DEBKAfile, Israel Up Date.

New Hizballah tactic: Missile ambushes for Israel aircraft and ships DEBKAfile Special Report July 17, 2008, 11:53 AM (GMT+02:00) Hizballah's advanced C-802 anti-ship missile Hizballah marked the conclusion of the prisoner exchange with Israel by launching new tactics consisting of anti-air missile ambushes against Israeli Air Force flights over Lebanon and anti-ship missiles against Israel naval craft cruising off its shores,DEBKAfile's military sources report. The next day, the Lebanese army said Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace in the south, Beirut, Jounieh and Dahr al-Baidar on Wednesday and early Thursday. Israeli warships were deployed in Lebanese territorial waters from Naqoura to Tyre. More... Israel buries two returned soldiers at military funerals DEBKAfile Special Report July 17, 2008, 12:11 PM (GMT+02:00) Karnit Goldwasser The military funerals at the home towns of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, Nahariya and Haifa, returned in coffins by Hizballah Wednesday, were watched by Israelis nationwide in live television broadcasts. Many thousands attended the funerals along with national leaders. In tearful scenes, they condoled with Karnit Goldwasser, widowed after nine months' marriage, and the parents and siblings of the two soldiers, who campaigned tirelessly nation- and worldwide for their return.  More... High US official to attend nuclear talks with Iran, capping secret US-Tehran diplomacy DEBKAfile Exclusive Report July 16, 2008, 11:16 PM (GMT+02:00) Third ranking US diplomat William Burns The announcement that US Under Secretary of State William Burns will join the meeting the European Union's Javier Solana holds with Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in Geneva this week makes official the secret diplomatic track afoot between Washington and Tehran, which was first disclosed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly on June 27. Our US sources confirm that this step distances the Bush administration still further from Israel's demand to curtail Iran's drive for a nuclear bomb by all means.  More... Iran commandeers strategic Lebanese peak for radar station, anti-air missiles DEBKA-Net-Weekly Exclusive updated byDEBKAfile July 13, 2008, 12:14 PM (GMT+02:00) Mt. Sannine seen from Beirut Our intelligence sources report that control of the 7,800-foot Mt. Sannine peak, one the most prized strategic assets in the region, provides Iran, Hizballah and Syria with the perfect vantage point for radar-guided anti-air missiles and an early warning station to cover US Sixth Fleet movements in the eastern Mediterranean and menace IsraeliAir Force operations. Those missiles were recently emplaced. DEBKA-Net-Weekly's intelligence sources revealed on July 10 that Hizballah militiamen had seized control of Jabal Sannin. Read more about this dramatic development in DEBKAfile's Exclusive Report below. To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weeklyclick HERE .  Full article TOP STORIES •Thousands at military funerals for Israeli soldiers •Proposed US sale to Israel of four littoral combat ships •Hizballah prepares missile ambushes for Israeli aircraft and ships •Washington goes public on direct talks with Tehran •US force abandons remote Afghan outpost •Pentagon confirms Iran's long-range missile •Iran deploys radar, anti-air missiles on Lebanese peak Pentagon proposes selling Israel four littoral combat ships July 17, 2008, 12:04 PM (GMT+02:00) The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has notified Congress of its wish to sell Israel shore-hugging combat ships, spare parts, software and other goods and services worth $1.9 billion. Israel has requested the littoral combat ships to patrol its shores, mainly from Lockheed Martin, General Dynamis and Raytheon. The agency statement said: "It is vital to the U.S. national interest to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability. This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives." Pentagon confirms Iranian ballistic missile able to reach E. and S. Europe DEBKAfile Special Report July 16, 2008, 11:01 AM (GMT+02:00) US Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering, head of Missile Defense Agency Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering, director of the Missile Defense Agency told reporters July 16 he believes Iran now has a missile with a range of 1,250 miles (2,011 km), but did not say whether the weapon had been test-fired.DEBKAfile reports Israel is well within this range and the general's description applies to Iran's Shehab-3 long-range ballistic missile.  More... US force abandons remote Afghan outpost where nine troops killed July 16, 2008, 2:25 PM (GMT+02:00) Hundreds of insurgents broke through the defenses of the small American Combat Outpost at Wanat in the Dara-I-Pech district of Kunar Province in easternAfghanistan Friday and Saturday, July 11 and 12, in one of the biggest battles of the war. Nine US soldiers were killed and 15 injured - the biggest loss of life in a single battle since the start of the Afghan war in 2001. Scores of insurgents also died.  More... High military tension over Iranian presence on strategic Lebanese peak DEBKAfile Exclusive Report July 14, 2008, 12:19 PM (GMT+02:00) Ani-air missiles in last Hizballah parade DEBKAfile's military sources report that Israel has placed its military and air forces on its northern borders on high alert after Iran and Syria ignored Jerusalem's warning that the continued presence of Iranian, Syrian and Hizballah officers on the strategic Lebanese Sannine peak may spark a military clash.  