Current Events in Mideast-Africa

Death by Chemicals: The Syrian Government’s Widespread and Systematic Use of Chemical Weapons (Human Rights Watch)

From DefenseNews Posted 09/06/07 08:14 India to Launch BrahMos From Russian Sub By VIVEK RAGHUVANSHI, NEW DELHI India’s supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, built jointly with Russia, is ready to be launched from a submarine, Defence Minister A.K. Anthony reportedly told the Indian Parliament on Sept. 5. Currently, the Indian navy’s submarines do not have the capability to launch BrahMos missiles. Sources in the Indian Defence Ministry said the BrahMos will be tested on an unspecified Russian submarine later this year. Versions of the BrahMos have been developed for the Indian army, navy and air force. The air version will be integrated on IL-38 maritime surveil…

From Defence Talk Iran Threatens Longer Stride For Nuclear Drive Agence France-Presse | Jun 22, 2007 Washington: Iran warned Thursday it would take a "longer stride" in its hotly contested nuclear program if it is slapped with a third set of United Nations sanctions. The comment in a Newsweek interview by Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, came as Larijani prepared to discuss the row with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Portugal this weekend. Iran has been hit with two sets of UN Security Council sanctions and faces a third for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment work, the process which makes nuclear fuel and the fissile c…

Aussie sailors repelled Iran attack, BBC says By Philip Ewing - Staff writer Posted : Friday Jun 22, 2007 12:11:06 EDT Iranian naval forces tried to capture an Australian boarding team in the Persian Gulf — even before they seized and held 15 British sailors and Marines — but where the British sailors were taken captive, the Australian sailors repelled their attackers, BBC News reported Thursday. The Australian and British incidents were very similar, according to what British military sources told the BBC: An Royal Australian Navy team had been searching a cargo ship in the northern Persian Gulf when Iranian operatives approached in small boats. But the Auss…

From RIA Novosti [excerpt]

The media are reporting wrongly (How not!) France has begun today his air bombing campaign against Daesh targets in Syria, but it's not true. The campaign, named Operation Chammal, begun on 27 September 2015, just three days before the Putin bombing actions from Latakia. But even before France was attacking Daesh targets in Irak from 18 September 2014, a year before: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op%C3%A9ration_Chammal Other references: Air Fan magazine, October 2015 issue: 6xRafale, 1xC-135, 1xAtlantique in Al Dhafra, UAE, and 3xMirage 2000D and 3xMirage 2000N operating from Jordania. The search engine (I was looking for Operation Chammal) in L'Armee de l'Air …

Looks like another step taken by India to become the Regional Dominance.

From Defence Talk Israeli Nukes Complicate International Nuclear Doctrine AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Wed, 28 Jun 2006, 01:28 Houston, Texas: The United States cannot denounce Iran's nuclear program while accepting Israel's possession of nuclear bombs, the head of the Arab League said Tuesday. "This will ultimately bring the Middle East to further instability and there will be an inevitable arms race," Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa told the US Arab Economic Forum in Houston, Texas. The United States is locked in a standoff with Iran over its uranium enrichment program. Washington and its allies suspect the program masks a nuclear bomb-making effort. …

Hi, a technical question to more expert forum members than me, about the possibility of a Libyan no-fly zone. Is it possible for a AWACS plane to be aware of and to track even very low flying little planes, or helicopters? If not, I suppose Gheddafi could continue to target rebels taking off from airstrips or cities and NATO/UE forces would be impotent. Any opinion? Francesco

From DefenseNews Posted 09/07/07 09:48 Report: BAE to Seal $40B Eurofighter Deal With Saudis Next Week AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, LONDON British defense firm BAE Systems will next week clinch a 20-billion-pound ($40.4 billion) deal to supply 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Saudi Arabia, a report said Sept. 7. "It is understood that the British government sent the Typhoon contract to King Abdullah two days ago," The Times newspaper in London wrote. "The king is expected to sign the contract next week, sealing one of the largest export orders ever won by the UK.” A spokeswoman for BAE told the newspaper, "This is a government-to-government negotiation and we are unabl…

