EASY To CATCH Boeing ScanEagle UAV - Iran Showing It

Are Turkey and Saudi Arabia Going to be Busted!?

King Salman and Turkish President Erdogan are about to spark a new war for control over Middle Eastern oil but the plan, which was in fact devised by Washington, will ultimately backfire, F. William Engdahl asserted. Riyadh, assisted by Qatar and Turkey, is striving to bring oil fields and pipeline routes in Iraq and neighboring Syria "under direct Saudi control," the expert on oil politics noted. "Unfortunately, as in all wars, there will be no winners," Engdahl wrote in an opinion piece for New Eastern Outlook. He also named the EU, the Iraqis, Syrians and Kurds as the main losers. 

The historian named four key groupings, which will be involved in the upcoming conflict. Sunnis, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Daesh and the recently formed Saudi-led anti-terrorist coalition, make up the first group. The second one consists of Syria, Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah, with Russia also being a factor. The analyst named Israel as the third player. Engdahl maintains that the fourth group, led by the United States, is "playing the most sly, deceptive role" at the moment.

"Washington is preparing a devastating trap that will catch the foolish Saudis and their Turkish and other Wahhabi allies in a devastating defeat in Syria and Iraq that will no doubt then be proclaimed as a 'victory over terrorism' and a 'victory for the Syrian people,'" the historian assumed.

Daesh, according to Engdahl, is instrumental to the Saudi plan. The oil kingdom wants the group to perform "ethnic cleansing of the legitimate Syrian populations" living in oil-rich regions so that it would then be able to transport fuel from Qatar and Saudi Arabia to Turkey through Syria. "Erdogan's Turkish military and most especially his Turkish intelligence, MIT, headed by close crony, Hakan Fidan, is playing a key role in the planned Saudi-Turk-Qatari coalition's move to destroy the regime of Assad and at the same time seize control for them of the rich oil fields of Iraq between Mosul and Kirkuk," the historian explained.

Although many see the recently-adopted UN Security Council resolution on Syria as an achievement that will help to bring lasting peace to Syria, Engdahl views the document as a "a near-perfect deceptive maneuver" designed by Washington to "set the stage for the imminent Saudi-Turk oil wars and subsequent debacle in Syria and Iraq." The agreement paves the way for a ceasefire, which is expected to be followed by the UN-supervised free and fair presidential election. "That ceasefire excludes Saudi and Turkey-backed Daesh, and the al-Qaeda affiliate, al-Nusra Front. At the same time, it calls for an immediate, simultaneous start of a 'political transition' which means completely contradictory things for the United States, Germany, France and the UK as it does for Syria, Iran, and Russia," Engdahl warned.

The expert maintains that Russia, Damascus-led forces, Hezbollah and Iran will abide by the resolution, while Daesh and the like will "have free reign to grab the oil riches" in Iraq and Syria. "At that point, the trap will have been set and Washington will no doubt spring it, with Russia, Iran and Assad … able to do little to prevent it," he observed.

Natanyahu Admits of Israeli Forces Operating in Syria

Israeli PM Natanyahu admits of Israeli forces operating in Syria. Some of strategic analysts said earlier that Israeli secret troops operating inside Syria against Syrian Government Forces to oust Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Qatar agrees to buy 24 Rafale fighter jets from France

Qatar has agreed to buy 24 Dassault Aviation-built Rafale fighter jets in a deal worth 6.3 billion euros ($7.05 billion), the French government said on Thursday, as the Gulf Arab state looks to boost its military firepower amid regional instability.

Officials said the accord also provided for the training of a number of Qatari intelligence officers.

Tensions in the Middle East with conflicts in Yemen, Syria and Libya, as well as fears of Iran's growing influence in the area, have fuelled a desire across Sunni Gulf Arab states to modernise their military hardware.

The contract, the third this year for Dassault after deals to sell fighter jets to Egypt and India, also includes MBDA missiles, and the training of 36 Qatari pilots and 100 technicians by the French army, a French Defence Ministry official said.

"The president spoke to Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, who confirmed his desire to buy 24 Rafale combat planes," President Francois Hollande's office said in a statement.

A French air force Rafale.

Hollande will travel to Doha on May 4 to sign the contract before heading to Saudi Arabia as an honorary guest at a summit of Gulf Arab leaders.

The Rafale sales have lifted French arms exports this year to about 15 billion euros and have been a welcome boost for Dassault, which had been under increasing pressure to sell the plane overseas after years of failures.

Dassault shares were up 2.1 percent at 0912 GMT.

The French government said last year that it would slow the pace at which it takes delivery of Rafale jets to just 26 over the next five years instead of 11 every year.

Dassault is also in talks aimed at supplying 16 of the multi-role combat jets to Malaysia and has resumed discussions over potential fighter sales to another Gulf Arab state, the United Arab Emirates, the official said.

(REUTERS)

Putin lifts ban on delivery of S-300 missile systems to Iran

The Russian president has repealed the ban prohibiting the delivery of S-300 missile air defense systems to Iran, according to the Kremlin’s press service. The ban was introduced by former President Dmitry Medvedev in 2010.

“[The presidential] decree lifts the ban on transit through Russian territory, including airlift, and the export from the Russian Federation to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also the transfer to the Islamic Republic of Iran outside the territory of the Russian Federation, both by sea and by air, of air defense missile systems S-300,” says the information note accompanying the document, RIA Novosti reported.

The decree enters into force upon the president’s signature.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov commented on the decision, saying that Moscow’s voluntary embargo on S-300 deliveries was no longer necessary, due to the progress in Iran’s nuclear talks made in Lausanne on April 2.

During the talks in Switzerland, the P5+1 group have made “substantial progress in resolving the Iranian nuclear program,” Lavrov said. “The political framework of the final deal agreed upon was highly praised by the international community.”

He added: “We believe that at this stage there is no longer need for this kind of embargo – from the Russian side it was unilateral and voluntary.”

The foreign minister also said: “Meanwhile, a modern air defense system is now very relevant to Iran, especially taking into account the severe escalation of tensions in neighboring areas and especially the rapid development of military activity in Yemen in recent weeks.”

Lavrov added that the S-300 is an air defense missile system, which is of a purely defensive nature. It is not designed for attacks and “will not put at risk the security of any state in the region, including Israel,”he said.

Iran’s defense minister said on Monday that Russia’s decision will boost cooperation with Moscow and could help regional stability.

US Secretary of State John Kerry raised concerns with Lavrov over Russia’s decision, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday. He added that Russia’s decision to start an oil-for-goods swap could also raise sanctions concerns.

Commenting on Russia’s move, US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said on Monday that US officials do not think this would affect the major powers’ unity in ongoing nuclear talks. She added that Russian deliveries of the S-300 would not violate Iranian sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council.

Israel has denounced Russia’s decision to lift the ban on providing S-300 missiles to Iran.

