Free Republic

An explosion in southern Lebanon last week destroyed what is believed to have been a Hezbollah weapons depot. This latest in a series of mysterious “accidents” in Hezbollah-controlled precincts proved, as one Israeli official wryly remarked, that those who “sleep with rockets and amass large stockpiles of weapons are in a very unsafe place.” With the Party of God’s overland supply route through Syria choked off by the 22-month-long uprising against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and Israel virtually in total control of the maritime route, Hezbollah’s stockpile is being systematically degraded.Yet the arsenal of Iran’s other regional proxy force, Hamas,...

Israeli intelligence satellites have spied the loading of rockets and other material in Iran believed to be destined for the Gaza Strip, the UK-based Sunday Times reported, citing Israeli officials. According to the report, Iran began preparing the weapons shipment around the same time Israel and Hamas negotiated a cease-fire late last week. The shipment is said to include Iranianmade Fajr-5 medium-range rockets, the same model that was fired toward Tel Aviv and Jerusalem during Operation Pillar of Defense, the Sunday Times reported.

Iran has reported the test-firing of long-range rockets said to have been allocated to its proxies in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. The Iranian Army launched the Fajr-5 during its exercise near the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan in May 2010. During the Velayat-89 exercise, army units fired the Fajr-5, which were said to have struck their targets. "These missiles are called Fajr-5 and belong to the Fajr-class missiles, and have not been tested in any previous exercise," Iranian Army deputy commander Gen. Kioumars Heidari said. "They were tested for the first time in Velayat-89 exercise zone." Fajr-5 was unveiled...