French Television Crew Participates in a Terrorist Attack in Iraq- PHOTO (RUSSIAN MISSILE?)

Yahoo ^ | 11/26/03 | AFP/Le Nouvel Observateur

[TastyManatees]

French Television Crew Participates in a Terrorist Attack in Iraq

From Yahoo, here are advance stills from an upcoming French television broadcast which will show terrorists attacking an American cargo jet in Iraq. Apparently, the French television crew had been tagging along with the terrorists for a while before hand, and claim to be unaware of the attack beforehand.

Here are video stills of the attack from 10 feet away:

[TastyManatees]

Here is my question, what type of anti-aircraft missile is this? It appears to be a Russian man protable anti-aircraft missile, but I can't tell from the picture which one it is.

Calling knowledgable Freepers, is this a newer model or older model anti-aircraft missile?

I intent to write this up in a little more depth on my own site once I am able to ascertain more details.

Tasty Manatees

My apologies, first posting of the picture had faulty code. Moderator, can you please delete the first posting of this photo from 11:40 A.M.?

[AmericanInTokyo]

Alread posted, yesterday, in detail, in another thread. W/ video, still fotos, the works.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1028571/posts

Duplicate thread.

[adam_az]

dupe thread

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1028571/posts

[Grut]

...what type of anti-aircraft missile is this?

Looks like an RPG anti-tank launcher. Not an anti-aircraft weapon (no guidance system) which makes me suspect either a da*ned lucky shot or a faked news report.

[Darksheare]

Artillery ping listers, the question asked is "What kind of weapon if that?"

It looks like the Russian SA-14/16/18 family ManPADS to me.
Also note that a French TV crew was on hand to film it?

[Darksheare]

In the frame where it shows the projectile, the warshot itself is roughly 1.25 meters in length.
Given some slight distortion from 'image streaking', it's still too long to be an RPG.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Strela.

But, we were discussing that yesterday on the first thread.

[Poohbah]

SA-7 Grail. Russian-made, widely exported, extremely easy to get.

[Lead Moderator]

Been about a day in between, so we'll leave this up too. More exposure. I do recommend readers of this thread read yours too.

[Darksheare]

Ah.
The SA-7 strela, supposedly max range of 1700 feet.. hit an Omani Air freighter at 11,700 feet back in the 70's.
Made me wonder if there was a typo from the intel boys.

[Cicero]

I agree. This story needs as wide an exposure as possible. Not only al Jazeera but Agence France Presse are complicit with the terrorists, going along with them and offering the favorable publicity they so badly crave.

Americans need to know that France is STILL closely cooperating with our enemies.

We won't read about this in the New York Times, which would probably do the same thing if they dared, so there has to be some way to get the story out past the censors who work for our media.

[Hegemony Cricket]

Attention French imbeds - Identify Friend or Faux!

[Sender]

SA-7 Grail. Russian-made, widely exported, extremely easy to get.

Hell, can't find one at a gun show or pawn shop lately. That must be the 'gun show loophole' I've been hearing about.

[kaktuskid]

BOMB FRANCE(with deodorant and soap)!

[RaceBannon]

thats no RPG, look at the length of the missile, it is as long as the ttube in the 3rd pic

most likely an SA-11, Soviet

[Sofa King]

If I was president, I'd be withdrawing our diplomatic presence from France.

[nightdriver]

"Apparently, the French television crew had been tagging along with the terrorists for a while before hand, and claim to be unaware of the attack beforehand."

The news report that I heard claimed that this video came to French media anonymously over the transom from the terrorists themselves.

Doesn't mean that it happened that way.

[Junior]

IIRC, the French did not tag along. They were given this videotape by some Iraqis after the incident.

[archy]

SA-7 Grail. Russian-made, widely exported, extremely easy to get.

Don't think so. SA-7 /9K32M Strela-2:

Looks more like a SA-16 Gimlet/9K310 Igla launcher to me. Maybe a SA-18 Grouse/9K38 or Naval variant SA-N-10 Grouse/ Igla-M. 9K310:

9K38/9K310 Grouse:

Almost certainly NOT an RPG 7 or RPG-16:

[UNGN]

Fox news put the video up yesterday:

Missile Video w/Fox ads

It doesn't show the impact in this video, but the idiot towel head running the camera didn't know how to use the zoom or focus anyway.

As much as I hate the French, this video was not made by a profesional, or made with profesional equipment.

Note THEY ARE NOT SHOOTING AT THE CONTRAILS. The cameraman never properly zooms the camera to show the plane. Its there, but its a couple miles away so it isn't very big.

The missile IS NOT an RPG. There are a bunch of RPG's being carried in the video, but the missile is an SA-7 to SA-18.

During a pentagon briefing Monday, it was reported that SA-7's and SA-16's were turned in over the weekend near bagdad, so these missiles are in the area.