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Exclusive: Israel’s air maneuver did not simulate possible Iran strike strategy June 21, 2008, 3:20 PM (GMT+02:00) DEBKAfile’s Western military sources do not believe that if Israel does attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, it will resort to the old-fashioned aerial blitz tactic employed in 1981 for bombing Iraq’s Osirak reactor. They therefore challenge the US officials’ conclusion that Israel’s aerial exercise in conjunction with the Greek Air Force over Crete in early June was in fact a rehearsal for Iran. What was demonstrated was the Israeli Air Force’s capability for deploying a large aerial force of more than 100 warplanes and...

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2008 – Defense Department officials called a U.S. air strike yesterday in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border “legitimate” and “self-defense,” and said they are investigating the attack with Pakistani officials. “Every indication we have at this point is that the actions that were taken by U.S. forces were legitimate, in that they were in self-defense after U.S. forces operating on the border of Pakistan in Afghanistan territory came under attack from hostile forces,” Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said in a news conference today. “In self-defense, they called in an air strike, which took out those forces...

Excerpt - MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Airstrikes, possibly by U.S. planes, caused explosions in a remote area in southern Somalia, officials said Monday. There was no immediate information on casualties. Buale town chairman Ibrahim Noleye said planes were heard flying nearby Sunday night, followed by two loud explosions that shook the ground. Buale is 255 miles southwest of the capital, Mogadishu. A U.S. military official said there was no information about U.S. planes activities in Somalia. Noleye said he had contacted officials in nearby villages, who told him by two-way radio that the planes had hit an area between Buale...

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military fired guided missiles into the heart of Baghdad's teeming Sadr City slum on Saturday, leveling a building 55 yards away from a hospital and wounding nearly two dozen people. Separately, the U.S. military said late Saturday that four Marines were killed on Thursday by a roadside bomb in Anbar province. The military also said that a U.S. soldier died of wounds suffered in a roadside bomb that struck the soldier's vehicle during a combat patrol in eastern Baghdad Friday. At least 4,071 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq...

Turkey launches biggest bombing raid on Kurdish rebels in Iraq · Woman killed as 50 planes target PKK guerrilla bases · Prime minister warns of further military action Ewen MacAskill in Washington Monday December 17, 2007 Guardian Turkey yesterday launched the biggest attack on Iraq since the US invasion in 2003, sending more than 50 warplanes to bomb suspected Kurdish insurgent bases inside Iraqi territory, accompanied by long-range artillery shelling. Kurdish officials reported at least one civilian fatality, a woman, and two others injured. The strike, carried out in the middle of the night, sent hundreds of families fleeing and...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 28, 2007 – An air strike earlier this week in eastern Afghanistan was based on credible intelligence from multiple sources and by all indications struck its intended targets, the Pentagon’s press secretary told reporters today. NATO International Security Assistance Force troops used precision-guided munitions in the late Nov. 26 air strike in the mountainous Nuristan province, killing several insurgents, Geoff Morrell said during a Pentagon briefing. Abdullah Jan, the western Nuristan Taliban commander, is believed to be among those killed. Morrell dismissed press reports that the attack had mistakenly killed civilian construction workers. He noted that the closest...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2007 – A coalition air strike yesterday that killed terrorists also claimed the lives of a large number of innocent victims, military officials said. During an operation to pursue senior al Qaeda leaders in the Lake Thar Thar region, troops encountered small-arms fire from the target building. Responding in self-defense, coalition aircraft engaged the enemies inside the building. After the air strike, ground forces discovered that 15 terrorists, six women and nine children had been killed. Troops determined that two suspects, one woman and three children also were wounded. Ground forces also detained one suspected terrorist after...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2007 – A coalition airstrike killed more than 20 militants, and Iraqi security forces accompanied by coalition advisors captured 34 suspected terrorists during operations across Iraq Sept. 29, officials reported. -- A coalition aircraft fired on and killed more than 20 al Qaeda-affiliated insurgents during a battle northwest of Baghdad. The aircraft’s crew defended themselves after insurgents launched rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at the aircraft. Four enemy vehicles were destroyed during the firefight. -- Iraqi special operations troops detained a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq leader and two alleged cell members in Yusafiyah. -- Two...

9/28/2007 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- An Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon dropped precision munitions near Al Nussayyib, Iraq, Sept. 25 killing Abu Nasr al-Tunisi and two other al-Qaida Iraq operatives, according to Air Force officials. They were killed when the aircraft, assigned to U.S. Central Command Air Forces, dropped two laser-guided 500-lb joint direct attack munition guided bomb unit-12 bombs, destroying the terrorist safe house where the three were meeting. "Airpower is crucial to setting the conditions for stability in Iraq," said Lt. Gen. Gary L. North, the Combined Air Forces component commander. "Airpower overhead provides capability to the...

Terror label 'paves way for air strikes' By Philip Sherwell in New York, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:41am BST 26/08/2007 The White House's plans to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organisation are intended to give the Bush administration cover if it launches military strikes on the Islamic republic, according to a prominent former CIA officer. Washington accuses Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps of backing attacks on American forces in Iraq Robert Baer, who was a high-ranking operative in the Middle East, said last week that senior government officials had told him the administration was preparing for air strikes...

