WarSclerotic

Clash at Israeli-Lebanon Border Turns Lethal – NYTimes.com.

Ali Diya/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Lebanese soldiers and United Nations peacekeepers (in blue berets) looked across the border with Israel after brief clashes that erupted on Tuesday near the village of Adaisseh, which lies across the border from the kibbutz Misgav Am.

By ISABEL KERSHNER and NADA BAKRI

Published: August 3, 2010

JERUSALEM — Israeli and Lebanese army troops exchanged lethal fire on their countries’ border on Tuesday, in what was the fiercest clash in the area since Israel’s monthlong war against the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in the summer of 2006.

Lebanon said at least four Lebanese were killed, while Israel reported that a battalion commander was killed and a platoon commander was critically wounded.

Each side blamed the other for the flare-up, trading accusations of violating the United Nations Security Council resolution that underpins the four-year cease-fire.

A Lebanese Army spokesman said the skirmishes started after Israeli soldiers crossed into Lebanese territory to cut down a tree.

“We fired in the air, and they responded by firing artillery shells,” said the spokesman, speaking on departmental conditions of anonymity.

The Israeli military said its soldiers were fired upon inside Israeli territory, just west of the village of Misgav Am. Israel said that its forces were engaged in routine maintenance work in a gap between the so-called Blue Line, the internationally recognized border, and its security fence, and that it had coordinated in advance with the United Nations peacekeeping force in South Lebanon, Unifil.

The Israeli military said its forces returned fire with light arms and also made use of artillery fire. Several minutes later, the military said in a statement, an Israel Air Force helicopter fired at the Lebanese Army Forces Battalion Command Center in Al Taybeh, damaging several armored combat vehicles.

The Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, said in a statement that “Israel desires peace and proved that when it withdrew its forces in 2000 to the international border. But Israel will absolutely not tolerate attacks on its soldiers or its civilians in its sovereign territory.”

Israel said its foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, had instructed the Israeli diplomatic delegation to the United Nations to file a protest with the secretary general and the Security Council, calling the clash “one of many violations” of the United Nations resolution on the border, No. 1701.

“Israel holds the Lebanese government responsible for the grave incident, and warns of the consequences should these continue,” the Israeli government’s statement said.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri of Lebanon “denounced the Israeli violations of the Lebanese sovereignty,” in a statement and urged “the Unifil, the U.N. and the international community to assume their responsibilities and put pressure on Israel to put an end to its aggression and its violations.”

Unifil called for both sides to show “maximum restraint,” and the Security Council called a special session on Tuesday to discuss the matter.

For Israel, the confrontation signified a break in the relative calm on a third front in under a week, including rocket fire from Gaza and a rocket attack in the south.

Tensions have been running high in Lebanon, with expectations that an international tribunal may soon hand down indictments against members of Hezbollah, a Shiite movement backed by Syria and Iran, for playing a role in the killing of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

The latest violence also coincided with tentative moves toward direct peace talks between Israel and the Western-backed Palestinian leadership based in the West Bank. Israel and the Obama administration have been pushing for the talks, and have sought support from moderate Arab states.

Islamic militant forces in the region are opposed to any resumption of direct talks. Over the weekend, militants in Hamas-controlled Gaza broke a long lull and launched rockets that hit the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon and a rehabilitation center at a college campus in southern Israel. In response, Israeli war planes bombed several sites in Gaza, killing a commander of the military wing of Hamas.

On Monday, a rocket struck on the outskirts of the Israeli resort of Eilat and another fell in the adjacent Jordanian resort of Aqaba, killing one man and injuring five. Israeli officials said they assumed the rockets had been fired by militants from Egyptian territory, though Egyptian officials denied that was the case.

Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, though tense, has been mostly quiet since the 2006 war.

Israeli military officials have acknowledged the surprising quiet of the last few months, but they have also warned about its fragility and have pointed to what they say is a concerted weapons build-up by both Hezbollah and Hamas.

Israel more likely to strike Iran than U.S., analysts say | Washington Examiner.

By: Sara A. Carter
National Security Correspondent
August 3, 2010

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/breaking/Israel-more-like-to-strike-Iran-than-U_S__-analysts-say-1006710-99790639.html#ixzz0vYzTB4V5

AFP: US imposes sanctions on 21 ‘Iran-backed’ firms.

WASHINGTON — The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on 21 firms it believes are front companies for the Iranian government, stepping up pressure on the Islamic republic over its nuclear program.

Accusing Tehran of trying to dodge sanctions by setting up opaque trading companies, the Treasury Department named a host of banking, mining and other companies spread throughout Europe and Japan as government-backed.

“As its isolation from the international financial and commercial systems increases, the government of Iran will continue efforts to evade sanctions,” said Treasury undersecretary Stuart Levey.

Those moves, he said, included “using government-owned entities around the world that are not easily identifiable as Iranian to facilitate transactions in support of their illicit activities.”

The firms included two Belarus-based banks, two Germany-based investment firms, and mining and engineering companies in Japan, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy and Iran.

American citizens and businesses will now be barred from doing business with the proscribed companies.

It is the latest of a series of US moves to force a halt to Iran’s nuclear program, which Western governments say is a cover for a nuclear weapons drive.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

Tags: Al Qaeda Jordan US Sinai force

Missile hits main street of Aqaba, Jordan

US, Israeli, Egyptian and Jordanian counter-terror experts are following leads indicating that the Grad missiles fired at Aqaba early Monday, August 2, killing a Jordanian security officer and injuring four people, was part of a coordinated attack against  Jordan, a US ally, and the US-led Multinational Force & Observers Organization in Sinai -MFO. This is reported by debkafile‘s counter-terror sources.
The explosions, which also caused extensive damage to the Intercontinental Hotel in Aqaba, were heard clearly in the Eilat, the Jordanian resort’s Red Sea twin at 7.45 a.m. Monday. However, Eilat is ruled out for now as an objective.
At the same time, too, the MFO’s command base at Al Gura, northeast of the northern Sinai port of El Arish on the Mediterranean was also attacked. Al Qaeda was apparently demonstrating its ability to hit two US or US-allied Middle East targets at the same time.
While the Jordanian government published the Aqaba attack in detail, Egypt and the MFO command’s Rome headquarters have imposed a news blackout on the Sinai end of the attack. However, it is confirmed by Israeli military sources and local witnesses. MFO personnel are also taking part in the wide-ranging search in which Egypt, Jordan and Israeli are working together for the location from which the attack originated.
The search is focusing on discovering whether the missiles for both attacks all came from Sinai, which would indicate two launch-teams – one firing from the north and one west of central Sinai, where of Al Qaeda has established hideouts – or whether Aqaba was hit by a separate missile team firing from inside Jordan.
This was be the first time that Al Qaeda branches in Jordan and Sinai have been known to synchronize their operations – but not the first time the jihadists have targeted the thriving Jordanian resort of Aqaba, a tourist favorite alongside next-door Eilat.
It was last hit on June 8, 2007, when al Qaeda’s missiles smashed into a Jordanian military target, killing a soldier, and just missed the USS Ashland docked which was docked at the time in Aqaba. One of those missiles reached nearby Eilat airport.