Israel Matzav

'Iran has suicide boats'

If the source for this story were not the commander of the US Navy's 5th fleet, Vice Admiral Mark Fox, I might dismiss it as pure hysteria. But Fox, who is based in Bahrain, told reporters on Sunday that Iran has suicide boats ready to go.

"They have increased the number of submarines ... they increased the number of fast attack craft," Vice Admiral Mark Fox told reporters. "Some of the small boats have been outfitted with a large warhead that could be used as a suicide explosive device. The Iranians have a large mine inventory."

"We have watched with interest their development of long range rockets and short, medium and long range ballistic missiles and of course ... the development of their nuclear program," Fox, who heads the US Fifth Fleet, said at a briefing on the fleet's base in the Gulf state of Bahrain.

Iran now has 10 small submarines, he said.

I know. You're all looking at this and thinking "you've got to be kidding. They're going to send a little motorboat to bounce off the side of an aircraft carrier?" Well, not exactly.

Military experts say the US Navy's Fifth Fleet patrolling the Gulf - which always has at least one giant supercarrier accompanied by scores of jets and a fleet of frigates and destroyers - is overwhelmingly more powerful than Iran's navy.

But ever since al Qaida suicide bombers in a small boat killed 17 sailors on board the destroyer USS Cole in a port in Yemen in 1996, Washington has been wary of the vulnerability of its huge battleships to bomb attacks by small enemy craft.

Asked whether the US Navy was prepared for an attack or other trouble in the Gulf, Fox said: "We are very vigilant, we have built a wide range of options to give the president and we are ready... What if it happened tonight? We are ready today."

What's significant about this is that it's the first time that you hear an American (as opposed to Israeli or Iranian) commander talking about his forces' capabilities. It's ratcheting up the rhetoric, and somehow, I don't believe it's empty.

Purim anyone?

Labels: Bahrain, Iranian nuclear threat, Persian Gulf, US 5th fleet

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:07 AM