Okay, it's only been reported on Twitter, but it sounds likely to be true. Sinai jihadis have deployed surface-to-air missiles for the first time. I'm going to post a series of tweets by Michael Hanna below. Michael is a senior fellow at the Century Foundation in New York City.
Big news MT @RenaNetjes: Fmr general Saif AlYazl to CBC: Russian stinger 2 rocket has been fired on military plane in Sinai, for first time
— Michael Hanna (@mwhanna1) January 25, 2014
It'll be overshadowed by the other major news in Egypt, but successful deployment by Sinai jihadis of surface to air missiles is a big deal.
— Michael Hanna (@mwhanna1) January 25, 2014
.@omar_dawoud@RenaNetjes I assume he just means Russian version of shoulder-held SAMs and was using Stinger as shorthand.
— Michael Hanna (@mwhanna1) January 25, 2014
This is Friday's front page of Yedioth Aharonoth, Israel's largest paid daily newspaper:
Translation: "Israel: United States is causing us damage." (Thanks to Oren Kessler for posting. Saw this in a taxi this morning and have been looking to post it ever since).
Video: Israel Radio anchor slams US for disclosing Israeli strike on Syria
There's a lot of anger at the United States in Israel this morning, because the Obama administration has once again told the world that Israel is responsible for a strike on Syrian weapons being transferred to Hezbullah. This is Israel Radio's Aryeh Golan, the anchor of the drive time news hour. The tape is in Hebrew but there's an English translation.
Let's go to the videotape.
Barack Hussein Obama is Israel's enemy. There is no more pretense. That's the explanation for why his administration is doing this. If only the Israeli government (which pays Golan's salary) would admit it....
Israel conducted air raids against a Syrian missile base near the port
city of Latakia on Thursday night according to a leak by an anonymous US
administration official, speaking to CNN.
The US official said
that Israel targeted missiles and related equipment out of fear that
they would be transferred to Hezbollah.
It is unclear why the US would leak such information as it could put more pressure on Syria to retaliate against Israel.
It's unclear? It's awfully clear to me: Obama is our enemy!
The bombing targeted a shipment of surface-to-air missiles (SAM) that was headed for Hezbollah in Lebanon, the sources said.
The
Associated Press quoted U.S. officials confirming that Israel was
behind the attacks, which they said targeted Russian missiles, without
giving further details.
And you think Israel is going to give Obama advance notice before attacking Iran's nuclear weapons? Have you gone mad?
According to the report, which appeared in Yediot Aharonot on
Tuesday, the missile – identified as the low-altitude Strela SA-7 – missed its
target. It was the first known attempt to bring down an IAF craft using advanced
missiles in Gaza.
“Certainly, the threat of anti-aircraft missiles is a
serious worry, but it won’t disrupt the air force’s activities over Gaza,”
terrorism expert Yoram Schweitzer, of the Institute for National Security
Studies, told The Jerusalem Post.
That missile was just one of the 20,000 'unaccounted for' heat-seeking Strela missiles in Libya last year.
Free Syrian Army has shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles
If they start to use these, it may change the equation....
The photograph at the top of this post, which was published on the Facebook page of Obaida Elwani on Tuesday, shows a complete SA-7 system, an early member of the Stinger class of weapons.
The image clearly shows the missile tube, its battery unit and the grip stock, which ties the system together and makes it possible to fire. Previously, at least one SA-7 missile tube and battery had been documented in the hands of anti-Assad forces. But this is the first time an entire system has been shown.
Caveats are in order, because it is impossible to tell from the Facebook page when and where the image was made. The image has been composed too tightly to confirm that it was shot in Aleppo, and the date is not clear. But if it is legitimate, it lends weight to a report last week by Richard Engel of NBC News about the alleged transfer over the Turkish border of nearly two dozen shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to the rebels.
Whether the SA-7 in the photograph is functional, or how effective an SA-7 would be against Syrian military aircraft, is also unknown. The SA-7 is an old system; its heat-seeking head can be thwarted by countermeasures on many modern military aircraft. And fighters planning to use the system effectively would need training, including on how to select the best angles for attacking aircraft; it is not possible to tell from this image whether the system is in even reasonably competent hands. That said, Syria’s military helicopters, judging from the abundant footage of their activities in recent weeks, could be vulnerable to such weapons – even to old variants like the SA-7, which would also reasonably be expected to change Syrian pilots’ perceptions of the risks of sorties into areas where rebels with SA-7s are present. u In other words, this is potentially a development worth following as the battle for Aleppo grinds on.
Syria bombs its own SAM site after it was taken over by rebels
You really have to wonder whether they will do the same thing if the rebels take over a chemical weapons site or a site containing offensive missiles. The Syrian army bombed one of its own SAM sites after the site fell to rebels when Syrian troops defected.
Let's go to the videotape.
Anyone who speaks Arabic, please let us know what he said.
Here's a video of the aftermath. Let's go to the videotape.
