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Israeli fighter jets, helicopters and possibly a submarine were involved in multiple attacks on targets in Sudan last week, according to local news outlets. The reports say that Israeli jets hit targets in the eastern part of the African country, near its border with Egypt, last Thursday. They hit six Land Cruiser jeeps and killed four people. An earlier strike took place last Sunday and reportedly involved Israeli helicopters. A truck was targeted. Some reports say an Israeli submarine was also spotted at the same time. However, the Sudanese army spokesman, Col. Al-Sawarmi Haled Sa'ad, said that the military's air...

Israel will be launching a military strike as early as December in a bid to stop Iran's nuclear program, the British Daily Mail reported, based on unnamed government sources. The sources said that Israel will strike Iran's nuclear sites "sooner rather than later" and rely on logistical American support.

After nearly a decade of development, the U.S. Air Force has ordered eight MOP (massive ordnance penetrator) GBU-57A/B bunker buster bombs. These 14 ton weapons cost $3.5 million each. In the last few years, several B-2 bombers have been equipped to carry these weapons (two bombs per B-2). This was apparently meant to send a message to Iran and North Korea.

The Obama administration has intensified the American covert war in Yemen, exploiting a growing power vacuum in the country to strike at militant suspects with armed drones and fighter jets, according to American officials. The acceleration of the American campaign in recent weeks comes amid a violent conflict in Yemen that has left the government in Sana, a United States ally, struggling to cling to power. Yemeni troops that had been battling militants linked to Al Qaeda in the south have been pulled back to the capital, and American officials see the strikes as one of the few options to...

BRUSSELS (AP) -- The international aerial onslaught against Moammar Gadhafi's forces has destroyed 30 percent of Libya's military capability, a senior NATO official said Tuesday.

RAS LANOUF, Libya – Moammar Gadhafi's forces hammered rebels with tanks and rockets, turning their rapid advance into a panicked retreat in an hourslong battle Tuesday. The fighting underscored the dilemma facing the U.S. and its allies in Libya: Rebels may be unable to oust Gadhafi militarily unless already contentious international airstrikes go even further in taking out his forces.

A "coalition of the willing" is rapidly forming to strike back at any military advances of the Ghaddafi regime against the rebels and Libyan civilians. Ten nations already are ready to attack. An immediate attack on pro-Ghaddafi forces after this night's UN Security Council resolution had been carefully planned, with many Arab and Western nations putting military vessels and aircrafts to the disposition of the operations.

His air force is already bombing the outskirts of the city, but not for much longer. The Security Council’s expected to vote at 6 p.m. ET and the French are telling people that airstrikes against Libyan air defenses — and maybe more — could begin immediately thereafter. At the same time, Qaddafi just delivered another insane stemwinder against the rebels on Libyan radio warning people in Benghazi that the army will be rolling into town tonight and that, if they don’t surrender, they’ll receive “no mercy.� Which means, unless someone blinks in the next few hours, that city will be...

"...a South Korean government who does not react would not be able to survive..." The United States and South Korean militaries have long had a plan (with multiple revisions over the years) for fighting and winning an all-out war with the Norks: OPLAN 5027. Regrettably, a copy of this was snaked by North Korean hackers last year. Following that debacle, a new strategy is of course in the works. But these days -despite never-ending belligerence emanating from the DPRK- fear of war on that scale has diminished on the SK/US side: the penniless Stalinist hell of North Korea is on the cusp of a possible...

The U.S. Air Force is ready to respond immediately if hostilities between the two Koreas escalate, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said Wednesday. Schwarz told reporters after North Korea's attack on Yeonpyeong Island, "The bottom line is that U.S. Forces Korea cetainly is monitoring the situation carefully." He mentioned Osan and Gunsan in South Korea, Kaneda in Okinawa, Japan, and other U.S. Air Force bases in the Pacific to emphasize that the U.S. has plenty of firepower in the region. Schwarz added USFK Commander Gen. Walter Sharp "has operational control of Air Force assets that reside on...