“This is a direct result of the legitimacy that Iran is receiving from the nuclear deal that is being prepared, and proof that the Iranian economic growth which follows the lifting of sanctions will be exploited for arming itself and not for the welfare of the Iranian people,” Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said in a statement on Monday.

The contract for supplying S-300 missile systems to Iran was signed in 2007 and implied the delivery of five S-300 squadrons worth $800 million. But in 2010 the contract was put on hold due to the UN imposing sanctions on Iran.

Tehran answered with filing a nearly $4 billion lawsuit against Russia’s Rosoboron export arms dealer company to a Geneva arbitration tribunal.

The question of S-300 supply to Tehran remained unsettled for years.

After years of negotiation, in February 2015, Moscow offered Tehran the chance to buy its latest Antey-2500 anti-aircraft and ballistic missile system, instead of the older S-300 system. Iran replied that it would consider the offer.

The last time Russia supplied S-300 systems abroad was in 2010, when 15 squadrons were delivered to China.

Since then production of S-300 systems has been suspended as the main producer of the Russian air defenses, concern Almaz-Antey, has launched production of the next generation systems, S-400. China has become the first country allowed to buy S-400 systems, Rosoboronexport chief Anatoly Isaykin told the Russian media.

As of today, S-300 systems have been operable in a number of countries, including Algeria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cyprus, Kazakhstan and Vietnam. There is a valid contract to deliver S-300 systems to Syria, but it was put on hold after the beginning of the civil war in the country.

Source: www.electronicresistance.net

Why The Holy Places Like "Mosques" Are Targeted?

Why those hellish demons are targeting the holy places, whatever its a Mosque or Tomb/Temple of other religion! Al-Qaeda gone, anti-Bashar elements failed! Now man eater demons are organized behind the form of ISIS, humiliating the religion. Would this bring any scenario in front of world people? Yes! Some analysts and critics showed evidences that ISIS is formed and propagated by the CIA-Mossad joint venture by the full fledged fueling by the Saudi King family! May be its true or not, question is that "why they (world powers) can't stop!

See the brutality below:

Iran Sends Warships To Monitor Yemen’s Coast

Two Iranian vessels have arrived in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is on a bombing campaign against anti-government Houthi rebels.

Iranian Navy destroyer.

The Alborz destroyer and Bushehr logistics vessel are on a patrol mission in the Gulf of Aden, south of Yemen, and the Red Sea, according to Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari. He says the ships will “provide [safety for] Iran’s shipping lines and protect the Islamic Republic of Iran’s interests in the high seas,” Press TV reports.

According to Tehran officials, the warships will be protecting a crucial trade route against pirates. The Iranian Navy has been conducting such patrols since 2008.

Iran’s fleet is headed into troubled waters, as at the moment Yemen is blockaded off by a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition. They are on a bombing campaign against anti-government Houthi Shia rebels, whose uprising forced Yemen’s President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to flee the country. He is currently in Saudi Arabia.

Iran has been vocal in calling for an end to the airstrikes against Houthis, which often end up hitting civilians. Saudi and Western officials believe Iran is directly supporting the Houthis with money and weapons, aiming to take control of Yemen’s Red Sea coast – something Tehran denies.

The fierce bombing campaign has led to over 560 deaths in just two weeks, according to the latest World Health Organization estimates. It describes the situation in Yemen as a rapidly-unfolding humanitarian catastrophe, with over 1,700 people wounded and 100,000 displaced.

An international evacuation effort is under way, with India alone rescuing some 4,000 of its citizens from the war zone. Russia is also taking part. So far, it has sent five airplanes to Yemen, rescuing its nationals, as well citizens of 11 other countries.

With the chaos triggered by the Houthi uprising and the airstrikes, militant and terrorist groups are finding it increasingly easy to operate in Yemen. Last week, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) captured the port city of Al Mukalla, seizing an army base and freeing 300 prisoners from a local jail.

On Tuesday, Al-Qaeda militants reportedly attacked an outpost on Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia, killing several officers and taking over the checkpoint.

Questions Which Tangled The Concerns Over Saudi's Proposal To Pakistan For Joining In Yemen Attack

1: Currently FATA, LOC, Indian border, Afghanistan border, Karachi, Siachen & Khuzdar are active fronts which have stretched Pakistan military's capabilities, leading for them to make immense changes in conventional force posture. If the Parliament does approve the deployment of Pakistan Army into either Saudi Arabia or Yemen, it would leave Pakistan Army even more stretched with its resources and manpower. If Pakistan is going to fulfill a capability gap for the Saudi military forces, who will fulfill the gap left by the deployment of Pakistan Army inside Pakistan's own low intensity conflict zones?

Outcome of Saudi Invasion on Yemen: 

2: Would Saudi Arabia and its allies be willing to make a token military contribution to Pakistan's conventional defenses should another war with India breakout?

3: What guarantee there is that India won't take advantage of the Pakistani deployment to the Middle East by being assertive on the border or by teaming up with Iran and Afghanistan to isolate Pakistan as it has always wanted to?

4: What contingency plan does the govt have if such a deployment fuels further sectarianism in Pakistan?

5: What would the govt do if Iran who would be unhappy about such a deployment reactivates its own proxies inside Pakistan to create a situation right here in order to make Pakistan 'pay' for it?

Two non-democratic power grabber. 

6: Why would the govt not specify, in the light of Pakistani national interests what exactly are the objectives for which they want to join this coalition?

7: Why Al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula and Daesh haven't yet been targeted in Yemen by the coalition airstrikes?

JF-17 Saudi Export

Royal Saudi Air Force emblem.

Recent reports of Saudi interest into a JF-17 purchase appear to be wide of the mark. Though such a sale is certainly not impossible (and there is strong pressure on Pakistan to secure an export order), it is likely improbable. 

The Saudi air force is currently retiring or has already retired a large number of aircraft as part of its modernisation efforts. The F-5E/F and Tornado ADV fleet have been retired or have been relegated to the training role, and more F-15s and Typhoons ordered in their place as the well funded RSAF can afford such high tech aircraft. Though the JF-17 was designed to replace aircraft such the F-5, of which over a hundred at one time flew in Saudi service, the purchase of advanced western aircraft points to efforts by the Saudis to make a wholesale improvement in their airpower by phasing out lightweight fighters. Even in the training role further Hawk trainers as LIFT and light strike aircraft could easily fill in the second line fighter requirement if there was one. Coupled with upgrades being made to existing F-15S and Tornado IDS strike aircraft, the chances of there being a role for the JF-17 to fill are reduced.

The purchase of advanced western weaponry also buys the Saudis a degree of influence as its multi-billion dollar deals have been instrumental in ensuring the profitability of western arms firms during periods of uncertainty. As was seen with the ending of the British investigations surrounding the Anglo-Saudi Al-Yamamah arms deal in 2006, Saudi influence can be substantial.

