Sudan accusing Israel for bombing arms factory

[Aryajet]

Sudan blames Israel for Khartoum arms factory blast

Culture and Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman said four Israeli planes attacked the factory and two people were killed. Israel has not commented.

Sudan has blamed Israel for such attacks in the past.

Correspondents say Israel believes weapons are being smuggled through the region to Gaza.

Leaked US State Department documents three years ago suggested that Sudan was secretly supplying Iranian arms to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In April 2011, Khartoum held Israel responsible for an air strike that killed two people in a car near the city of Port Sudan. Israel, again, did not comment on the incident.

Israel was also blamed for a strike on a convoy in north-eastern Sudan in 2009, but neither confirmed nor denied involvement.

'Right to react'

In the latest incident fire engulfed the Yarmouk plant and nearby buildings after the explosions, with flames visible over a wide area.

Residents reported seeing aircraft or missiles overhead before a number of explosions.

Speaking to reporters in Khartoum, Sudan's Information Minister Ahmed Belal Osman said: "We think Israel did the bombing.

"We reserve the right to react at a place and time we choose."

Mr Osman said four radar-evading aircraft that "appeared to come from the east" had attacked the Yarmouk plant.

He said that evidence pointing to Israel had been found among remnants of the explosives and that Sudan's cabinet would hold an urgent meeting at 20:00 (17:00 GMT).

Mr Osman said the factory made "traditional weapons".

"The attack destroyed part of the compound infrastructure, killed two people inside and injured another who is in serious condition," he added.

A spokesman for the Israeli army, Avikhai Adraie, told the BBC's Arabic service that Israel had no comment on the accusation.

Earlier, Sudanese armed forces spokesman Col al-Sawarmi Khalid said civil defence forces had contained the fire and that investigations were under way.

Witnesses reported seeing two or three fires with dense smoke and intermittent flashes of white light.

In 1998 the US launched a missile attack on a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, alleging that it was making materials for chemical weapons.

Sudan denied the allegation, insisting that the US had attacked a factory that manufactured anti-malaria medicines and veterinary products, in defiance of international laws.

BBC News - Sudan blames Israel for Khartoum arms factory blast

[Pedicabby]

"We reserve the right to react at a place and time we choose."

Sure thing buddy.

[Chogy]

C U R R E N T NEWS
E A R L Y B I R D
October 29, 2012
London Sunday Times
October 28, 2012

Israel Hits Missile Site In Dry Run For Iran By Uzi Mahmaini and Flora
Bagenal A long-range Israeli bombing raid last week that was seen as a dry
run for a forthcoming attack on Iran's nuclear facilities has destroyed an
Iranian run plant making rockets and ballistic missiles in Sudan.

Eight Israeli F-15I planes - four carrying two one-ton bombs, escorted by
four fighters - struck the giant Yarmouk factory on the southwestern
outskirts of Khartoum, the capital, in the early hours of Wednesday.

The raid, in which two people died, triggered panic across the city.
Witnesses said they heard a series of loud blasts followed by the sound of
ammunition exploding.

"It was a double impact - the explosion at the factory and then the
ammunition flying into the neighborhood," said Abd-al Ghadir Mohammed, 31,
a resident. "The ground shook. Some homes were badly damaged."

According to western defense sources, the 2,400-mile return flight took the
Israelis four hours, with the jets flying south along the Red Sea and
crossing into Sudan from the east, bypassing Egypt's air defense system.

"This was a show of force but it was only a fraction of our capability - and
of what the Iranians can expect in the countdown to the spring," said a
defense source, referring to possible airstrikes against Tehran's nuclear
programme.

Preparations for the attack in Sudan began more than two years ago after
Mossad agents suffocated Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the top weapons buyer for the
Palestinian group Hamas, in his hotel in Dubai.

Before they left Mabhouh's room they removed a number of documents from his
briefcase.

One of them, according to intelligence sources, was a copy of a defence
agreement signed in 2008 by Tehran and Khartoum. It committed Iran to build
weapons in Sudan under full Iranian command.

The Israelis discovered later that a large contingent of Iranian technicians
had been sent to the Yarmouk factory, where Human Rights Watch had reported
in 1998 that chemical weapons were being stored.

Under Revolutionary Guard supervision, the Iranians were building advanced
Shahab ballistic missiles and rockets at a plant in the factory compound.

"The Iranians had been facing growing difficulties in transferring weapons
and munitions to Hamas and their other allies in the region," an Israeli
defence source said.

A British munitions adviser added: "There is a very clear and established
arms smuggling network that goes through eastern Sudan northwards to Sinai
and then on to the Gaza Strip."