From Defence Talk Attacking Iran could speed up nuclear programme Agence France-Presse | Mar 5, 2007 Pre-emptive military strikes on Iran could accelerate rather than hinder Tehran's production of atomic weapons, a report by a British global security think-tank said Monday. Backed by the former chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq, Hans Blix, the Oxford Research Group said Iran could respond to an attack by launching a "crash programme" and build a crude nuclear device within months. "If Iran is moving towards a nuclear weapons capacity it is doing it relatively slowly, most estimates put it at least five years away," said one of the report's authors, leadi…

Probably shoot-down by very long range SAM (S-400?) when chasing after Iranian drones: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-43014081

From DefenseNews Russia, China Want Talks, Not Sanctions on Iran By OLEG SHCHEDROV, REUTERS, MOSCOW Russia and China made clear on Jan. 17 they do not favor U.N. sanctions to induce Iran to scale back its nuclear program, and Tehran urged the European Union to return to the negotiating table. A senior British official dismissed as “vacuous” the Iranian offer, contained in a letter from Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tehran should first halt all uranium enrichment work. “Talks presuppose an obligation. The Iranian obligation was to stick to the moratorium,” Lavrov said.…

Israeli Jets In 'Iran-Attack Drill' Over Syria By Post Wire Services JERUSALEM - Israeli warplanes may have been testing air routes for a possible attack against Iran when they were fired on by Syrian forces, experts said yesterday. The official Syrian Arab News Agency Thursday quoted a military official as saying that Israeli jets broke the sound barrier flying over northern Syria earlier in the day, then "dropped munitions" onto deserted areas after being shot at by Syria's air defenses. Israel's air force may have been testing an air path to Iran, in case it decides to carry out an attack against that country's nuclear facilities, analysts said. The…

From Defence Talk Israel air force training for distance missions: report Agence France-Presse | Jun 25, 2007 Jerusalem: Israel's air force is training for long distance missions, after agreeing a timetable with the United States for sanctions against Iran's nuclear programme to work, a report said on Friday. Israel's tabloid-style Maariv daily, which said the military censor had authorised its report, said the training included long-range strikes as well as in-flight refuelling. The newspaper gave no further details of the flights but said Israel and the United States would hold joint assessments at the end of the year of the effectiveness of economic sancti…

Satellite imagery shows Russian AWACS back in Syria (DefenseNews)

From Marine Corps Times ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s outdated military presents little current threat to its neighbors, despite the fierce rhetoric from its hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, military analysts said Monday at a security conference here in the Persian Gulf. Iran has exaggerated its military capabilities, while U.S. and Israeli leaders have engaged in “provocative rhetoric” that overstates the Iranian threat, said Anthony Cordesman of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. In reality, Iran is more focused on national defense than using military power to boost its influence in the region, he said. …

From Stratfor Two Leaks and the Deepening Iran Crisis By George Friedman | October 5, 2009 Two major leaks occurred this weekend over the Iran matter. In the first, The New York Times published an article reporting that staff at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear oversight group, had published an unreleased report saying that Iran was much more advanced in its nuclear program than the IAEA had thought previously. According to the report, Iran now has all the data needed to design a nuclear weapon. The article added that U.S. intelligence was re-examining the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of 2007, which had stated that Ira…

Iranian Nuclear Facility Under Cyberattack, Computers Playing AC/DC’s Thunderstruck at Night Yesterday, the security research group F-Secure received a puzzling email claiming to be from a nuclear scientist with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI). In it, the author claimed that the country’s nuclear facilities were once again under attack. Only this time, the hackers brought Angus Young along for the ride. F-Secure’s Mikko Hypponen said that a strange new chapter in the ongoing strife over Iran’s nuclear activities may be unfolding. He posted the following email which, although he cannot confirm the veracity of the claims, he does say came from wi…

From Flight Global [excerpt]