A possible JF-17 sale however, could eventuate if negotiations for further Typhoon aircraft for example are not fruitful. With 72 Typhoons on order the negotiations for a further batch of 72 are ongoing. However, the Saudis could at least explore the option of a JF-17 purchase if only to pressure the British into accepting more favourable terms. Considering the strategic logic the Saudis operate by in which they effectively buy influence a possible purchase may also rest on how they view the growing power of China. China has made some progress in penetrating the Saudi market with its commercial goods and has even built a public transit system in Mecca. China was also the country the Saudis turned to when it decided to purchase ballistic missiles in the 1980s. The Chinese could therefore pick up a sale as a vendor of last resort, or as a country that the Saudis believe is now important enough to view as a potentially strong influence in the region. This could be linked to the Saudi view of needing to contain Iran. Therefore purchasing the Sino-Pakistani FC-1/JF-17 could be part of such thinking. However, this is purely speculation and a Saudi purchase is, for the best part, unlikely.

The reports may be yet another example of Pakistani officials feeding such speculation to the local media, which has then reported them as fact. Unnamed US journal that has been quoted in recent reports aside, the likelihood remains slim. This is especially when considering past examples of large scale arms sales to Saudi Arabia. When Saudi Arabia was reportedly interested in purchasing the HIT Saad APC there was considerable speculation a sale would also include the Al-Khalid MBT. Though a Saad sale was a reasonable enough belief, the Al-Khalid sale was unrealistic as the Saudis have the ability to purchase better armoured and armed tanks than the Al-Khalid even in that class of medium MBT.

A Saudi JF-17 purchase therefore is most likely unrealistic.

Source: PakDef Military Consortium

Iranian general in Sanaa to organize Yemen rebel counter-offensive for Saudi-led attacks

Tehran took less than 48 hours for a decision to hit back at the surprise air and naval attack launched by Saudi Arabia, the Gulf and Egypt Thursday, March 26, to contain the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels’ sweep through Yemeni cities. debkafile’s military sources report that Iran’s top war commander, Al Qods Brigades chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani, landed in the Yemeni capital Sanaa Friday, March 27 to organize a counter-offensive and open Iran’s third direct Middle East warfront after Syria (in support of Bashar Assad) and Iraq (with the US against ISIS).

 

The "Shadow Commander" General Qassem Suleimani.

 The Saudi-GCC-Egyptian intervention found the pro-Iranian Houthi rebels at the gates of the big port of Aden, which commands the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, the vital gateway for oil shipping between the Indian Ocean and Gulf through the Suez Canal and Mediterranean. Certain Yemeni army units have joined the rebels. They are armed with advanced US weapons that were supplied for the war on al Qaeda and now serve the revolt against a Yemeni regime recognized by Washington.

This rebel force had already seized most of Yemen’s cities and stretches of its Red Sea coast. Soleimani’s arrival in Sanaa signaled Tehran’s determination not to give up an inch of the ground gained by its proxies, while underscoring its demand for dominance as the leading Middle East power, promised by Washington in return for accepting a framework deal on its nuclear program.

US officials persist in their public pretense that the diplomatic and the military arenas are unconnected. So the deal is presented as close to signing by the March 31 deadline, while the flames of Shiite-Sunni violence are allowed to spread into another corner of the Middle East. In the coming hours, Egyptian and Saudi naval and marine forces are planning landings in Aden, according to their military sources. They will fight to contain the Houthi march across Yemen and prevent the fall of its last major town, after two days of Saudi and Gulf air strikes against rebel positions around Yemen.

 
debkafile’s military sources report that the Saudi and Gulf air forces and Egyptian sea units managed in their first 48 hours to cut off Iran’s air and sea supplies to the Houthi rebels. Gen. Soleimeni will need to find a means of breaking the Saudi-Egyptian blockade and restoring supply routes. Above all, he must determine whether or not to co-opt Iranian air and sea forces to the Yemeni front and so leading them into head-to-head battle against Saudi Arabia and its ten Sunni allies.

 
Egyptian and Iranian warships maneuvering for control of the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb were reported to have clashed Thursday, the first day of the Sunni intervention in the Yemen conflict. From outside the region, Pakistan stands ready to step into the contest, promising Friday “a strong response” to any threat to “Saudi integrity.” This opened the door for the Pakistani army to be drawn into the wars of Arabia against Iran alongside the majority of Arab Sunni nations.

Islamabad was responding to a Houthi warning to invade the southern Saudi provinces of Asir, Najran and Jizan, for which they counted on a welcome by the local Saudi populations, most of which belong to the minority Ismaili sect, that is closer to the Iranian Shiite and Houthi Zaydi than to the dominant Sunni faith of the Saudi royal regime.

Friday night, President Barack Obama spoke with Saudi King Salman and reaffirmed US support for the military action taken in Yemen by Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies, the White House said in a statement. Obama and King Salman agreed that their goal is to achieve lasting stability in Yemen through a negotiated political solution, the statement said. Obama also underscored his commitment to Saudi Arabia's security.

Lebanon’s Shiite Hizbullah slams Saudi attack on Yemen

Hasan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hizbullah, Lebanese Shiite party-militia, weighed in on Friday on the Saudi intervention in Yemen. The Saudis put together a Sunni coalition against the Shiite Houthis and have bombed Zaidi Shiite population centers like Sa’adeh. I discussed their motives in my just-published piece in The Nation.

 

Hizbullah is opposing Saudi policy in Syria effectively, having intervened on the side of Bashar al-Assad, whom the Saudis are hoping to see overthrown. Hizbullah punches above its weight. Lebanon is a small country of 4 million. Shiites are about a third or 1.3 million. Not all Lebanese Shiites support Hizbullah, which has a few thousand fighters. But they managed to shore up the Syrian government where the Syrian Arab Army could not. Hizbullah is closely allied with Iran.

Nasrallah said that the Saudis are engaging in propaganda when they claim to be supporting the elected president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. He said that Mansour Hadi had in fact stepped down from his job, and wondered if the Saudis would go around restoring other former presidents, like Tunisia’s Zain El Abidine Ben Ali, to power. He teased Riyadh that King Abdallah opposed all the Arab Spring revolts and wanted to put the genie back in the bottle. (While it is true that Mansour Hadi resigned, he resigned because Houthi tribesmen were telling him what to do and he was a prisoner. He escaped to Aden in the South and now to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Nasrallah is doing propaganda here in glossing over Houthi dictatorship.)

Second, he said, the Saudis maintain that the Houthi movement is an enemy of Saudi interests. But, he said, the late King Abdallah had found it possible to do deals with them. A Houthi delegation came to King Abdallah’s funeral. Shortly thereafter, the new king, Salman, decided to turn on them and go into Yemen, Nasrallah alleged. Third, he said, the Saudis maintain that Yemen under the Houthis has become occupied territory, with Iran being the occupier. But, he asked, where are there any Iranian military bases or other signs of occupation in Yemen?

