, it won’t do it with nuclear weapons. There are many reasons for this; enough to mention that from what I read there is no need for it, and I think the precedent in Osirak is very telling:

Prime Minister Begin stated that Israel would not have bombed the reactor once it became ‘hot’, which according to intelligence sources, was expected to occur in July or September 1981. Begin’s cabinet received word that “a shipment of 90 kilograms of enriched uranium fuel rods is expected from France to Iraq, ready for radiation.” The moment that the rods were placed in the reactor, there would be a danger of radiation fallout if the reactor was attacked.