<p>A U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear weapons facilities might look just like this: a B-1bomber lancing along just above the desert floor at 900 feet per second, ducking behind mountains and beneath ridgelines to hide from enemy radar, carrying a bellyful of 2,000-pound satellite-guided bombs.</p>

10/26/10 By George Friedman We are a week away from the 2010 U.S. midterm elections. The outcome is already locked in. Whether the Republicans take the House or the Senate is close to immaterial. It is almost certain that the dynamics of American domestic politics will change. The large majority held by the Democrats will be gone, and party discipline will not be strong enough (it never is) to prevent some defections. Obama now has two options in terms of domestic strategy. The first is to continue to press his agenda, knowing that it will be voted down. If the...

WASHINGTON -- Afghanistan commander Army Gen. David Petraeus has renewed orders to American troops to refrain from calling in artillery or air power when battling Taliban forces unless they're certain that no civilians are present. The Aug. 1 order, Petraeus' first since he assumed command early this summer from ousted Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, was an effort to fine-tune a McChrystal directive that had angered some U.S. troops, who said the restrictions on the use of artillery and air power exposed them to greater danger. Petraeus' order, unclassified portions of which were released Wednesday, seemed unlikely to mollify that complaint,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan issued a directive on Wednesday that could facilitate use of air strikes but also called on troops to do everything possible to avoid putting civilians at risk. General David Petraeus, who took command of the nine-year-old war in Afghanistan in July, did not rewrite the rules guiding the use of force in his new "tactical directive." But U.S. officials said he clarified them in a way that may address concerns that some troops -- erring on the side of caution -- had avoided calling in air power...

A semi-official Iranian news agency reported Wednesday that Israel Air Force helicopters recently landed at a Saudi Arabia airport and unloaded equipment intended for attacking targets in a Muslim state.

In a rare move, Iran has declared a state of war on its northwestern border, DEBKAfile's military and Iranian sources report. Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps men and equipment units are being massed in the Caspian Sea region against what Tehran claims are US and Israeli forces concentrated on army and air bases in Azerbaijan ready to strike Iran's nuclear facilities. The announcement came on Tuesday, June 22 from Brig.-Gen Mehdi Moini of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), commander of the forces tasked with "repelling" this American-Israeli offensive. He said: "The mobilization is due to the presence of American and Israeli forces...

Also see Gerald Celente Channel

Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran's nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal. In the week that the UN Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran, defence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran. To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are...

Havana - Former Cuban President Fidel Castro believes if United States President Barack Obama orders a nuclear strike of Iran, he will win a second term. He also believes the U.S. could attack North Korea soon. On Wednesday, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has not been in the media since 2006, published a column in a Cuban state media publication titled "The Empire and War." In the article, Castro speculated that President Barack Obama could order a nuclear strike against Iran to help him win a second term in the White House, according to the Associated Press.

Turkey has installed Anti-Aircraft Hawk Missiles at a village close to the Syrian border in an attempt to prevent Israeli war jets from violating Turkish Airspace in case of an attack against Iran or Syria. A Turkish paper reported that Turkey will not allow Israel to use its airspace to attack Iran, Syria or any other country, and will act against any such violations. The anti-aircraft batteries were installed in the village of Kayeel, south of Turkey and located close to the Syrian border. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Turkish military official stated that the batteries are meant to...

TEL AVIV -- Israel has developed the advanced air refueling systems that could facilitate a strike on Iran. The officials also said the development overcame several years of refusals by Washington to supply the systems required for the 1,000 kilometer flight from Israel to Iran. Officials said the Israel Air Force has overseen the development and deployment of air refueling systems for its U.S.-origin fighter-jet fleet.

Dow Theorist Richard Russell Predicts Israel Strike On Iran Nuclear Facilities Joe Weisenthal Apr. 14, 2010, 8:08 AM This has been a concern for world markets for awhile, and now the famous Richard Russell of the Dow Theory Letters chimes in. Here's what he wrote yesterday: Russell is thinking -- The US has always played "big Brother" to Israel. But lately the two have had arguments and it's clear that the US has pulled away from Israel. It occurs to me that Israel is planning to attack Iran and destroy its nuclear facilities. If so, the US does not want...