Nasrallah called for peaceful negotiations among the principle parties to find a solution to Yemen’s conflict. At the same time, Sunni leaders in Lebanon praised the Saudi intervention, as did the leader of the largely Sunni Future Party there, Saad Hariri. This conjuncture points to increased tensions between Sunnis and Shiites inside Lebanon. They were already divided over Syria, with Shiites mostly supporting al-Assad and Sunnis mostly seeking his overthrow.

The Great Persian, Arab Proxy War

29 - March - 2015

Here is why those analysts classifying the wars in the middle east as 'sectarian wars' need to rethink their position.

1: Persians and Arabs have hated each other since ancient times. One just needs to look at history to find the validity of that argument. Hating each other is part of their respective identities.

2: Sectarian element in this conflict is nothing more than a rallying cry as race based nationalism is no longer strong enough to have thousands of young indoctrinated Persian and Arab men to kill each other. By fueling sectarianism the Persians and Arabs make sure that their fire of proxy wars has the fuel of young brainwashed men it needs to burn till their objectives are achieved.

3: Both Arabs & Persians are fighting to become the regional top dogs as the United States moves its focus to China leaving a power vacuum behind which both the Persian Iran and Arab coalition lead by Saudi Arabia hope to fulfill and cement their role as the regional superpower and to be classified as a 'Medium Power' in the world power structure.

4: Persians seek dominion over Arabia for historic reasons, they see it in the same light they saw the Greeks during ancient times. A basic study of numerous Persian Greek wars and Arab Persian wars will put this point of view in its right context. In other words the Persians seek a 21st century version of the 'Parthia'.

5: Arabs on the other hand seek to establish their own 21st Century version of the 'Omayyad Empire'.

Now that its been specified that there is a clear 'conflict of interests' between the Persians and Arabs for geostrategic reasons, it should become clear why exactly these two great powers in the region are busy burning Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya in their imperial proxy wars. Egypt, Lebanon and Bahrain are other battlegrounds that have either failed to ignite or are yet to be activated.

The Persian power Iran, has funded, trained, armed and supported Jaish-al-Mahdi, Hizbullah, Shabiha, Huthis, Hamas and other proxies which it pays for through its petrodollars, in order to have 'strategic depth' in the entire Middle Eastern region. Iran is the only country in the region that has a 'foreign army' under IRGC. Arab coalition lead by Saudi Arabia has funded, trained, armed and supported its own proxies, namely FSA, Jaish-al-Fatah and regional state govts allied to Riyadh like President, Sisi, President Hadi etc.

Armed to the teeth and rich with vast oil wealth the Persians and Arabs will fight this conflict to the bitter end. Somewhere down the line people will realize that this conflict has absolutely nothing to do with Islam and everything to do with the historic hatred of Persians and Arabs, the hubris to dominate the region for serving their own geostrategic interests. Islam preaches peace,and brotherhood among Muslims of all schools of thought, however the Persians and Arabs are now bent on using Islam as a tool to fulfill their agendas through a brutal, deadly, vicious and devastating proxy war.

The results of this clash are becoming visible already, a great war is brewing which will engulf the whole region to the great benefit of those who sell weapons to these regional powers, the US, Russia and EU. This is a battle to the end and its real victor will be none other than Israel. May Allah (SWT) have mercy on us.

Source: Horus - Pakistan Defence

KSA Managed Supports Over Yemen Attack

Five Gulf states said Thursday that they will protect Yemen’s embattled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi against Shiite rebels.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE said they “have decided to answer the call of President Hadi to protect Yemen and his people from the aggression of the (Shiite) Houthi militia.”

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby declared his full support for the airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen. “I affirm complete support” for the campaign, he said at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers. “It is an operation against targets belonging to the Houthis who committed a coup.”

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman will lead the Saudi delegation to the 26th Arab League Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh.

Hadi who arrived in Riyadh on Thursday will also attend the summit.
The US is coordinating closely with Saudi Arabia and regional allies in the military action, including providing intelligence and logistical support, the White House said.

US forces were not taking direct military action in Yemen, she stressed, but were “establishing a Joint Planning Cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate US military and intelligence support.”
“We strongly urge the Houthis to halt immediately their destabilizing military actions and return to negotiations as part of the political dialogue,” added Meehan.
“The international community has spoken clearly through the UN Security Council and in other fora that the violent takeover of Yemen by an armed faction is unacceptable and that a legitimate political transition can be accomplished only through political negotiations and a consensus agreement among all of the parties.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron told Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a phone call on Thursday that “other countries” should not be supporting Houthi militants in Yemen, Cameron’s spokeswoman said, something Tehran is already doing.
“In order to restore stability what we need is a political process and ... as part of that other countries should not be supporting the Houthi rebels and instead be encouraging all the different parties in Yemen with different interests to come together in a political process,” the spokeswoman said.

Pakistan’s government said Thursday it will dispatch a top civil-military delegation to Saudi Arabia following Riyadh’s request that it join the coalition.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif decided to send the group to Saudi Arabia on Friday after meeting with top defense and military officials in Islamabad late Thursday, his office said in a statement.
“The meeting concluded that any threat to Saudi Arabia’s territorial integrity would evoke a strong response from Pakistan,” it said, adding that Pakistan’s defense minister and Sharif’s national security adviser would travel to the country, along with top military figures.

Sharif told the meeting: “Pakistan enjoys close and brotherly relations with Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries and attaches great importance to their security.”
Morocco also joined the coalition, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.Rabat has “put at the disposition” of the coalition Moroccan warplanes already based in the UAE, a statement said. Morocco had “decided to provide all forms of support to the coalition to sustain legitimacy in Yemen through the political, intelligence, logistical and military dimensions,” the statement added.

The objective was to help “remove Yemen from the crisis in which it is mired,” as well as to “stand up to all foreign conspiracies woven against the country, and against Gulf and Arab security.”
Turkey said it supports the operation and called on the militia group and its “foreign supporters” to abandon acts which threaten peace and security in the region.
President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted on Thursday as saying Turkey may consider providing logisitical support to the Saudi-led mission and called on Iran and “terrorist groups” to withdraw from the country.

“Turkey may consider providing logistical support based on the evolution of the situation,” Erdogan told France 24 in an interview, extracts of which were published on its website and by Turkish broadcasters.
“Iran and the terrorist groups must withdraw,” he said.
Four Egyptian naval vessels have crossed the Suez Canal en route to Yemen to secure the Gulf of Aden, maritime sources at the Suez Canal said on Thursday.

“It was necessary for Egypt to assume its responsibility... through the participation of elements of the Egyptian armed forces from the air force and Navy,” the presidency said in a statement. It said the action came in response to “demands by the Yemeni nation for the return of stability and to preserve its Arab identity.”
Former Lebanese Premier Saad Al-Hariri praised King Salman’s decision to launch an attack. “Iranian intervention in domestic affairs in Yemen requires an urgent Arab reaction.

