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(IsraelNN.com) The Hizbullah terrorist group slammed the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Tuesday night for its intention to rescue any Israel Air Force pilot whose aircraft is shot down over Lebanon. According to a report published by the Lebanese daily newspaper al-Akhbar, Commander Claudio Graziano distributed to his troops a contingency plan in which UNIFIL soldiers would aim to reach the pilot before the terrorists could get to him. Failing that, if the pilot is captured by guerrilla forces, Plan B is an attempt to rescue him from enemy hands. However, if the pilot is being held...

US President George W. Bush has given Israel the "amber light" to carry out an attack on Iran if diplomatic efforts are unsuccessful in causing the Islamic Republic to back down and relinquish its nuclear program, according to a senior Pentagon official quoted by the British Sunday Times on Sunday morning. According to the official, Bush has given Israel free reign to attack Iran's nuclear sites if sanctions fail in spite of opposition from US generals and regardless of the possible economic and political repercussions of such a strike. "Amber means get on with your preparations, stand by for immediate...

In this edition: The Israel Air Force unveils a new squadron of warplanes said to be capable of striking Iran. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's lawyers say they need more time to cross examine key witness Morris Talansky. Iran test fires a new round of missiles as U.S. vows to defend its allies

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran would destroy Israel and 32 U.S. military bases in the Middle East if the Islamic Republic was attacked over its disputed nuclear programme, a senior official was quoted as saying on Saturday. "The U.S. knows full well that with the smallest move against Iran, Israel and 32 U.S. military bases in the region would not be out of the reach of our missiles and would be destroyed," the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted Mojtaba Zolnour as saying. Zolnour is the deputy of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.

Israel 'Base' in Iraq July 12, 2008 New York Post Israeli warplanes have been flying over Iraq and landing at US bases there in preparation for an attack on Iran, Israeli media reported yesterday. Israeli defense ministry sources said that, for a month, the fighter jets have been practicing at night in Iraqi airspace.

Iraq denied on Friday reports claiming the Israeli Air Force has been practicing for a possible attack against Iran in its airspace. On Friday, sources in the Iraqi Defense Ministry told a local news network that Israel Air Force (IAF) war planes are practicing in Iraqi airspace and land on US airbases in the country as a preparation for a potential strike on Iran. The report, which was also carried by Iranian news outlets, claimed that recently massive IAF overnight presence was detected in several American held airbases. According to the sources, former military officers in the Anbar province said...

In a recent piece for the Washington Post, Israeli commentator Yossi Melman writes: “No decision to attack Iran has been made in Israel” and it is “a matter of at least one year” before any decision will be made. Melman’s words seem enough to convince the editorial staffs of publications like the Post and the Nation. But sources inside the U.S. intelligence and Defense communities are telling us, there is an increasing “probability” that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) will soon strike Iranian nuclear facilities. The strikes -- if they take place -- will be far more extensive than that...

TEHRAN (AFP) — The head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards has warned that any Israeli or US attack on its nuclear sites would mean the outbreak of war, the official IRNA news agency reported on Friday. "Any action against Iran will be interpreted as the start of a war," General Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted as saying late on Thursday. "Iran's response to any military action will make the aggressors regret their decision." The United States has never ruled out an eventual resort to force against Iran over its contested nuclear programme, which the West fears is cover for a...

The recent leaks to the U.S. news media (New York Times and ABC News) have created a wrong impression and sent a false message that an Israeli attack on Iran is imminent. Far from the truth. No decision to attack Iran has been made in Israel. Certainly no date has been fixed. Israel will decide, if at all, to disrupt Iran's nuclear program only as a last resort after international diplomacy fails. More importantly, such a decision will be taken only after serious consultation with the American administration. Coordinating its actions with America is the key factor in all Israeli...

All Predictions are good until December 31st, 2008: propositions, listed in order of probably outcomes: A) Date of an Israeli only strike. B) Date of a US only strike. C) Israel and the United States take no action by the 12-31-2008. D) Strike only after Iranian provocative action (list the action) - n.b. Lailat al Miraj in 2008 is on Tuesday, the 29th of July. E) Date of a combined strike.

DUBAI (AFP) - The UN atomic watchdog chief warned on Saturday that an attack on Iran over its controversial nuclear programme would turn the region into a fireball, as Tehran rejected any Israeli strike as "impossible." Mohamed ElBaradei also warned that he would not be able to continue in his role as International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general if the Islamic republic were attacked. His stark comments came as Iran stressed yet again that it will not negotiate with world powers over its nuclear programme if it is required to suspend its controversial uranium enrichment. "A military strike (against...