More... Full Articles and Analyses Iranian Early Warning Station, Anti-Air Base on Lebanese Peak Iranian Early Warning Station, Anti-Air Base on Lebanese Peak July 12, 2008 Mt. Sannine, Central Lebanon To subscribe toDEBKA-Net-Weeklyclick HERE . In the past few weeks, Hizballah at the behest of Iran and Syria has commandeered the 7,800-foot Mt. Sannine, a strategic asset capable of determining the outcome of the next war, as DEBKA-Net-Weekly 356 revealed. Radar-guided missile positions and an early warning station have since been deployed on its summit, which are capable of monitoring and threatening US Sixth Fleet movements in the eastern Mediterranean and Israel Air Force flights. This development was serious enough for Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak to repeat three times in as many days that the IDF is keeping a close watch on events in the northern front, especially the deepening ties between Syria and the Lebanese Hizballah. Barak travels to Washington this week. Mt. Sannine, which dominates the roads connecting Beirut and Damascus, is one of the most prized strategic assets in the region. It was fought over for...  In full  Print  Send to Friend Related articles: Would Obama come to terms with Iran as a nuclear power? Merkel Recognizes Israel's Capital – But Opposes Military Steps against Iran Abbas Goes on the Warpath, Tries to Steal the Show from Hamas Mossad Chief Empowered to Prepare Groundwork for Iran Strike DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 23, 2008 Meir Dagan appointed to seventh year as Mossad Director By extending the Mossad director, Meir Dagan's tenure for another year until the end of 2009, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has put in place a vital constituent for a possible eleventh-hour unilateral strike at Iran's nuclear facilities. In his six years on the job, the 61-year old external intelligence has proved his covert mettle in a variety of counter-terror operations, graduating most recently to a highly successful intelligence coup leading up to the demolition of Syria's North Korean plutonium reactor in al Kebir last September. Appointed by former prime minister Ariel Sharon in 2002, Dagan's first four years as the Mossad's tenth chief were dedicated to counterterrorism rather than tracking Iran's nuclear activities or monitoring Iran's burgeoning strategic ties with Syria and Hizballah. From mid-2006, the former general shifted the agency's priorities to include these targets, while the Mossad continued to show its fearsome counter-terror paces in Damascus, Beirut...  In full  Print  Send to Friend Related articles: US Secret Service Embattled The Cypriot Air Crash Continues to Baffle the Investigation The Secret Cold War Partnership between Pope John Paul II and White House Revealed Iran Achieves a Four-Front Missile Command, Breakthrough on Nuclear Missile Warheads DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 16, 2008 Gen. Mohammed Ali Jafari, chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps DEBKAfile's military sources disclose that Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps have created a separate missile command, in which Syria's missile force is to be integrated. The joint command was formalized in a new mutual defense treaty signed by the Syrian defense minister, Gen. Hassan Turkmani in Tehran last week. Israeli military sources judge the operational merger of Iranian and Syrian missile corps to be a major strategic hazard to the Jewish state. Western and Israeli military experts connect it with other indications that Iran's program for developing missiles capable of delivering nuclear payloads has gone into high gear and reached an advanced stage. They believe the Iranians have beaten most of the technical difficulties holding it up. On May 26, the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, which often goes easy on Iran, released a harsh report confirming Iran's progress in "missile warhead design." The new missile command was cautiously announced last week by the...  In full  Print  Send to Friend Related articles: Bush and Rice at Odds on Annapolis and Israel Attack on Syria Iran Plots Syrian President's Ouster Syrian and Iranian Generals in Intensive War Consultations   Secret US-Iranian Dialogue Brings Oil Prices down, Shakes up Mid East Alliances From DEBKA-Net-Weekly 354 Updated by DEBKAfile July 8, 2008 To subscribe toDEBKA-Net-Weekly clickHERE . Oil prices suddenly slumped Tuesday, July 8, as predicted by DEBKA-Net-Weekly on June 27, under the impact of the secret American-Iranian talks embarked on last month to solve burning issues by diplomatic engagement. These talks between the US and Iranian delegations, representing President George W. Bush and Iranian supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have yielded ad hoc understandings on controversial issues. One is an agreement not to allow the price of oil to rocket past $150 the barrel. DEBKA-Net-Weekly's exclusive Gulf and Iranian sources disclosed that the bilateral negotiations were deliberately masked by the war fever engineered by Washington in the form of a stream of leaks indicating that a US or Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear installations was imminent. At the same time, neither nation has sheathed its military option. Those understandings are ad hoc and could...  In full  Print  Send to Friend Related articles: US Military Option on Iran Is Back on the Table Middle East Efforts by Rice, Carter Spark More Violence Washington Opens Diplomatic Door to Tehran

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