"The missile, rocket and chemical capabilities are remarkably still under control by the current regime," [Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh] Naveh said at the 2012 Conference on Air and Land Jointness in Zichron Ya'acov.
He revealed that Syria has spent $3 billion in recent years on advanced Russian surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems such as the SA-15, SA-17 and SA-22.
"These have already been transferred to the Syrians and may one day be transferred from Syria to Hezbollah," Naveh said. "The existence of these systems creates a reality in which the Israel Air Force will need several hours to first deal with the air defense systems before turning to other missions." The proliferation of these system needs to concern not just Israel, but also the entire world, Naveh said.
Naveh also said that Hezbollah has today 60,000 rockets and missiles, including a number of M600s that have superior range and a high level of accuracy.
Naveh also warned of the growing threat of GPS jammers throughout the region which could undermine the IDF's ability to accurately hit targets inside Lebanon, Gaza or Syria ins a future war.
"The IDF is investing in accurate firepower from the air and precise munitions from the ground," he said. "We will need tens of thousands of precision guided munitions and will need to overcome GPS jamming."
Egyptian security officials have intercepted surface-to-air missiles, most of them shoulder-launched, on the road to Sinai and in the smuggling tunnels connecting Egypt to the Gaza Strip since Moammar Gaddafi fell from power in Libya in August, a military official in Cairo said. Arms traders said the weapons available on Sinai’s clandestine market include rockets and antiaircraft guns.
The seizures raise fresh concerns about security along the sensitive area that borders the Gaza Strip and Israel, at a time when unrest is roiling the region. The addition of shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles to arsenals of Palestinian fighters in Gaza could add significantly to the threat against Israel, whose helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft frequently patrol the strip, which is controlled by the militant Islamist group Hamas.
“We don’t want to see Egypt as a pathway to smuggle weapons,” said Sameh Seif el-Yazal, a retired Egyptian general in military intelligence who said several surface-to-air missiles have been intercepted on the desert road from Libya to the Egyptian city of Alexandria and north on to Gaza. “We believe some Palestinian groups made a deal with Libyans to get special weapons such as shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles.”
"Sinai is our land, and we do not need permission to increase our forces on our land," General Reda Hafiz told the official MENA news agency.
"Egyptian planes conduct patrols to secure all Egypt's borders, including the eastern border," he said.
Parts of Sinai have been restricted to Egyptian troops under the terms of the 1979 treaty, by which Israel agreed to withdraw from the territory. In recent months, however, the Egyptian army has deployed reinforcements with Israeli consent to tackle suspected Islamist militants.
For now, at least, Egypt is apparently using the planes to prevent weapons smuggling into Gaza (or are they?) and Israel is not complaining despite the violations of the treaty. What could go wrong?
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Thursday, September 8.
1) Goldstone vs. Palmer
Gerald Steinberg and Gidon Shaviv explain why the Palmer report on the Mavi Marmara incident came out with results that were generally fair to Israel, whereas the Goldstone report was hopelessly compromise.
The first factor is that different UN bodies were behind the two reports. The Goldstone “fact finding” commission arose out of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) which has 47 member states, including China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and, until recently, Libya and even Iran. The UNHRC has Israel as the only country on its permanent agenda and consistently singles out Israel for condemnations.
The record shows that activities involving the UNHRC are invariably biased.
In sharp contrast, the Palmer Commission was formed under the auspices of the UN Secretary General, reporting directly to him, and not to the UNHRC, where staff and a majority of countries hostile to Israel were unable to control the events.
What's disturbing is the lack of acknowledgment of the corruption of the Goldstone report. After Richard Goldstone reconsidered his commission's report Ethan Bronner and Jennifer Medina of the New York Times wrote Past Holds Clue to Goldstone’s Shift on the Gaza War
“I know he was extremely hurt by the reaction to the report,” said Aryeh Neier, president of the Open Society Foundations, who has known Mr. Goldstone for years and remains close to him. “I think he was extremely uncomfortable in providing some fodder to people who were looking for anything they could use against Israel.” In describing his new position, Mr. Goldstone wrote, “If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone report would have been a different document.” He has declined requests to elaborate. Interviews with two dozen people who know him suggest a combination of reasons: the hostility from his community, disappointment about Hamas’s continuing attacks on civilians, and new understanding of Israel’s conduct in a few of the most deadly incidents of the war. The year and a half since the Gaza report was published have been hard on Mr. Goldstone. Hailed by the Arab world and the anti-Israel left, he has been censured by those with whom he had always identified. One of his two daughters, who spent more than a decade in Israel and now lives in Canada with the man she married here, has been furious with him, according to a family friend; he was nearly unable to attend the bar mitzvah of his other daughter’s son in South Africa because of plans by some members of the Jewish community there to demonstrate against his presence.
This article is misdirection at its worst. By describing the factors that caused Judge Goldstone to reconsider his commission's work the New York Times implied that his reconsideration was not normative. But given the pre-existing prejudices of his cohorts, the question should have been how an investigation so tainted could possibly be fair. Goldstone's reconsideration was less newsworthy than the open bias of the commission from its very start.