TEL AVIV, Israel, April 8 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, may have signed a landmark arms-control treaty, but a U.S. think tank is suggesting Israel could resort to using tactical nuclear weapons to destroy Iran's deeply buried nuclear facilities. Whether this is all part of a U.S. effort to crank up the pressure on Iran to be more compliant on the nuclear issue by using scare tactics or if the right-wing government in Israel is actually inclined to resort to nuclear weapons is almost impossible to discern. But one day after the Center...

20:02 IAF fighter planes scrambled after foreign warplanes approach Israel (Ch. 2) (just the ticker so far)

Over the past three months, several prominent American think tanks and academic institutions have conducted simulation games about the Iranian crisis. Although these war games have nicely covered almost all facets of the problem, they have left one aspect mostly understudied: the nature of Iran's response to a U.S. or Israeli airstrike. I recently took part in two U.S. government-sponsored games in which the participants attempted to provide a modest assessment of that crucial issue. War simulation games are certainly not a new invention in government practice. Indeed, the history of strategy and that of simulation are inseparable. Ever since...

Should Israel attack Iranian nuclear facilities, it would probably carry out precision strikes while making every effort not to hit the oil sector or other civilian sites. Past Israeli operations, such as the 1981 bombing of Iraq's Osirak atomic reactor and a similar sortie against Syria in 2007, suggest a strategy of one-off pinpoint raids, due both to military limitations and a desire to avoid wider war. A simulation at the Brookings Institution in Washington last December theorized that Israel, intent on halting what the West suspects is Tehran's covert quest for atomic arms, would launch a sneak attack against...

Israeli warplanes have carried out at least 13 air strikes on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources have told the BBC.Four of the strikes took place near the town of Khan Younis, where two Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes with Palestinian fighters last week. The Israeli strikes are the most serious for more than a year, says the BBC's Jon Donnison from Jerusalem. Three children were reported slightly injured by flying debris. The director of ambulance and emergency in the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Dr Muawiya Hassanein, said an infant was among the injured. Witnesses and Hamas officials said...

Israeli air force have practiced simulated strikes at Iran's nuclear facilities using airspace of at least two unidentified Arab countries, a newspaper published in east Jerusalem reported. According to Al Manar paper, several Israeli combat jets carried out in late February bombing drills "targeting" known Iranian nuclear sites "in two Arab countries in the Persian Gulf, which are close territorially with the Islamic republic and cooperate with Israel on this issue." Al Manar said Israel had received the permission to use the airspace from the top leadership of these countries and Washington "gave a blessing" to Tel Aviv to conduct...

Washington, DC - A draft resolution is circulating among members of the House of Representatives that endorses an Israeli military attack on Iran "if no other peaceful solution can be found within reasonable time." The resolution, written by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and currently being circulated for cosponsors prior to its introduction, does not clarify what is meant by a "reasonable time."

Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran. The Sunday Herald can reveal that the US government signed a contract in January to transport 10 ammunition containers to the island. According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, this included 387 “Blu” bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures. Experts say that they are being put in place for an assault on Iran’s controversial nuclear facilities. There has long been speculation that the US military is...

TIMES OF INDIA: Stepping up its preparations for a possible strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, the United States is transporting hundreds of 387 'bunker-buster' bombs to its air base on the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, a media report claimed on Wednesday. The US government signed a contract in January with Superior Maritime Services to transport 10 ammunition containers to Diego Garcia from Concord, California, the Sunday Herald reported. The shipment includes 195 smart, guided Blu-110 bombs and 192 Blu-117 900kg bombs. The key Iranian nuclear facilities are underground and both these type of bombs are...

Israeli media reported on Sunday that the Israeli air force has started practicing rapid refueling, the type of which would only be used in a sustained aerial attack on a distant enemy. The process involves Israeli warplanes sent on raids thousands of miles away returning to Israel, landing and refueling without shutting off their engines in order to get back in the air as fast as possible. Naturally, rapid refueling of this type is very risky, since the fuel is being pumped not far from the jet's engines. Revelation that Israel is doing this kind of training came just a...