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said his country stands behind the Arab coalition. “The military operation which has been launched by Saudi Arabia and some GCC countries is necessary to support the legitimacy in Yemen,” Reynders said.
Saudi Arabia has planned to beef up security at its borders and around oil and industrial facilities, SPA said Thursday, citing a statement by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif.

Prince Mohammed, who is also the interior minister, stressed “strengthening all security measures on the borders of the Kingdom and in all public utilities and around the oil and industrial facilities,” at a meeting to review security developments in Yemen, SPA said.
Kuwait said earlier on Thursday it had raised security around its oil facilities inside and outside the country.
Massive support for KSA campaign to save Yemen.

Source: Arab News

Iranian flight lands in Sanaa for 1st time in 25 years

A direct flight from Tehran arrived on Sunday to Yemeni capital Sanaa, the first by Iranian airlines since the unification of Yemen in 1990.

"An Iranian flight carrying a medical aid consignment arrived today in Sanaa International Airport from Tehran," Mohamed al-Serihi, senior official at Sanaa airport, told The Anadolu Agency.

A day earlier, Yemen's Shia Houthi group, which controls government institutions in capital Sanaa, signed a memorandum of understanding with Tehran by which 28 direct flights would be operated between Sanaa and Tehran every week.

The memorandum was signed in Tehran by civil aviation authorities of both nations, the official Yemeni news agency, which is controlled by the Houthis, had reported.

The semi-official Iranian news agency Fars had said that direct flights between Sanaa and Tehran would open the door for the export of Iranian commodities to Yemen.

Nevertheless, some observers express fears that the flights could be used in the transfer of arms to Yemen's Houthis.

Tension has mounted in Yemen since the powerful Shia Houthi group seized control of capital Sanaa in September of 2014. The group has sought to extend its control in other Yemeni provinces ever since.

On Feb. 6, the Houthis issued what it described as a constitutional declaration dissolving Yemen's parliament and establishing a 551-member transitional council.

The declaration was, however, rejected by most of Yemen's political forces - along with some neighboring Gulf countries - which described it as a coup against constitutional legitimacy.

Some Gulf States have even accused Iran of backing a Shia insurgency in the fractious nation.

Saudi Arabia Making Deterrence Against Iran With That DF-21

The missile has a range of between 1000 to 1700 mile, and is believed to have a top speed around mach 5.

 

In January 2014, Newsweek revealed that Saudi Arabia had secretly bought a number of DF-21 medium-range ballistic missiles in 2007. But the question is that "how much they bought from China?" They also said that the American CIA had allowed the deal to go through as long as the missiles were modified to not be able to carry nuclear warheads. 

 

Retired Saudi General Dr.Anwar Eshqi and adviser to the joint military council gives a statement to the media when asked about new acquisitions by the RSBMF and says "Saudi military did indeed receive the DF-21 missile from China and all integration of the missiles including a full maintenance and upgrade facility are complete" he further elaborated that the acquisition of these missiles are not meant as an offensive force by Saudi Arabia, but to further strengthen its mission to protect the holy places and other allied countries under its protective umbrella.

 

Saudi Arabia had previously secretly acquired Chinese DF-3A ballistic missiles in 1988, which was later exposed by the United States. While the DF-3 has a longer range, it was designed to carry a nuclear payload, and so had poor accuracy (300 meters CEP) if used with a conventional warhead. It would only be useful against large area targets like cities and military bases. 

 

Here is Maj. Gen. Jarallah bin Mohammed Al-Alwit, the current commander of the Saudi Strategic Missile Force, giving a commencement address.

 

This made them useless during the Gulf War for retaliating against Iraqi Scud missile attacks, as they would cause mass civilian casualties and would not be as effective as the ongoing coalition air attacks. After the war, the Saudis and the CIA worked together to covertly allow the purchase of Chinese DF-21s. 

 

Targets for Saudi DF-21 Missiles.

The DF-21 is solid-fueled instead of liquid-fueled like the DF-3, so it takes less time to prepare for launch. It is accurate to 30 meters CEP, allowing it to attack specific targets like compounds or palaces. 

 

 

The Saudis are not known to possess mobile launchers, but may use the some 12 launchers originally bought with the DF-3s. The number of DF-21 missiles that were bought is unknown. Newsweek speculates that details of the deal being made public is part of Saudi deterrence against Iran.

Iran shoots down Israeli spy drone near Natanz nuclear facility

The IRGC’s Aerospace Force has intercepted and shot down an Israeli spy drone, the IRGC announced in a statement on Sunday.

It added that the stealth and radar-evading spy drone intended to reach the nuclear facility in Natanz, but was targeted by a surface-to-air missile before it reached the area.

 

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has shot down an Israeli spy drone over the Iranian sky before the unmanned aerial vehicle reached Natanz nuclear facility.

“This mischievous act once again reveals the adventurist nature of the Zionist regime [of Israel] and added another black page to this fake and warmongering regime’s file which is full of crimes,” the IRGC statement said.

The statement emphasized that along with other Armed Forces, the IRGC is fully and strongly prepared to defend the Islamic Republic’s territory and airspace against any aggression and reserves the right to respond in kind to such moves.

Iran’s nuclear facilities have always been a regular target for espionage activities by US and Israeli secret services, which have at times used drones for this purpose. However, all efforts made to this end have been successfully thwarted by the Iranian military forces. 

 

A general view shows the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, Iran (Reuters Raheb Homavandi)

 

On December 4, 2011, the Iranian military’s electronic warfare unit announced that it had successfully downed the American RQ-170 reconnaissance and spy drone in the eastern part of Iran with minimal damage.

The RQ-170, an unmanned stealth aircraft designed and developed by the Lockheed Martin Company, had crossed into Iran’s airspace over the border with Afghanistan.

The drone was one of America's most advanced spy aircraft and its loss was considered a major embarrassment for Washington.

SF/SS/SL

 

Source: www.presstv.ir

Is Iran building an Aircraft Carrier?!

Iran is building a 1/3rd replica of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier to use in a movie called "Airbus", which narrates the story of the ill-fated Iran Air Flight 655.

Iran Building a Mock-Up of US Nimitz Class Super-Carrier

What is interesting about this simple prop is the attention it's getting. More than one news site claimed it's actually built for military propose, primarily to serve as a simulation target. A few went as far as claiming that Iran is building this to gain experience about carrier building.

Whoever producing this movie, probably never anticipated they will get this kind of publicity.

The Middle East Facts: An Eye of Jew (Article)

This article states the historical conflicts between the worlds of semetic-west globe-Islamic Worl mostly; deep in through the religion, economy, military impressions of thoughts by their (Jews & their allies) activities. Read carefully, intentions are not hurting some one by above sentences but to re-thought about Palestinian's freedom which is mesmerized by bloody jews of ill-born Israel.  

