WarSclerotic

Terrorists kill 10-15 Egyptian soldiers, infil… JPost – Defense.

 YAAKOV KATZ

Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen

IDF in heavy firefight with terrorists on Gaza… JPost – Defense.

Dozens of rockets fired at south – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Resident of Eshkol Regional Council have been instructed to stay indoors, Road 232 closed to traffic; no injuries, damage reported

Ilana Curiel

Hours after the Air Force strikes targets in Gaza, several rockets were fired from the Strip at the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries or damages have been reported. The residents have been instructed to stay indoors and avoid traveling on Road 232.

Palestinian sources reported that IDF tanks responded to the rockets by firing at the launching areas near Dahaniya International Airport in the southern Gaza Strip. They further reported that there is heavy helicopter aerial traffic east of the Raffah crossing and Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. No injuries were reported.

Around 6pm, a Qassam rocket exploded in an open area near Sderot. There were no reports of injuries or damages. A Color Red alert sounded in the area.

Earlier on Sunday, the Air Force attacked terrorist targets in the southern Gaza Strip.

Palestinian sources reported that the target was a motorcycle carrying two Popular Resistance Committees members in the Tel Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah.

One of the riders was killed, while the other one injured, the sources said.

The IDF stated that the two were affiliated with the global jihadist movement. One of the terrorists, 22-year-old Ahmad Said Ismail who was injured in the attack, participated in a terror attack at the Israeli-Egypt border in June, which claimed the life of an Israeli citizen.

The man killed in the attack is 19-year-old Id Nadi Okhal from Rafah who was planning another terror attack against Israeli targets at the Egypt border and Sinai Peninsula along with other global jihadist movement members.

Shelling, Possible Infiltration on Gaza Border – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News.

Gaza boundary

Israel news photo: Flash 90

IDF forces exchanged fire with terrorists who fired mortar shells at Israel Sunday evening near Kerem Shalom, on the border with Gaza.

There may have also been an infiltration into Israel by an enemy vehicle during the exchanges of fire.

The IDF has instructed residents of the region to stay indoors and remain alert. In addition, civilians are asked to stay off of Road 232.

In addition to the Kerem Shalom situation, dozens of rockets were fired at the area of Sderot in an intense barrage.

There have been no reports of casualties.

ISIS: Iran completed clean-up of nuclear evidence at military site – Israel News, Ynetnews.

DC-based Institute says satellite imagery indicates Iran completed massive ‘clean-up activity’ at Parchin military complex following IAEA’s request for access to suspected nuclear site

Ynet

The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) recently published new satellite imagery in which it appears that the massive clean up activity performed at an Iranian military complex suspected of nuclear activity, has been completed.

Over the past few months, the institute has released several images showing what appears to be the final result of considerable sanitization and earth displacement activity on the Parchinmilitary base.

The Parchin site garnered international attention in late February 2012 when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declared its interest in inspecting it in compliance with its mandate to ensure that there had been no military nuclear related activity. Meanwhile, Iran has consistently refused to grant the IAEA accessto Parchin.

According to the ISIS institute, the site in question had remained unchanged since early 2004 until a month following the IAEA request for access; then what appeared to be clean-up activity began. Iran denied doing any cleanup, calling it routine construction work.

ISIS imagery

The latest image, which was released in late July, showed stark differences in the site’s current layout from earlier imagery. The entire area surrounding the buildings appears to have been bulldozed, covered, and flattened.

The only remaining traces of activity, according to the ISIS, are the apparent base of one of the demolished buildings and earth piles formed as a result of earth removal and displacement. There are no traces of heavy machinery or construction materials suggesting that no major activity is planned in the near future.

The institute stated that the degree of the site’s modification and the fact that this apparent cleanup work started soon after the IAEA’s request for access, cast further doubt on Iran’s claims that its nuclear program does not or has never had any military aspects.

Iran warns Syria conflict could engulf Isr… JPost – Middle East.

Photo: Sana / Reuters

DUBAI – Iran said Sunday that the conflict in Syria could engulf Israel, as it warned against foreign intervention there, Iranian media reported.

“The fire that has been ignited in Syria will take the fearful (Israelis) with it,” Iran Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said on Sunday, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

Larijani accused the United States and regional countries he did not name of providing military support to rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, a key Arab ally of Iran.