On the eve of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Moscow, senior Russian security officials were speaking out on defense-related issues that have provoked tensions between the two countries. An hour before Netanyahu's plane took off on Sunday, Russian officials said that Moscow sees no reason to delay the sale of the S-300, a powerful air-defense system, to Iran. In addition, on Friday, Russian intelligence officials leaked comments expressing their displeasure with plans by an Israeli firm to close a major arms deal with Georgia. "There is a signed contract [for the S-300 missiles] which we must follow through on,...

The chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said on Sunday he was concerned about the consequences of any attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. "The outbreak of a conflict will be a big, big, big problem for all of us, and I worry a great deal about the unintended consequences of a strike," Admiral Mullen said.

Here is video of former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton on Fox and Friends today, where he said the case for striking Iran is growing. Bolton said Iran's radical Islamic regime sent signals this week that they are still firmly in control, as they kept protests to a minimum on the day Ahmadinejad announced they had successfully enriched uranium. He made the announcement on the 31st anniversary of the "Islamic Revolution" in Iran. Bolton said he believes the "pre-emptive use of military force" is the only way to prevent Iran from obtaining Nuclear Weapons. Since Bolton believes there is "zero likelihood"...

Iran's Islamic Revolution had a busy week preceding its 31st birthday yesterday. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Sunday that Iran would enrich uranium to 19.75% purity for Tehran's research reactor. Yesterday he claimed to have done just that, making Iran "a nuclear state." Earlier, Tehran boasted of making advances in radar-evading drone aircraft. Its ambassador to Moscow said that Russia promised imminent delivery of S-300 air-defense systems that could preclude Israel from attacking Iran's nuclear program. And to intimidate protesters, the regime disrupted communications networks, made widespread arrests, and executed dissidents. Antiregime demonstrations yesterday were met with force. Unfortunately, President...

The U.S. should support an Israeli military strike against Iranian nuclear installations if the Jewish state, fearing diplomacy has failed, ultimately takes that course of action, stated former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Asked whether the U.S. should support an Israeli strike, Huckabee replied, "Absolutely." Huckabee was speaking in a WABC Radio interview with Aaron Klein, WND's senior reporter, who has been hosting a weekend show on the New York mega-station.

They're back! The "Bomb Iran" crowd is making a big return to the political center stage after months of puzzlement over what to do about developments in the Islamic Republic. Hawks such as Daniel Pipes and John Bolton are arguing that Iran is dead-set on its pursuit of a nuclear arsenal -- and point to developments such as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement this weekend that Iran would enrich its uranium stocks to 20 percent to argue that diplomatic avenues have reached a dead end. The would-be bombers fear that the mullahs will leverage their nuclear capability to expand Persian influence...

Self-confessed bulldog with lipstick and conservative hero Sarah Palin has started her 2012 campaign on a combative note. War with Iran and soon. This comes in the wake of Tehran yet again getting up the West’s noses with regard to their uranium enrichment programme. Palin advocated war with Iran in a recent interview with Fox news and added that the war card may well be Obamas safest bet for re-election in 2012. "Say he decided to declare war on Iran or decided really to come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to...

An Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program will neither completely stop Teheran’s nuclear march, nor bring down the ayatollahs’ regime, according to former Swiss ambassador to Iran Tim Guldimann. Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on the sidelines of this week’s Herzliya Conference, Guldimann, who knows the Iranian way of thinking well, expressed – as a personal opinion – his deep concern about the military option against Iran. Guldimann was Swiss ambassador to Iran and Afghanistan from 1999 to 2004. As ambassador to Teheran, Guldimann – now senior adviser and head of the Middle East Project at the Center for Humanitarian...

A military strike on Iran could have the unintended consequence of stirring nationalist sentiment to the benefit of Tehran's hard-line government, U.S. General David Petraeus told Reuters.