US 'poised to strike Iran' Font Size: Decrease Increase Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent | August 25, 2007 BOB Baer, the former Middle East CIA operative whose first book about his life inspired the oil-and-espionage thriller Syriana, is working on a new book on Iran, but says he was told by senior intelligence officials that he had better get it published in the next couple of months because things could be about to change. Baer, in an interview with The Weekend Australian, says his contacts in the administration suggest a strategic airstrike on Iran is a real possibility in the months...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5, 2007 – The senior al Qaeda terrorist believed to be the mastermind behind both bombings of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, was killed during a coalition air strike, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesperson told journalists in Baghdad today. “Yesterday, the government of Iraq announced that the coalition force killed a senior al Qaeda terrorist, Haitham Sabah al Badri,” said Navy Rear Adm. Mark Fox, spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq. “He was killed east of Samara on Aug. 2.” Al Badri, whose body was positively identified by family members, is believed to have masterminded both the February...

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A NATO air strike has killed 13 Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan's southeastern province of Khost, officials said on Saturday. The raid was called in after a group of Taliban fighters staged an abortive attack on a government headquarters in Ali Sher district late on Friday night, Khost's governor Arsala Jamal said. "The Taliban were killed in the bombing while retreating after the attack," he told reporters in Khost's town. A district official said at least five Afghan security forces were wounded in the Taliban attack, part of the spate of rising violence in recent weeks in...

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2007 – A suicide bomber attacked a coalition patrol southeast of Jalalabad, Afghanistan, today, and two Taliban fighters were killed in an airstrike, military officials reported. One coalition soldier sustained minor injuries and returned to duty, and one coalition vehicle was damaged. “The enemies of Afghanistan continue to fight against the peace and security that the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan works to maintain,” said Army Maj. Eric Zenk, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division spokesman. Elsewhere, defense officials reported five Afghan Security Guards were wounded and another two were killed during a four-hour firefight with...

WASHINGTON, March 11, 2007 – Afghan and coalition forces captured five suspected terrorists early today near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, during a search for individuals believed to be responsible for transporting and hiding al Qaeda terrorists and other fighters moving into and around Nangarhar province, officials said. No shots were fired, and there were no injures to Afghan or coalition forces. Yesterday in the Gereshk district of Helmand province, a precision air strike targeted a Taliban weapons facilitator. Officials said the goal of the operation was to destroy a command element of the Taliban’s terrorist organization responsible for facilitating the movement...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - A NATO air strike has killed a Taliban commander behind an insurgent takeover of a small southern Afghanistan town, as a US general took command of the 35,000-strong NATO-led force. A Taliban spokesman said meanwhile the fighters were ready to "hand over" the town of of Musa Qala, which they captured overnight Friday, if the government and foreign forces agreed "they won't bomb again." Mullah Abdul Ghafour and "some of his aides" were killed in the strike near the town in the province of Helmand, the interior ministry said in a statement that described the death...

1 hour, 45 minutes ago NATO-led troops killed a senior Taliban leader with a precision airstrike near a southern Afghan town overrun by militants, a spokesman for the alliance said Sunday. ADVERTISEMENT click here Col. Tom Collins said the airstrike near Musa Qala on Sunday morning killed a senior Taliban leader riding in a car. Musa Qala on Thursday was overrun by an estimated 200 Taliban fighters who disarmed local police, ransacked the district center and hoisted their trademark white flag. The town had been subject to a peace deal brokered last October between village elders and the Helmand provincial...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2007 – A coalition air strike targeted al Qaeda leaders today in Iraq, and Iraqi and coalition forces detained 45 terrorists and foiled attacks throughout Iraq this week, military officials reported. Coalition forces targeted the leadership of an al Qaeda in Iraq-related car bomb network during today’s air strike operation near Arab Jabour. Intelligence reports indicated that this network is responsible for a large and devastating number of car-bomb attacks in the Baghdad area. It also is responsible for roadside-bomb and sniper attacks against the Iraqi people and Iraqi and coalition forces, officials said. Coalition officials...

U.S. forces launch a second airstrike against suspected terrorist targets in Somalia The Associated PressPublished: January 24, 2007 WASHINGTON: The United States launched an airstrike in Somalia against suspected terrorist targets — the second such attack this month, defense officials said Wednesday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the strike was carried out in secret by an Air Force AC-130 gunship earlier this week, provided few details and were uncertain whether the intended target was killed. One official indicated that early indications showed that no high-value target was killed or captured. At the Defense Department, spokesman Bryan...

MIL-PAK-MILITANTS-REVENGE Militants preparing to avenge airstrike on religious seminary in PakistanISLAMABAD, Dec 18 (KUNA) -- Security around US and British diplomats and nationals have been beefed up following intelligence reports that militants of an outlawed religious extremist group are planning to avenge the airstrike on its religious seminary last month that killed over 80 alleged militants. The wanted leaders of Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), Maulvi Inayatur Rehman and Maulana Faqir Mohammad, at large, have pledged before their supporters to target VIPs in Pakistan and US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, according to the intelligence report submitted to the Interior Ministry. A...