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TEL AVIV, Israel–The Israel Defense Forces is carrying out drills to practice for a possible massive aerial assault on Iran's nuclear facilities within days - or even hours - of being given the go-ahead by its new government, according to a report today in the Times of London. "Israel wants to know that if its forces were given the green light they could strike at Iran in a matter of days, even hours. They are making preparations on every level for this eventuality. The message to Iran is that the threat is not just words," one unnamed senior defense official...

The squad was targeted as it fired rockets toward Israel, according to Hassanain and Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Ahmed. The Israeli military said at least five rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel on Saturday, causing no injuries or damage.

KABUL – A coalition airstrike has killed a powerful Taliban commander who broke a promise to renounce violence after village elders persuaded President Hamid Karzai to free him from prison, officials said Monday. The Sunday night attack destroyed a building housing Ghulam Dastagir and eight other militants in the village of Darya-ye-Morghab, near the Turkmenistan border, the U.S. military said in a statement. Dastagir was responsible for a surge in violence in the province in recent months, including a November attack on an Afghan army convoy that killed 13 soldiers, the statement said. "He was like the shadow governor of...

GAZA CITY (AFP) – One Palestinian gunman was killed and three people were wounded by an Israeli air strike in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Saturday as rocket and mortar fire from the territory hit southern Israel. The raid came amid international calls for calm one day after Hamas ended a six-month truce and with growing internal pressure on the Israeli government to take tough action in Gaza. The raid took place near the northern town of Jabaliya when warplanes fired three missiles at militants preparing to launch rockets. Ali Hijazi, 24, a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militant...

Pastoral scenes, tourist sites only targets of NATO war machines. Afghan and Pakistan tribal officials claim that a recent attack by NATO forces on a village did not kill any terrorists, but instead claimed the lives of three puppies, a kitty, an unknown number of children with glasses, and two wittle-wee fluffy bunnies. A stuffed animal warehouse was also blown up during the attack, the villagers charged. The attack occurred in the lawless tribal region on the Afghan-Pakistan border, an area named for Lucy Lawless. "We were just minding our own business sewing breast plates into tunics when I heard...

Exclusive: Israel’s air maneuver did not simulate possible Iran strike strategy June 21, 2008, 3:20 PM (GMT+02:00) DEBKAfile’s Western military sources do not believe that if Israel does attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, it will resort to the old-fashioned aerial blitz tactic employed in 1981 for bombing Iraq’s Osirak reactor. They therefore challenge the US officials’ conclusion that Israel’s aerial exercise in conjunction with the Greek Air Force over Crete in early June was in fact a rehearsal for Iran. What was demonstrated was the Israeli Air Force’s capability for deploying a large aerial force of more than 100 warplanes and...

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2008 – Defense Department officials called a U.S. air strike yesterday in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border “legitimate” and “self-defense,” and said they are investigating the attack with Pakistani officials. “Every indication we have at this point is that the actions that were taken by U.S. forces were legitimate, in that they were in self-defense after U.S. forces operating on the border of Pakistan in Afghanistan territory came under attack from hostile forces,” Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said in a news conference today. “In self-defense, they called in an air strike, which took out those forces...

Excerpt - MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Airstrikes, possibly by U.S. planes, caused explosions in a remote area in southern Somalia, officials said Monday. There was no immediate information on casualties. Buale town chairman Ibrahim Noleye said planes were heard flying nearby Sunday night, followed by two loud explosions that shook the ground. Buale is 255 miles southwest of the capital, Mogadishu. A U.S. military official said there was no information about U.S. planes activities in Somalia. Noleye said he had contacted officials in nearby villages, who told him by two-way radio that the planes had hit an area between Buale...

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military fired guided missiles into the heart of Baghdad's teeming Sadr City slum on Saturday, leveling a building 55 yards away from a hospital and wounding nearly two dozen people. Separately, the U.S. military said late Saturday that four Marines were killed on Thursday by a roadside bomb in Anbar province. The military also said that a U.S. soldier died of wounds suffered in a roadside bomb that struck the soldier's vehicle during a combat patrol in eastern Baghdad Friday. At least 4,071 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq...