In complete defiance of United Nations (U.N.) resolutions supported by Russia, China, United States, Britain, France and Germany, Iran continues to enrich uranium and produce plutonium at no less than seven suspected nuclear sites. Seeking cooperation from North Korea and A.Q. Khan, the notorious weapons smuggler from Pakistan, Iran continues to pursue enough fissile material for a basic nuclear weapon by spinning more than 3,000 centrifuges at the Nataz enrichment site from uranium hexafluoride gas. Recent reports from international intelligence agencies such as Israel’s Mossad Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (HaMossad leModi’in v’leTafkidim Meyuhadim) indicate that Iran has also built a heavy-water facility at Arak, southwest of Tehran for making Plutonium, another way to make material for a nuclear bomb. Other sites include Tabriz, Karaj, Mashhad, Qom, Esfahan and the Russian built electricity-generating reactor at Bushehr.

Claiming the effort is needed to meet peaceful energy needs, and supported by Mohamed ElBaradei, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran seems poised to join the club of nation state actors operating outside of the mandate of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (North Korea quit, India, Pakistan and Israel never joined). As the potential for Iran to weaponise with nuclear missiles increases, the possibility of a regional arms race becomes frighteningly real. Middle Eastern rivalries could easily push Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey into development programs, and exponentially increase the risk and consequences of a fatal “miscalculation”.

For quite some time, this threat has received considerable attention by military planners and the international media who have engaged in an often-public debate concerning the justification of a precision air strike on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. President Bush has repeatedly stated that the United States will keep Israel from harm through a military option that if extended to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, could calm rivalries before the region becomes even more volatile.

In fact a ground war with Iran has been envisaged since the mid-1990s as part of a strategic "sequencing" of theater operations. During the Clinton administration, US Central Command (USCENTCOM) had formulated "in war theater plans" to first invade Iraq and then invade Iran.

"The broad national security interests and objectives expressed in the President’s National Security Strategy (NSS) and the Chairman’s National Military Strategy (NMS) form the foundation of the United States Central Command’s theater strategy. The NSS directs implementation of a strategy of dual containment of the rogue states of Iraq and Iran as long as those states pose a threat to U.S. interests, to other states in the region, and to their own citizens. Dual containment is designed to maintain the balance of power in the region without depending on either Iraq or Iran. USCENTCOM’s theater strategy is interest-based and threat-focused. The purpose of U.S. engagement, as espoused in the NSS, is to protect the United States’ vital interest in the region – uninterrupted, secure U.S./Allied access to Gulf oil."

Consistent with CENTCOM’s 1995 "sequencing", the plans to target Iran were activated under TIRANNT (Theater Iran Near Term) in the immediate wake of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. TIRANNT existed in a scenario analysis of a theater war directed against Iran. The analysis, which involved senior military and intelligence experts, consigned to examine different theater scenarios.
"The US army, navy, air force and marines have all prepared battle plans and spent four years building bases and training for "Operation Iranian Freedom". Admiral Fallon, the new head of US Central Command [resigned in March 2008], has inherited computerized plans under the name TIRANNT (Theatre Iran Near Term)."

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, has said he favors a diplomatic solution to Iran’s nuclear ambitions but has not ruled out military action. Olmert told a German newspaper “Israel always has to be in a position to defend itself against any adversary and against any threat of any kind".



Such a strike-mission scenario has significant historical precedent for Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces Air Force (IDF AF). In 1981, Israeli jets bombed the Osirak nuclear facility in Iraq to thwart Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program. And last September Israel bombed a facility in Syria that US officials have alleged was a nuclear reactor being constructed with help from Pyongyang North Korea (see before and after satellite image at right).

As the anti-Israel rhetoric of Mr. Ahmadinejad and the ayatollahs continues to increase in tempo, the likelihood of an Israel – Iran confrontation grows. The efforts of the Majlis speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel have done little to soften the Khamenei position that “The state of Israel is an unforgivable sin, and all Muslims have a duty to reverse it”. Iran’s anti-Israel stance and nuclear efforts may eventually provoke Israel’s IDF AF to launch a pre-emptive strike.



An Israeli military exercise held this month was most likely a rehearsal for an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, according to US defense department officials. A Pentagon official told the Associated Press that Israel sent IDF AF warplanes and other aircraft to the eastern Mediterranean for "large scale" exercises, The New York Times quoted defense department officials as saying that more than 100 Israeli F-16s and F-15s took part in the exercises, flying more than 1,450 kilometers – roughly the distance from Israel to Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. The exercises also reportedly included refueling tankers and helicopters capable of rescuing downed pilots. A Pentagon official also told the New York Times newspaper that the exercises were conducted to both practice a prospective Iran air strike and also to show the US and Europe that Israel was prepared to act militarily should diplomacy fail. Israel itself has neither confirmed nor denied the exercises, with an Israeli military spokesman saying only that the country’s air force "regularly trains for various missions in order to confront and meet the challenges posed by the threats facing Israel".

The words of this IDF spokesperson eerily recall when, in 1967, Israel was brilliantly prepared to act militarily by executing the most decisive pre-emptive air strike in the annals of modern military history.



Prelude To War


Israel’s six-day war of 1967 is one of histories decisive victories directly attributed to operation Moked, a military plan built upon a devastating air-strike attack designed to eliminate air space assets and control to the enemy. On the first day of the war, June 5, 1967, the IDF/AF staged what has come to be considered the most successful strategic air attack ever delivered.

It is generally considered that Egypt initiated the crisis leading to the 1967 war by taking actions in April 1967 that forced Israel to plan a preventive war to avoid destruction. In the view of many Middle East specialists, Israel may have instigated the crisis by fooling the intelligence agencies of the Soviet Union with a disinformation campaign regarding Israeli military intentions. Soviet diplomats in turn led both Syria and Egypt to believe that Israel was massing troops to attack Syria, prompting Egypt’s President Nasser to begin preparations to come to Syria’s aid. Nasser obviously overreacted in the spring of 1967 by asking that the United Nations forces in the Sinai Peninsula separating Egyptian and Israeli troops be withdrawn. This suddenly put Egyptian forces back in control of the Strait of Tiran, at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba, which Nasser then declared closed to Israeli shipping, a move unacceptable to Israel. It also was unacceptable to the U.S., which had secretly guaranteed – when it forced Israel to withdraw from the Sinai in 1956 – that the strait would remain open.

By June 1967, the Arab‑Israeli situation had deteriorated to the point of no return. After the UN peacekeeping force in the Sinai peninsula had been withdrawn at Nasser’s request, and Egyptian guns blockaded the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli ships, denying their access to the port of Eilat, Israel attacked Egypt and in six days of combat occupied the entire Sinai Peninsula up to the Suez Canal.

Brigadier General Yeshayahou Gavish, Chief of Southern Command at Beersheba, describes the Israeli strike against Egypt: “The attack of the Egyptians started with the movement of war planes toward Israel, which were detected by our radar, and with the shelling of villages along the Gaza Strip". There is no claim that these blips on a radar grid, allegedly seen to the west over the Mediterranean, ever materialized as an air armada violating Israel’s space. Of the bombardment of numerous frontier villages, however, there is adequate proof. Artillery and mortar shelling from beyond her borders was an affliction with which Israel had had to live more or less patiently for nineteen years.