The threat of a new source of missiles set off alarm bells in Israel. "These
ballistic missiles could be launched towards Israel from either Sudan or
from the Sinai peninsula," an Israeli security expert said. "They pose a
direct threat."

Major-General Amir Eshel, the new commander of the Israeli air force,
assured Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, that the strike would
succeed. He personally supervised the operation from the air force's command
and control bunker in Tel Aviv.

Training took many weeks, using a model of the factory. At least two
long-haul rehearsals were held. America was alerted and closed its embassy
in Khartoum to avoid any revenge attacks.

It was just before 10pm last Tuesday that the F-15I pilots took off from an
airbase in southern Israel. Several hours earlier, two CH-53 helicopters had
set off, flying low over the Red Sea.

Each carried up to 10 commandos as a rescue team should a pilot be forced to
bale out. They landed in darkness and waited for the jets to arrive.

Radio traffic was muted as the jets raced towards the Red Sea. "There were
two potential obstacles," a military source said. "The first was Djibouti
civil air traffic control. The second was not to 'wake up' Egyptian radar."
The Israelis nevertheless maintained the advantage of surprise.

After 90 minutes, the jets linked up with a Boeing 707 refueling tanker.
Then, with full tanks of fuel, roughly 18 tons each, they crossed into
Sudan.

At this stage a Gulfstream G550 filled with electronic warfare equipment
began to jam the Sudanese air defence system and the radar at Khartoum
airport.

"Sudan's air defence is based on old but lethal Russian SA-2 anti-aircraft
missiles and a squadron of over 20 Russian MiG-29 interceptors," a military
source said.

The F-15I fighters flew high above their comrades, ready to pounce if the
MiGs took off. But they remained grounded throughout the attack.

Immediately afterwards the squadron leader, an Israeli colonel, flew low
over the factory to survey the destruction. Halfway home, he sent a coded
message to his commanders.

In Tel Aviv the chief of the defence staff picked up the phone to Balfour
Street - Netanyahu's Jerusalem home.

"All went well," he said. "The guys are on their way home."

[bigross86]

I wonder how much of that is true and how much of that is just a tall tale told by some reporter hoping to turn into a novelist.

[Chogy]

At least from the technical (hardware) aspects of the article, I see no glaring errors.

If there was hard intelligence that weapons being made at that factory were being used to actively kill Israeli citizens, I applaud the action, if it is true as written.

[Doktor]

What would be the outcry if somehow, someone hits factories in Israel.

Maybe I am old-fashioned, but declare a war take out the targets and offer peace.

[Chogy]

A British munitions adviser added: "There is a very clear and established
arms smuggling network that goes through eastern Sudan northwards to Sinai
and then on to the Gaza Strip."

Again, if the evidence for this is rock solid, the factory goes boom. That's simple self-defense.

A declaration of war to destroy a single factory?

[Doktor]

If that happened vice versa, what would have been the response?

[Firestorm]

What would be the outcry if somehow, someone hits factories in Israel.

Maybe I am old-fashioned, but declare a war take out the targets and offer peace.

Well the same can be said of American Drone strikes in Pakistan or their cruise missile attacks in Sudan and Afghanistan in 1998. No special standards should apply to Israel.

[Minskaya]

If the above account is accurate, then they conjoined specialized units from various air bases. Probably departed from either Ramon or Ovda.

[Officer of Engineers]

Captain, "specialized?"

It's a single squadron level strike group.

[S2]

OoE Reply

Colonel,

There would be elements of multiple units involved. Commando, Helicopter aviation, Electronic Warfare, Air Refueling, Strike Package and CAP. I'd suspect some aerial C3I element as well.

[Minskaya]

There would be elements of multiple units involved. Commando, Helicopter aviation, Electronic Warfare, Air Refueling, Strike Package and CAP. I'd suspect some aerial C3I element as well.

Precisely. The multiple assets listed in the article are not housed at any one IAF airbase. The conjoined assets would thus constitute the strike force.

The "bunker in Tel Aviv" probably refers to the Kiryah military complex...

[Minskaya]

Yesterday, three members of the Egyptian security forces were killed in the vicinity of El Arish and another was wounded. Islamist violence in the Sinai - used as a route for smuggling weapons from Sudan into Gaza - has surged since the fall of the Mubarak government.

[Double Edge]

Yesterday, three members of the Egyptian security forces were killed in the vicinity of El Arish and another was wounded. Islamist violence in the Sinai - used as a route for smuggling weapons from Sudan into Gaza - has surged since the fall of the Mubarak government.

This is smaller compared to an earlier incident where more eygptian soldiers were killed, 16 or more.

Apparently the Egyptians did not take the israeli advance warnings too seriously.