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran on Saturday said it considered an attack by arch-enemy Israel as "impossible" after US media reported military exercises by the Jewish state were a possible practice for a strike against Iran. Such impudence and audacity to have an aggression against our national interest and integrity is an impossible action," the Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.

(IsraelNN.com) The Israel Air Force struck terrorist groups in Gaza in three separate attacks Tuesday afternoon, killing at least six operatives, including Army of Islam second-in-command Muataz Dughmush. The head of the terrorist group, Mumtaz, is Muataz' half-brother. Two of the strikes were carried out in the central Gaza town of Dir el-Balah, where IAF pilots successfully targeted the gunmen involved in the 2006 kidnapping of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit. One of the missiles struck a vehicle carrying the Army of Islam terrorist cell, which included Muataz Dughmush. Five terrorists were killed, including Dughmush, and three others were wounded, one...

5/21/2008 - SATHER AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Iraqi air force members are making their mark in history. The fledging air power has proven its effectiveness through the execution of combat missions in Basrah, Mosul and Sadr City, and the year-to-date tally marks for aircraft sorties broke 5,000 last week. The IQAF has roughly 100 pilots assigned to its eight rotary and fixed-wing flying units, making their achievements even more impressive, officials said. "We are now seeing concrete evidence that (the IQAF) have returned to the (sky) and are proving themselves a credible force for safety, security and sovereignty," said...

5/16/2008 - SATHER AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Members of the Iraqi air force integrated and synchronized with Iraqi special forces in an effort to dissolve the al-Qaida in Iraq influence since early May in Mosul, Iraq. In less than two weeks, the Iraqi air force members have moved more than 3 tons of cargo and 251 passengers into Mosul using both fixed-wing and helicopter operations. "It's a new thing for Iraq's air force to back the forces in the Mosul's operations," said General Mohammed al-Askari, a spokesman for Iraq's ministry of defense. In addition to "bullets and beans" to...

LEMOORE NAVAL AIR STATION (CALIFORNIA): The race for a $10 billion Indian order for 126 fighters just got hotter with the US Navy enthusiastically batting for the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, saying it was best suited for an Indian Air Force (IAF) requirement for a multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA). Such was the spirit with which UN Navy pilots put the jet through its paces at this sprawling air base in central California that it left no doubt it was making a strong pitch for the fighter that it assisted Boeing in developing. "The F/A-18 has delivered on all that it...

The Bush administration released detailed photographic images on Thursday to support its assertion that the building in Syria that Israel destroyed in an airstrike last year was a nuclear reactor constructed with years of help from North Korea. The administration said it withheld the pictures for seven months out of fear that Syria could retaliate against Israel and start a broader war in the Middle East. The photographs taken inside the reactor before it was destroyed in an air raid on Sept. 6 clearly show the rods that control the heat in a nuclear reactor, one of many close engineering...

IAF aircraft targeted a Kassam launch cell in the Gaza Strip late Saturday evening, the IDF reported. Palestinian sources reported that two terrorists were killed and three wounded in the attack. The army did not confirm the reported number of casualties. Earlier Saturday, an armed Hamas member was killed in another IAF strike in the Gaza City area, Palestinian security sources said. The Palestinians claimed that the man, 22-year-old Aimed Abu-Amar, was killed by a missile fired from an IAF helicopter. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Saturday that he saw Hamas and its leaders as directly responsible for Saturday morning's...

An upcoming joint US-Israel report on the September 6 IAF strike on a Syrian facility will claim that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein transferred weapons of mass destruction to the country, Channel 2 stated Monday. Furthermore, according to a report leaked to the TV channel, Syria has arrested 10 intelligence officials following the assassination of Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh.

Qatari newspaper al-Watan reports of Syrian preparations against Israeli strike during coming summer; says Israel looking to May, June as possible window for attack Roee Nahmias Published: 04.14.08, 15:00 / Israel News VIDEO - Is Syria preparing for war? Qatar's al-Watan newspaper reported Monday that political and media sources in Damascus expressed concerns that war may breakout between Israel and Syria before long. Video courtesy of infolive.tv According to the report, the nationwide emergency drill held by Damascus in response to a similar drill held by Israel last week, is one of the preemptive steps taken by Syria, which is...