The Sinai Invasion


When patience ended, plan took over according to a brilliantly conceived timetable. Having been told by the Army Chief of Staff, Major General Itzhak Rabin at 0800 that the Egyptians were coming, Gavish could report at 0815 that three of his divisions were already moving on enemy territory. One column was advancing toward the Gaza Strip; the second was moving against Umm Gataf, a main Egyptian fortress organized around successive sub-ridges anchored on both sides to much higher, unflankable dunes and ridges, 30 miles southeast of El Arish; and the third division was slicing in between them, headed straight west over raw desert, roughing it where no road lay. One independent brigade was sparring toward Kuntilla in the south of Sinai with no intention of getting mauled in full-scale engagement.

To get away that fast, these several formations had to be already drawn up in march order, echeloned according to what combat would require of the columns from front to rear. They must have trained hard at it for some days; an armored division on the road stretches out twenty-five miles.

An air raid warning had sounded at 0755 over Tel Aviv. While the alarm went on, a radio news caster continued his scheduled report, completed it, and then on the stroke of 0800, added quietly: "We are at war." In that way some of the public got the word. Early morning in Tel Aviv was otherwise almost normally calm, except at military headquarters. The sky was bright and cloudless. Following the all clear, men and women proceeded on their routine rounds. Motor traffic had kept rolling, disregarding the alert.

So when the clock struck eight, only one thing was more certain than that a new war had come: it would not be like the last war, in 1956. After that year the balance of heavy armament in the Near East had shifted radically against Israel-through Soviet assistance to Egypt, Iraq, and Syria in the form of modern tanks and military aircraft. Arab strength in tracked fighting vehicles and mobile guns was a lesser menace, although Egypt alone could field more Stalin-3, T-34, T-54, and T-55 tanks than Israel could muster in matching armor. Dramatically altering the problem was the all-around threat from Arab air bases. They could put up enough jet bombers, such as the TU-16 and IL-28, along with MIG-21 transonic fighters and MIG-ITs, to outnumber Israel’s comparable types, like the Vatour bomber-fighter and the Mirage III CJ, by better than two to one. With four air bases in Sinai, two of them new, Egypt could put MIG’s over Tel Aviv in seven minutes, the flight time from El Arish.



The Air Attack


North of Tel Aviv at 0745 that morning there began at the several air bases a great motion and stir: crews scrambling; fighter aircraft moving to the runways, some from underground hangars; planes taking off in formations of two, six, or eight, the numbers varying according to the size and importance of the pre-designated target. Such were the flight paths that farmers afield only a mile or so away might have wholly missed their going. The din and howl of this lift-off must have been deafening as group followed group low and to the west over blue water.

It was 0145 in New York and Washington when the attack order sent Israel’s war planes winging toward the Nile, Suez, and Sinai-fifteen minutes before the armor was directed to roll for the borders. Those cities slept on, not knowing until 0330 that a new war was underway. By then its outcome was already virtually decided. There followed for Israel’s High Command one suspense-filled hour, though not for her pilots. First to take off was a formation of Vatour bomber fighters of the deep penetration group. Theirs was to be the farthest journey, their target the bomber base at Luxor on the Nile, far to the southwest of Sharm-el-Sheikh and almost double the distance to Cairo. The key to the master plan was to coordinate a synchronized attack, directed against eleven bases. The lift-offs were timed and staged so that each formation fronting the first wave would go at its target in the same minute. Thereafter the same eleven bases would be pounded steadily for eighty minutes. Speed had been precisely measured against distance, without the aid of computers. Having tried and tested the mechanics of the staggered take-off, the Israelis knew it could be done.

The Egyptians had set themselves up for such an attack; each aircraft type was concentrated at its own base, allowing the Israelis to prioritize their targets. Proposals for constructing bombproof concrete hangars had been submitted by the air force, but none had been built. Assuming any Israeli attack would come at dawn, the MiGs had already flown their patrols and returned to base at about the same time the first elements of the attacking forces took off. The Egyptians believed the main air bases of Faid and Kibrit were out of range to Israeli aircraft, and jets were parked on the aprons in rows; they were wrong. Many airfields had only one runway; if the Israelis destroyed it, no further operations could take place.

The eleven targeted fields whose destruction was expected to shock Egypt and induce in its air arm a state of near-paralysis were: El Arish, Bir Gifgafa, Bir Tamada, and Jebel Libni in Sinai. Abu Suer, Kabrit, and Fayid in the Canal zone. Imshas, Cairo West, Beni Sueir, and Luxor in the Nile Valley. All eleven were nominated and hit because they were the bases either for bombers or for MIG-21′s, the hard core of the threat to Israel’s interior. With the destruction of the fighter aircraft based on Sinai and the three fields of Suez, such MIG’s as remained whole in Egypt would not have range enough to menace any city in Israel as the MIG is a short-legged aircraft.


Myth, often enough repeated, and especially when supported by arrows on a map, has a way of displacing fact. So it was that in the wake of the instant war, experts hypothesized about how Israel’s airmen contrived the approach to Egypt to achieve full deception and accomplish total surprise. Most of the diagrams purporting to show the air strike have arrows indicating prolonged flight westward over the sea, and then hooking back over the northeast corner of the Libyan Desert to approach the Nile from the west. Some show planes based on Beersheba hitting the Egyptian fields in Sinai.

None of this happened. There is an air base at Beersheba; its planes and pilots supported the armored attack into Sinai from the start. All the planes in the synchronized strike that smashed the eleven main bases took off from the runways near Tel Aviv. They flew west over the Mediterranean for a short distance. Those bound for the targets along the Nile then flew on a direct southwest course to their objectives. The Sinai-bound fighters, which are certain to have staged out last because of the short distance, flew almost due south. They moved out over a glass-smooth Mediterranean, which, for jets moving even at subsonic speed fifty to one hundred feet above the surface, is a far less friendly sea than one a bit choppy. They had to stay dangerously low lest they be picked up by enemy radar. At that level, a smooth sea means monotony, with the blending of water and sky, the loss of horizon, incessant strain in maintaining the proper altitude, and constant vigilance to avoid disaster in the form of ditching due to a slip in judgment.

With radios silent, the June 5 formation flew on toward Egypt. During the approach, as well as in actually striking at the target, the planes flew at maximum speed, although none of the bombers or fighters flew at transonic speed, since the weapons load out would not permit the aircraft to move that fast. A few minutes past eight, and they were crossing the Egyptian coastline, rocketing along at treetop level. Then should have come the first warning to the Egyptians, since, from that point on, direct observation of the Israelis’ passage became unavoidable. Nothing happened.