Peter Bouckaert, Human Rights Watch emergencies director, told CNN he has seen the same pattern in armories looted elsewhere in Libya, noting that "in every city we arrive, the first thing to disappear are the surface-to-air missiles."
He said such missiles can fetch many thousands of dollars on the black market.
"We are talking about some 20,000 surface-to-air missiles in all of Libya, and I've seen cars packed with them." he said. "They could turn all of North Africa into a no-fly zone."
The benefits to the PLO have been staggering. Financial statistics cannot be specified, for the PLO does not circulate its budget, but published reports indicate that in recent years the organization received about $250 million yearly from Saudi Arabia and smaller amounts from other oil states, including $60 million a year from Kuwait. At a summit conference in Baghdad in 1978, the Arab states promised another $100 million annually. Non-Arab governments (such as the Soviet bloc) also gave generously; and if these insisted on cash for arms, third parties might be induced to pick up the tab, as in April 1982 when the Saudis promised $250 million to pay for weapons from Bulgaria, Hungary, and East Germany. When the PLO requested help from the Arab states last summer, the Algerian foreign minister called in the Soviet ambassador in Algiers at four in the morning and gave him a check for $20 million; the weapons reportedly arrived in Beirut several days later by air. About 5 to 10 percent of the pay of the 300,000 Palestinians working in the Gulf states is withheld by the governments there and earmarked for the PLO; were all of this money to reach its stated destination (which is not the case), it would provide the PLO with about another $250 million a year. Aid also comes from the farther away, from radical and Islamic groups around the world: in January 1983, for instance, the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement in Kuala Lumpur gave a check for $80,000 to the local PLO representative. Terrorist activities have also proved a source of funds; the PLO reportedly received $20 million in December 1975 for releasing the OPEC oil ministers it had helped take hostage. With this capital, the PLO was able to start large-scale business enterprises. In Lebanon, it ran a conglomerate called Samad ("Steadfast") whose 10,000 employees and estimated $40-million gross revenues in 1980 made it one of the country's largest firms. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an organizational member of the PLO, achieved a near-monopoly over steel products in South Lebanon during the late 1970s by importing steel from the Soviet bloc at concessionary prices and paying no import duties (the PLO controlled the ports of Sidon and Tyre). Its factory, the Modern Mechanized Establishment near Sidon, undercut competitors and drove them out of business; then it raised prices and reaped huge profits. Many Lebanese believed that predatory pricing was integral to the PLO's plans to retain control over South Lebanon. In addition to its local investments - a hotel in Lebanon, a chicken farm in Syria - the PLO owns a portfolio of investments in the industrial states, including a disco club in Italy and an airline in Belgium.
Abbas's corruption isn't new. He's just the most recent and possibly weakest practitioner at the head of Fatah.
4) Followup
Yesterday I wrote that PM Netanyahu agreed to a building freeze in response to the diplomatic furor over the announcement of building in Ramat Shlomo. Israel Matzav pointed out that I had the chronology wrong. He also speculates (contrary to what I wrote) that he believes that Abbas would have gone through the motions of negotiating with Tzippi Livni (had she formed the current government) as he would have had no excuse not to.
This shouldn't surprise anyone. At least some of the Libyan rebels are connected to al-Qaeda. And they've managed to use the current battles to equip themselves with surface-to-air missiles (Hat Tip: Gates of Vienna).
AL-QAEDA'S offshoot in North Africa has snatched surface-to-air missiles from an arsenal in Libya during the civil strife there, Chad's President says.
Idriss Deby Itno did not say how many surface-to-air missiles were stolen, but told the African weekly Jeune Afrique that he was "100 per cent sure" of his assertion.
"The Islamists of al-Qaeda took advantage of the pillaging of arsenals in the rebel zone to acquire arms, including surface-to-air missiles, which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries in Tenere," a desert region of the Sahara that stretches from northeast Niger to western Chad, Deby said in the interview.
"This is very serious. AQIM is becoming a genuine army, the best equipped in the region," he said.
His claim was echoed by officials in other countries in the region who said that they were worried that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) might have acquired "heavy weapons", thanks to the insurrection.
...
Elsewhere in the interview, Chad's president backed the assertion by his neighbour and erstwhile enemy Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi that the protests in Libya have been driven in part by al-Qaeda.
"There is a partial truth in what he says," Deby said.
"Up to what point? I don't know. But I am certain that AQIM took an active part in the uprising."
...
The Chadian leader described the international military intervention in Libya, launched a week ago by the United States, France and Britain, as a "hasty decision".
"It could have heavy consequences for the stability of the region and the spread of terrorism in Europe, the Mediterranean and the rest of Africa," he cautioned.
So the US, Britain and France are supporting a war that will give al-Qaeda another foothold in North Africa and arm them to boot. But don't worry: The Libyan rebels have already asked France to leave.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