An upcoming joint US-Israel report on the September 6 IAF strike on a Syrian facility will claim that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein transferred weapons of mass destruction to the country, Channel 2 stated Monday.

An upcoming joint US-Israel report on the September 6 IAF strike on a Syrian facility will claim that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein transferred weapons of mass destruction to the country, Channel 2 stated Monday

(IsraelNN.com) The Israel Air Force has been quietly transforming its Nevatim base, a standard air force installation, into a Middle East wonder of the military world. The plan to expand and upgrade the base into a massive complex designed to house various operational buildings as well as thousands of IAF personnel is well underway, with construction of the new base almost complete. But the real centerpiece of the improved Negev-based IAF complex is its new landing strip, a whopping 2.5-mile paved highway on which the largest transport aircraft can land. It will be the largest landing strip in the entire...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- An explosion Friday in the house of an Islamic Jihad activist killed at least one person and wounded 30, Hamas police and medics said. Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Hamza said the house was hit in an Israeli airstrike. Hamas security officials said the cause of the explosion was not clear. The Israeli military had no immediate comment. The blast happened at the central Gaza home of Ayman Atallah Fayed

Indian Air Force to revamp choppers wing New Delhi: The Indian Air Force is going into a high drive to revamp its entire fleet of helicopters by planning to induct two more squadrons of attack gunships, capable of operating in high altitudes, and six heavy lift choppers. "The IAF plans to acquire two more squadrons of attack helicopters and a squadron of heavy lift choppers," Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal F H Major told reporters here on the sidelines of a conference. The move is part of IAF's modernisation drive to augment both its fighter as well as...

Like the Jedi Knights in Star Wars, much of Israel's safety depends on an absurdly small number of daring pilots and their jet planes. The Israel Air Force has managed to use that capacity with amazing skill and daring, as it showed last September when a dozen fighter bombers and support aircraft jammed Syria's Russian-supplied air defenses and destroyed a secret nuclear facility on the Euphrates river --- not far from Iran. The nature of that target has still not been revealed, but it must have been important enough to risk triggering a missile attack from Syria. That means the...

IAF to buy 40 more Hawk trainers Submitted by Mudassir Rizwan on Sun, 01/27/2008 - 07:48. India News By Gulshan Luthra, IANS New Delhi : The Indian Air Force (IAF) will buy about 40 more Hawk Advanced Jet trainers (AJTs) from Britain. Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal F.H. Major told India Strategic defence magazine that IAF's original plan was to induct 122 AJTs but the acquisition got delayed by nearly a quarter of the century, and when the deal was signed in March 2004, it was only for 66 aircraft. IAF needs more AJTs, and they would be...

France offers to supply 40 Rafale fighters to IAF New Delhi (PTI): As President Nicolas Sarkozy began talks with Indian leaders to boost Indo-French ties, a French company on Friday offered to sell 40 of its new generation Rafale fighters to New Delhi on a fast track basis to help IAF maintain its combat edge. The offer was made by Charles Edelstennie, scion of the Dassult family, the makers of the Rafale and Mirage fighters. "We know Indian Air Force, with which we have a decade-long close association, is facing force depletion. So we are ready to supply 40 Rafales,...

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday denounced Israel's ongoing military strikes in the Gaza Strip as "brutal," but also accused Gaza's Hamas rulers of trying to destroy the Palestinian dream of statehood. "In these days, we can only condemn gravely what happens in our cherished Gaza, this brutal attack on this cherished part of our land, every hour, which targets women, children and elderly," Abbas during Christmas celebrations of Armenian Christians in Bethlehem. Abbas also reiterated his demand that Hamas relinquish control of Gaza, saying that since it took over the area last June, the Islamic group has "destroyed...

F-16 gets super cruise capability Agencies Posted online: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 1000 hrs IST Fort Worth, (Texas), January 16: As the deadline for India's biggest ever defence deal for purchase of 126 new fighter planes nears, US aviation giant Lockheed Martin on Wednesday unveiled a new upgraded version of its F-16 fighter planes with 'super cruise' capability and Active Electronic Scanned Array (AESA) radars. So far, the 'super cruise' capability is only seen in 5th generation fighters F-22 Raptors and it’s just unrolling F-35 joint strike fighters. This capability would impart the fighter with extended range, as it...

