The Israeli vessel, a Saar 5-class missile ship named the "Spear," ...
Posted on 07/15/2006 8:15:40 AM PDT by george76
A missile fired by Hezbollah, not an unmanned drone laden with explosives, damaged an Israeli warship off Lebanon, the army said Saturday.
Elite Iranian troops helped fire the missile...
One sailor was killed and three were missing.
The intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information, said about 100 Iranian soldiers are in Lebanon and helped fire the Iranian-made, radar-guided C-102 at the ship late Friday.
The official added that the troops involved in firing the missile are from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, an elite corps of more than 200,000 fighters that is independent of the regular armed forces and controlled directly by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Initial information indicated the guerrillas had used a drone for the first time to attack Israeli forces.
But the army's investigation showed that Hezbollah had fired an Iranian-made missile at the vessel from the shores of Lebanon, said Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan.
"We can confirm that it was hit by an Iranian-made missile launched by Hezbollah. We see this as very profound fingerprint of Iranian involvement in Hezbollah,"...
(Excerpt) Read more at story.news.ask.com ...
So Iran was involved in an act of war against Israel.
Looks like the Israeli's don't need any more justification for taking out the Iranians.
The Israeli vessel, a Saar 5-class missile ship named the "Spear," ...
Watch out Iran; your turn is coming.
Probably a C-801 or C-802 missile. Perhaps a C-701. I am no aware of the C-102 spoken of in this article.
Ditto. Iran has stepped in the sh*t and is not going to be able to scrape it off.
C-802 identification has been reported by several other sources including Fox and CNN (other threads on FR).
Iran's finger prints are all over this planned two front war against Israel.
"Looks like the Israeli's don't need any more justification for taking out the Iranians."
I think the Israelis are cleaning out Lebanon as a first step and that the 72 hour deadline for Syria to release captured soldiers/disarm Hezbollah is a diversion. The first major assault outside of Lebanon will be Tehran...and it won't be a slap on the wrist.
The time for punishment is now.
Iran islamofascists are showing the world why they are the largest destabilizing force in the region.
Wonder what kind of ship this is? Didnt this have the Barak anti-missile system on board?? Why are Isreali ships being hit by missiles? What happened to ECM on board these vessels? Ridiculous on the part of the israeli navy to loose a ship.
That missle number from the article may be a typo ?
I wonder if Iran is foolish enough to try using their 200 mph torpedo against the Israeli Navy. It wouldn't surprise me if they brought one into Lebanon before this all started.
"The first major assault outside of Lebanon will be Tehran...and it won't be a slap on the wrist."
And President Bush has given public support to Israel. Since Iraq is a soverign nation, Israel needs the approval of Jordan and Iraq to fly over as well as position air-to-air refueling. They may have that with Bush's approval.
They also have several submarines positioned in the Gulf.
If an attack happens without U.S. support, I think it will be sub launched.
The disaster that overtook one of the Israeli Navy’s state of the art warships, Ahi-Hanit, was thoroughly planned in advance by an enemy which managed to take Israel’s military commanders by surprise.
It has shocked Israel’s military to a degree comparable to the profound effect on US forces of al Qaeda’s 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Aden.
The Saar-5 class corvette, with a crew of 61 seamen and a 10-man helicopter crew, was hit Friday, July 17 at 20:15 hours, while shelling Beirut international airport. Four crewmen were reported missing. One was found dead Saturday aboard the crippled ship. Three are still sought by rescue teams.
DEBKAfile’s military sources reveal that the warship was struck from Beirut by an Iran-made C-802 shore-to-sea missile of the Silkworm family.
Weighing 715 kilos, with a range of 120km, the missile is armed with a strong anti-jamming capability, which lends it a 98% success rate in escaping interception.
The Israeli ship is armed with an advanced Barak anti-missile system, which may have missed the incoming missile. Israeli military planners must now look at the vulnerability of the navy following the appearance of the first Iranian C-802 missiles ...
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1184
This is ahuge naval warfare development that will have ramifications far outside this conflict. You can bet the Russians, the Chinese (who developed the missile) the Iranians, ourselves, and our allies are going over this with a fine toothed comb as we speak...bet money on it.
The Saar 5 vessel is ISrael's remier air defense naval craft. It was designed specfically for this type of engagement...and it was defeated.
It has two 32 cell Barak missile launchers, Phalanx, and all the radars (except PAR and AEGIS), target acquisition, the guidance, and ECM to supposedly hanlde this type of engagement. Arguably the best small craft anti-air vessel in thew world...and it was defeated.
Our AEGIS is even better, but this attack will have a lot of people worried, and it may embolden the Iranians to test us with the samne missiles in the Straits or the Gulf.
Get it on, Israel. Iran is begging for it.
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