Syria has accused Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia of backing rebels in Syria and fueling violence there. Iran meanwhile has supported Assad’s efforts to crush the 17-month revolt.

“What really allows these countries to interfere in internal Syrian affairs?” Larijani was quoted as saying.

Larijani is considered a moderate conservative and a close follower of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the most powerful man in Iran who decides the country’s foreign policy. Larijani is also a fierce critic of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and widely expected to run for president in 2013.

On Friday, following his visit to Moscow to discuss Syria, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said “terrorist groups” supported by foreign forces were operating in Damascus and Aleppo, IRNA reported.

Amir-Abdollahian said “tens of thousands of weapons” had entered Syria from neighboring countries and were being used by groups including al-Qaida.

“Unfortunately America and regional countries … do not take steps to control the borders,” Amir-Abdollahian was quoted as saying.

Amir-Abdollahian said he did not believe Syria would be attacked by foreign powers, but that if it were, it would not need Iran’s help in defending itself.

“Syria has been ready for years to respond to any military attack against it by (Israel) or other countries, and can respond strongly to any military action by itself and with complete readiness,” Amir-Abdollahian was quoted as saying.

Iran and Russia support the six-point plan presented by former UN peace envoy Kofi Annan to solve the crisis. A frustrated Annan resigned his post last week, blaming “finger-pointing and name-calling” at the UN Security Council for his decision to quit.

Iran has blamed the United States and countries in the region for the failure of Annan’s plan.

Op-Ed: Are Israeli citizens preparing for war? (Includes first-hand account).

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/330121#ixzz22gO0M2Xa

US leaks plot to hit Iran N-plants | The Australian.

Iran official: Fire from U.S. actions in Syria will ‘gobble up’ Israel – Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper.

Iranian parliamentary speaker accuses West of plotting to affect Syria crisis; Syrian opposition forces report continued shelling on city of Aleppo.

Wartime tasks split: US to smash Iran’s missiles, Israel tackle Syria, Hizballah.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report August 5, 2012, 1:38 PM (GMT+02:00)

Iran’s Fateh-110 missile

An authoritative US military source told debkafile Sunday, Aug. 5 that the American armed forces are standing ready for war with Iran. Without going into the thorny question of who should lead the operation to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program, the US or Israel, it is understood that one of the US Air Force’s tasks will be to destroy Iran’s Shehab-3 ballistic missile batteries which have Israel and Saudi Arabia within range.
This task is not as formidable as Iranian spokesmen would have the world believe. Tehran’s entire stock of those missiles is no more than 30-40. That quantity is not nearly enough to take on the entire gamut of potential wartime foes, the United States Middle East bases, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Turkey. They would quckly be picked off by American Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Systems and Israeli Arrow guided interceptor rockets, which are synchronized through the advanced US X-Band radar systems installed in the Israeli Negev and southeast Turkey.

In any case, it is hard to believe that Iran would empty its entire ballistic missile arsenal in a single blazing assault at the start of war. “They are too canny to leave themselves without some Shehabs in reserve for crises even more acute than the outbreak of war,” said the US military source.
He went on to explain that by wiping out the Shehabs, the US high command would leave the Israeli Air Force free to take on the thousands of rockets Syria, the Lebanese Hizballah and the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami have stored ready for shooting in support of an Iranian missile offensive – not just against Israel, but Turkey and Jordan as well.

Saturday, the Iranian Defense Minister, Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, announced that his ministry’s aerospace industries had successfully test-fired the fourth generation of high-precision Fateh-110 missiles with a range of over 300km.
He said that the new missiles can hit and destroy both land and sea targets, enemy concentration points, command centers, missile sites, ammunition dumps, radars and other targets with 100 percent precision.
debkafile’s military sources add that the Fateh-110 is the core weapon Syria and Hizballah have stocked for destroying strategic targets in Israel, Jordan and Turkey.
Sunday, Aug. 5, a senior Israeli defense official reported that Israel is upgrading its Arrow II ballistic missile shield, designed to intercept medium range rockets and fill the gaps left by Iron Dome. The announcement in Tehran was taken in Israel as a threat and an indication that the improved Fatah-110 had already been dispatched to its Damascus and Beirut destinations, so exacerbating the perils of Syria’s Scud missiles and chemical weapons which its government has threatened to use against external enemies.