Syria has resumed construction at the site bombed by IAF jets in September 2007, a New York Times report said on Saturday morning. In a satellite image released by private Colorado company, DigitalGlobe, the original main building appears to be in the process of reconstruction with the only difference being the shape of the roof. The photograph was taken on Wednesday, said the report. The unspecified "military target" had been struck deep inside Syrian territory, while foreign reports claimed the site was a military installation containing nuclear material and technology supplied to Syria by North Korea. Syria has denied this...

The puzzling site in Syria that Israeli jets bombed in September grew more curious on Friday with the release of a satellite photograph showing new construction there that resembles the site’s former main building. After the attack, the Syrians wiped the area clean, with some analysis calling the speed of the cleanup a tacit admission of guilt. The barren site is on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, 90 miles north of the Iraqi border. Given the international uproar that unfolded after the bombing, “we can assume it’s not a reactor,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science...

Israel to boost range of future F-35 fleet By Arie Egozi The Israeli air force wants to increase the operational range of its future fleet of 100 Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters by adding new external fuel tanks that are already being developed by domestic companies. Elbit Systems subsidiary Cyclone Aviation is offering to supply external tanks to be carried on the F-35's under-wing hardpoints, while Israel Aerospace Industries plans to produce conformal fuel tanks for the Israeli fighters. Israel's air force recently completed the design of a unique F-35 version optimised for its mission requirements, but further details...

An IAF air strike in Gaza killed a Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) leader on Wednesday night. IDF troops kill Palestinian operatives in a pre-dawn anti-terror operation The PRC leader was traveling in a car when it was hit by an IAF missile. Moments earlier, al Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed that it had fired a rocket from Jenin toward the northern Samaria settlement of Shaked. However, the defense establishment said it was unaware of such an attack. The air strike came the night after IDF troops reportedly killed seven Palestinian gunmen, including at least three Hamas members, in a pre-dawn anti-terror...

Mohammad Abu Murshud, head of organization's armed wing in central Strip, killed by missile launched from Israeli aircraft. At least eight Hamas, Islamic Jihad members killed in IDF strikes throughout the day Ali Waked Published: 12.27.07, 22:35 / Israel News A series of attacks launched by the IDF in Gaza Thursday has claimed the lives of at least eight militants, including Mohammad Abu Murshud, head of Islamic Jihad's armed wing in the central Gaza Strip. According to Palestinian sources, Murshud was killed when the car he was traveling in north of al-Mugarka (near the former Israeli settlement of Netzarim) was...

Israel Wants JSF As Soon As Possible Dec 16, 2007 David A. Fulghum, Robert Wall and Douglas Barrie Israel plans to keep its aerial domination of the Middle East intact, and that includes buying Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, accelerating its first deliveries, and deciding whose advanced equipment will be packed into the stealthy strike aircraft. A senior Israeli air force (IAF) official says those major areas of concern appear to be on the right track because of an “understanding” with the U.S. officials. Washington’s representatives are more ambiguous, saying that there has been no official change to Israel’s...

Israel considering strike on Iran despite US intelligence report Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem Friday December 7, 2007 Guardian Unlimited (UK) Senior Israeli officials warned today they were still considering the option of a military strike against Iran, despite a fresh US intelligence report that concluded Tehran was no longer developing nuclear weapons. Although Israel argues that it wants to see strong diplomatic pressure put on Iran, it is reluctant to rule out the threat of a unilateral military attack. Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defence minister, told Army Radio today: "No option needs to be off the table." Avigdor Lieberman, the...

Israelis hit Syrian ‘nuclear bomb plant’ Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv and Michael Sheridan in Seoul ISRAEL’S top-secret air raid on Syria in September destroyed a bomb factory assembling warheads fuelled by North Korean plutonium, a leading Israeli nuclear expert has told The Sunday Times. Professor Uzi Even of Tel Aviv University was one of the founders of the Israeli nuclear reactor at Dimona, the source of the Jewish state’s undeclared nuclear arsenal. “I suspect that it was a plant for processing plutonium, namely, a factory for assembling the bomb,” he said. “I think the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) Gaza militants threatened Saturday to fire longer-range rockets and target larger Israeli communities, after five Hamas members were killed in an Israeli airstrike. A spokesman for the Islamic Jihad group said its engineers are trying to produce local copies of Russian-made 122mm Katyusha rockets, which have a reach of up to 19 miles, or halfway from Gaza to Tel Aviv. Israel carries out regular military operations in Gaza, targeting militants launching near-daily rocket barrages into Israel. Its pinpoint airstrikes have intensified in the past week. Some 17 Gaza militants have been killed in strikes or...