The Egyptians had one chance to discover what was coming. The Jordanian radar facility at Ajlun was one of the most sophisticated in the entire middle east. The screens were suddenly inundated with blips at 0715. The officer in charge radioed in the prearranged code for war to headquarters in Amman, from whence it was relayed to the Egyptian Defense Ministry – where it sat, indecipherable. The Egyptians had changed their codes on June 4, failing to notify the Jordanians. The Jordanians watched the Israeli aircraft head into the Sinai, repeatedly sending the indecipherable warning.

Without sign of any reaction below them, the planes flew on to Luxor without incident, rose five hundred feet in the air to bomb the runways and strafe the unbunkered TU-16′s, which were neatly, evenly spaced on the apron and alongside the runways. These multimillion-dollar twin-jet medium bombers with a range of three thousand miles and a speed of six hundred miles per hour were cratered right where the attackers had expected to find them. At Luxor the four 30-mm. cannon on the Vatours were the big killers of Egypt’s Soviet-built aircraft. Much the same sort of thing was occurring at the other ten bases by the time the farthest-south Vatours were heading for home. At Israel’s insistence, the French-built Dassault Mirages and Super Mysteres had been modified to carry two 30-mm.guns instead of their original rockets. Thus, Israeli pilots hammered Egypt’s air force to death with cannon fire. It was so accurate that correspondents credited the devastation to a new secret weapon, something that smelled out the vulnerable heart of a sitting aircraft and went right to it. To attribute what happened to expert gunnery skills sounded much too simple.

Thus for eighty minutes, more of the same was delivered against the seven fields in the Canal Zone and along the Nile. It was judged soon after the first strike that the MIG’s based on Sinai were all burned to ash and wrecked metal. There followed a respite of perhaps twenty minutes. Then for eighty minutes more, the air force went at Egypt again. Syrian and Iraqi bases went untouched through the morning. Only twelve fighting aircraft were left at the Tel Aviv bases to defend Israel. None was put up as a screen to the north or east, and when at last that was deemed advisable, only eight took to the air.



A Gutsy Call


The mastermind of this plan, without doubt the greatest gamble with the largest payoff in the history of military aviation, sat in his unpretentious command post at Tel Aviv, supremely confident that it would work. At age thirty-nine, about one year earlier, Brigadier General Mordechai Hod had taken command of an air force that weight-for-weight was probably the most effective fighting machine anywhere, made so largely by his predecessor, Brigadier General Ezer Weizmann, now Deputy for Operations. Weizmann shaped the tools and trained the men. Hod was the man with the big idea. Hod belonged to the first class of pilots ever to win wings in Israel, this on March 14, 1949. A third-generation Sabra (native-born Israeli), he had taken his first flight training in Czechoslovakia in 1948, and then converted to jets in England.

There were some simple reasons for his conviction that he could win the battle for Israel over Cairo. He calculated that it would take the Egyptians one hour to assess what had happened and a second hour to agree on what could be done about it. He was convinced that when hit, they would not tell the truth to their allies. Instead, they would proclaim a victory, disarming in its effect. Syria and Iraq he could not take seriously; they were just an inconvenience. But he made one mistake. Instead of a lag of two hours, the Egyptians gave him four hours. Long before that it was all over. The planes of the first wave had all returned to home base by 0900. It was then that Hod put up the screen to the north.

Knowing by 1100 that he had won the air battle in Egypt, Hod began shifting bombers and fighters to Sinai to support the attack by the armored columns. Around noon he began the air attack on the bases of Jordan and Syria and continued through most of June 5. But they were in effect finished after one hour. The only Iraqi base strafed was H-3, along the pipeline, just east of the border of the Jordan panhandle. One squadron of MI G-21′s had set down there just in time to go out like a light. Habaniya, near Baghdad, was not attacked, being beyond range of Israel’s bombers.


BLU-107 Durandal – The Durandal anti-runway bomb was developed by the French company MATRA, designed solely for the purpose of destroying runways. Once the parachute-retarded low-level drop bomb attains a nose-down attitude, it fires a rocket booster that penetrates the runway surface, and a delayed explosion buckles a portion of the runway. It can penetrate up to 40 centimeters of concrete, creating a 200 square meter crater causing damage more difficult to repair than the crater of a general-purpose bomb.
A third or more of Nasser’s warplanes remained in condition to fight. Well aware of it, Hod had no intention of renewing the assault on the bases. There had been no dogfights; not one MIG had risen to challenge a Mirage.

The air-to-air dueling started that Monday afternoon somewhat west of the Bir Gifgafa-Jebel Libni line and continued into Tuesday. Egypt threw SAM missiles into the air fight from the park west of the Mitla Pass, a fact that went unreported. There are entries in the record; an Israeli pilot said casually: "Hey, one of those blazing telephone poles is after me." The SAM’s did no harm; Israel’s fighters were flying too low.

Some of the victory is told in statistics. The Israelis themselves were stunned by their success, with kill ratios exceeding estimates by 100 percent. Indeed, Israeli HQ refused to believe the initial reports until Hod had conducted personal debriefings with mission leaders. There were thirty-one dogfights near Suez and above the western Sinai; five Egyptian planes were shot down, not one Israeli plane. Hod lost twenty-five pilots, twenty four of them when their ships were shot down by ground fire; the other man died as a forward observer with the army. Yet the 492 sorties were the lesser part of the workload; airmen flew nearly a thousand sorties in support of the armored advance into Sinai.

Of 420 aircraft in the Egyptian Air Force that morning, 286 were destroyed, along with the loss of nearly one-third of their crews. Thirteen bases were rendered inoperable, along with 23 radar stations and anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) sites. At 1035, Hod turned to Moshe Dayan and reported, “The Egyptian Air Force has ceased to exist.”

Hod was above all elated by the performance of the Fougas. The Fouga Magister, built in Israel, is the basic trainer for jet pilots, and this relatively slow schooling craft had been up armed with two machine guns and thirty-six rockets to operate as a tank-killer over Sinai. Older men, El Al pilots and others from civilian life had been called back to man this fleet. These turtles of the air force destroyed more than seventy Egyptian artillery pieces, took on the enemy armor wherever they found it, and softened the base camps before the armored spearheads came up. Their over-all contribution to the quick victory is incalculable.

Hod learned that he had sorely underestimated the resources of his men and their machines. He had expected three to four sorties a day from the average pilot; he got’ an average of seven, and some went as high as ten. He figured the standard of gunnery established in peacetime training would drop during combat; instead, it rose. He anticipated that the serviceability of aircraft would slip steadily downward once fighting started. To begin, it was ninety-nine per cent, and it held that way through six days.

One young pilot shot down four enemy planes. In between number two and number three he was hospitalized for a wound, then ducked back to duty without permission. But for the wasted time, he might have become Israel’s first ace.

The blow dealt to Egypt by General Hod’s men and aircraft on the morning of June 5th doomed President Nassers hopes for any military success against Israel. Defense Minister Moshe Dyan was quick to point out that, for the first time, air power had effectively won a war.