Turkey launches biggest bombing raid on Kurdish rebels in Iraq · Woman killed as 50 planes target PKK guerrilla bases · Prime minister warns of further military action Ewen MacAskill in Washington Monday December 17, 2007 Guardian Turkey yesterday launched the biggest attack on Iraq since the US invasion in 2003, sending more than 50 warplanes to bomb suspected Kurdish insurgent bases inside Iraqi territory, accompanied by long-range artillery shelling. Kurdish officials reported at least one civilian fatality, a woman, and two others injured. The strike, carried out in the middle of the night, sent hundreds of families fleeing and...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 28, 2007 – An air strike earlier this week in eastern Afghanistan was based on credible intelligence from multiple sources and by all indications struck its intended targets, the Pentagon’s press secretary told reporters today. NATO International Security Assistance Force troops used precision-guided munitions in the late Nov. 26 air strike in the mountainous Nuristan province, killing several insurgents, Geoff Morrell said during a Pentagon briefing. Abdullah Jan, the western Nuristan Taliban commander, is believed to be among those killed. Morrell dismissed press reports that the attack had mistakenly killed civilian construction workers. He noted that the closest...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2007 – A coalition air strike yesterday that killed terrorists also claimed the lives of a large number of innocent victims, military officials said. During an operation to pursue senior al Qaeda leaders in the Lake Thar Thar region, troops encountered small-arms fire from the target building. Responding in self-defense, coalition aircraft engaged the enemies inside the building. After the air strike, ground forces discovered that 15 terrorists, six women and nine children had been killed. Troops determined that two suspects, one woman and three children also were wounded. Ground forces also detained one suspected terrorist after...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2007 – A coalition airstrike killed more than 20 militants, and Iraqi security forces accompanied by coalition advisors captured 34 suspected terrorists during operations across Iraq Sept. 29, officials reported. -- A coalition aircraft fired on and killed more than 20 al Qaeda-affiliated insurgents during a battle northwest of Baghdad. The aircraft’s crew defended themselves after insurgents launched rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at the aircraft. Four enemy vehicles were destroyed during the firefight. -- Iraqi special operations troops detained a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq leader and two alleged cell members in Yusafiyah. -- Two...

9/28/2007 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- An Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon dropped precision munitions near Al Nussayyib, Iraq, Sept. 25 killing Abu Nasr al-Tunisi and two other al-Qaida Iraq operatives, according to Air Force officials. They were killed when the aircraft, assigned to U.S. Central Command Air Forces, dropped two laser-guided 500-lb joint direct attack munition guided bomb unit-12 bombs, destroying the terrorist safe house where the three were meeting. "Airpower is crucial to setting the conditions for stability in Iraq," said Lt. Gen. Gary L. North, the Combined Air Forces component commander. "Airpower overhead provides capability to the...

Terror label 'paves way for air strikes' By Philip Sherwell in New York, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:41am BST 26/08/2007 The White House's plans to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organisation are intended to give the Bush administration cover if it launches military strikes on the Islamic republic, according to a prominent former CIA officer. Washington accuses Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps of backing attacks on American forces in Iraq Robert Baer, who was a high-ranking operative in the Middle East, said last week that senior government officials had told him the administration was preparing for air strikes...

US 'poised to strike Iran' Font Size: Decrease Increase Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent | August 25, 2007 BOB Baer, the former Middle East CIA operative whose first book about his life inspired the oil-and-espionage thriller Syriana, is working on a new book on Iran, but says he was told by senior intelligence officials that he had better get it published in the next couple of months because things could be about to change. Baer, in an interview with The Weekend Australian, says his contacts in the administration suggest a strategic airstrike on Iran is a real possibility in the months...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5, 2007 – The senior al Qaeda terrorist believed to be the mastermind behind both bombings of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, was killed during a coalition air strike, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesperson told journalists in Baghdad today. “Yesterday, the government of Iraq announced that the coalition force killed a senior al Qaeda terrorist, Haitham Sabah al Badri,” said Navy Rear Adm. Mark Fox, spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq. “He was killed east of Samara on Aug. 2.” Al Badri, whose body was positively identified by family members, is believed to have masterminded both the February...

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A NATO air strike has killed 13 Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan's southeastern province of Khost, officials said on Saturday. The raid was called in after a group of Taliban fighters staged an abortive attack on a government headquarters in Ali Sher district late on Friday night, Khost's governor Arsala Jamal said. "The Taliban were killed in the bombing while retreating after the attack," he told reporters in Khost's town. A district official said at least five Afghan security forces were wounded in the Taliban attack, part of the spate of rising violence in recent weeks in...

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2007 – A suicide bomber attacked a coalition patrol southeast of Jalalabad, Afghanistan, today, and two Taliban fighters were killed in an airstrike, military officials reported. One coalition soldier sustained minor injuries and returned to duty, and one coalition vehicle was damaged. “The enemies of Afghanistan continue to fight against the peace and security that the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan works to maintain,” said Army Maj. Eric Zenk, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division spokesman. Elsewhere, defense officials reported five Afghan Security Guards were wounded and another two were killed during a four-hour firefight with...

WASHINGTON, March 11, 2007 – Afghan and coalition forces captured five suspected terrorists early today near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, during a search for individuals believed to be responsible for transporting and hiding al Qaeda terrorists and other fighters moving into and around Nangarhar province, officials said. No shots were fired, and there were no injures to Afghan or coalition forces. Yesterday in the Gereshk district of Helmand province, a precision air strike targeted a Taliban weapons facilitator. Officials said the goal of the operation was to destroy a command element of the Taliban’s terrorist organization responsible for facilitating the movement...