Ten weeks have passed since the Israel Air Force attacked in Syria, and there is still no reliable information about the precise target that was destroyed, or about the importance and necessity of the attack. Since Israel keeps maintaining its veil of secrecy, Everything that is known comes from leaks by anonymous U.S. administration officials to several of the major American media outlets. What is almost certain, judging from the leaks, are the following facts: A nuclear site built by the Syrians was attacked, and there was some connection to know-how and technology transferred from North Korea. The prevailing assumption...

It was two months ago tomorrow that Israeli warplanes bombed what Israel and the United States believed was a nascent Syrian nuclear complex along the shore of the Euphrates River. But the political shock waves that should have accompanied that remarkable event -- which was both an audacious act of preemption and a revelation of an apparent Syrian bomb program-- have been bottled up by the decisions of the Israeli government and the Bush administration not to speak publicly about the strike. Now Israeli and U.S. officials are quietly debating whether to go on the record and allow those shock...

NEW DELHI: In what will be the biggest defence deal with US till now, India is now firmly moving ahead to seal the contract for acquiring six C-130J 'Super Hercules' military transport planes for "special operations" at a cost of around $1 billion. Defence ministry sources said the FMS (foreign military sale) contract — a government-to-government arrangement — for the C-130Js will be concluded "soon" since it had been catered for in the ongoing defence budget. "We are closely studying the offer after the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency notified the American Congress in May. The contract will be signed...

..."The businessman, who asked not to be identified, told the Island.Net that the process was the participation of two strategic bombers Americas sticking small tactical nuclear bombs, aircraft squadron. They were accompanied "Israeli" F-15, F-16, took responsibility for control and protection."

UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei Sunday accused the Israelis of taking "the law into their own hands" with a mysterious raid on Syria last month and demanded more information about what was hit. Neither Israel nor the United States has furnished "any evidence at all" to prove that the Syrian site bombed in early September was a secret nuclear facility, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency told CNN. "That to me is very distressful because we have a system: if countries have information that the country is working on a nuclear-related program, they should come to us. We...

Yet Another Photo of Site in Syria, Yet More Questions By WILLIAM J. BROAD and MARK MAZZETTI The mystery surrounding the construction of what might have been a nuclear reactor in Syria deepened yesterday, when a company released a satellite photo showing that the main building was well under way in September 2003 — four years before Israeli jets bombed it. The long genesis is likely to raise questions about whether the Bush administration overlooked a nascent atomic threat in Syria while planning and executing a war in Iraq, which was later found to have no active nuclear program. A...

JERUSALEM: In the closest that Israel has come to confirming a mysterious air raid in Syria, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert acknowledged to his Cabinet on Sunday that Turkish airspace might have been violated during the operation.

IAF planes struck a Kassam rocket cell in northern Gaza Wednesday evening, moments after it had succeeded in launching two rockets into Israeli territory. Two of the three operatives were killed, the IDF said. Both rockets struck open areas in the western Negev. Nobody was wounded in the attack, and no damage was reported. Earlier in the day, two Kassams struck the Negev, also hitting open areas and causing neither damage nor injury. On Tuesday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that he planned to approve a list of civilian sanctions against the Gaza Strip in a security meeting he would...

Over the last few weeks, State Department officials have reported major diplomatic breakthroughs that will roll back North Korea's nuclear weapons program, allow Pyongyang to be removed from the U.S. state sponsors of terror list, and normalize relations between our two countries. North Korea reportedly has agreed to disable its nuclear facilities and has, as it has done many times before, promised to give a full accounting of its nuclear program. The latest deadline is Dec. 31, 2007. Congress has been asked to support this agreement, which State Department officials claim will benefit our nation and promote regional stability. Then,...

DAMASCUS, Syria — A high-ranking Syrian official confirmed that Israel's airstrike last month in northern Syria hit a nuclear facility, according to a document obtained Wednesday by FOX News. "Israel was the fourth-largest exporter of weapons of mass destruction and a violator of other nations' airspace, and it had taken action against nuclear facilities, including the 6 July attack in Syria," Syrian representative Bassam Darwish is quoted in the document as saying.