"UP cops nab IM terrorist planning aerial strike" Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui, TNN, 2 February 2010, 01:48am IST SNIPPET: "LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: The arrest of Shehzad alias Pappu — one of the key accused in the September 2008 serial blasts in Delhi and the Batla House encounter — by the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) of UP Police from Azamgarh on Monday evening is being seen as a major breakthrough in exposing a module that was planning to unleash air strikes. Shehzad, intelligence agencies had recently discovered, had undergone a training to fly planes from an institute in Bangalore and had surfaced as a...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy assessed that Israel "would not stand by while Iran develops nuclear weapons," Al Hayat quoted sources close to the French leader on Saturday. "Israel might take action to prevent the Iranian regime, which wants to wipe it off the map of the world, from obtaining a nuclear bomb," Sarkozy reportedly explained to visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri.

Yemen says its fighter jets struck the home of a prominent al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula terrorist, the day after new international sanctions were announced against the group. Yemeni government fighter jets launched a series of raids against the fortified compound of a prominent terrorist Ayad al-Shabwani, reportedly destroying the structure. Militants close to Shabwani claim he survived the raids. Al-Jazeera TV showed images of the damaged compound, although it was not clear when they were taken. Missiles appear to have pierced a gaping hole on one side of the mud-brick fortress.

An Israeli Preventive Attack on Iran's Nuclear Sites: Implications for the U.S. by James Phillips Backgrounder #2361 Abstract: Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions are ominous in light of its hostile foreign policy and longstanding sup­port for terrorism. But Iran's repeated threats to annihilate the state of Israel while it develops the world's most dan­gerous weapons have created an even more explosive situ­ation. If diplomatic efforts to defuse the situation fail, Israel may see no other choice than to launch a preventive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. Heritage Foundation Mid­dle East expert James Phillips maps out the likely results of an Israeli...

US military commander for the Middle East and the Gulf region has confirmed that the United States has developed contingency plans to deal with Iran's nuclear facilities. Gen David Petraeus, head of Central Command or Centcom, did not elaborate on the plans, but said the military has considered the impacts of any action taken there. Asked about the vulnerability of Iran's nuclear installations, he told CNN: "Well, they certainly can be bombed. The level of effect would vary with who it is that carries it out, what ordnance they have, and what capability they can bring to bear." General Petraeus...

WASHINGTON DC, United States - A top US military commander responsible for the Middle East and the Gulf region said the United States has developed contingency plans to deal with Iran's nuclear facilities, insisting that they "can be bombed." "Well, they certainly can be bombed," General David Petraeus, head of US Central Command, told CNN television as he commented on suggestions that Iranian nuclear facilities were heavily fortified. "The level of effect would vary with who it is that carries it out, what ordnance they have, and what capability they can bring to bear," he added. The network plans to...

SANAA, Yemen -- Yemeni forces, backed by the United States, launched an attack Thursday on a meeting of al-Qaeda operatives where a Yemeni American preacher linked to the suspected gunman in the Fort Hood attacks might have been present, U.S. and Yemeni officials said. The strike on an alleged al-Qaeda hideout in southeastern Yemen killed at least 30 suspected militants and was the second such assault in the past week, according to Yemeni security and government sources. One of the possible meeting participants was Anwar al-Aulaqi, a U.S. citizen and extremist preacher who exchanged e-mails with the Army psychiatrist suspected...

Yemeni forces killed at least 30 suspected militants in an air strike early Thursday on an alleged al-Qaeda hide-out in southeastern Yemen, the second such assault in the past week, according to Yemeni security and government sources. The dead may include Anwar al-Aulaqi, the extremist Yemeni-American preacher linked to the suspected gunman in last month's deadly Fort Hood attack, a Yemeni government official said. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the apparent target of the strike was Aulaqi's house, where al-Qaeda leaders were believed to have gathered. It was unknown whether Aulaqi was present at the meeting and,...

The radical Muslim imam linked to the rampage at Fort Hood is believed to have been killed in a Yemen airstrike that may have also taken out the region's top Al Qaeda leader and 30 other militants, a security official told Reuters on Thursday. The raid in Yemen's east targeted an Al Qaeda leadership meeting held to organize terror attacks. It is believed to have killed Anwar al-Awlaki and at least two senior members in the organization, including the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.