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Israel is increasingly concerned with the military build-up in Iraq amid intelligence reports that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is solidifying its presence in the country, according to a senior IDF officer. Of particular concern is the Pentagon’s approval in late 2011 of the sale of 36 F- 16 multi-role combat aircraft to Iraq. The planes will be built by Lockheed Martin in the US and are Block 52 F-16s, meaning that they are of the same configuration as Israel’s F-16Is, called Sufa (Storm). “We are carefully watching the developments in Iraq,” the IDF officer said. “The possible developments...

Israel Defense Forces officials told cabinet ministers on Monday that should Israel undergo a coordinated missile attack, there would be less than 300 Israeli casualties. The number was mentioned by IDF officials during a discussion in Israel's security-diplomatic cabinet, Channel 10 reported on Monday, and is far lower than the number mentioned previously by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who reportedly said that a maximum of 500 Israelis would die in such an attack. During the meeting, a senior official in the Israel Air Force told the cabinet ministers that in the event of a coordinated missile attack on Israel's home...

The Syrian army has recaptured most of the northern rebel stronghold of Idlib near the Turkish border, pushing hundreds of military defectors out of a major base they had held for months even as pockets of resistance kept up their fight Tuesday. Members of the rebel Free Syrian Army gather in a mountainous area of the restive Idlib province in northwestern Syria. The three-day operation to capture the city followed closely after a similar offensive to dislodge the opposition from another key piece of territory it had controlled, the Baba Amr district in central Homs. The two victories gave President...

Senior US officials doubt Washington's ability to properly gauge the progress of Iran's nuclear program and said that the United States would not necessarily know if Tehran had started secretly building an atomic bomb, The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday. The doubts of the "senior officials familiar with US intelligence and spying capabilities in Iran" contradict Washington's contention that US satellites, sensors and spies will know when Iran has "crossed a red line," marking the failure of efforts to thwart Tehran's nuclear ambitions through sanctions.

"We will hold sacred the beliefs held sacred by others.” That’s the concluding rally cry of the U.S. Department of Defense’s newly issued guidance on the “Proper Handling and Disposal of Islamic Religious Materials — Service Members/Civilian Training.” Here’s how it works: Mainstream Muslims throughout the Middle East believe, based on the Koran and other “Islamic Religious Materials,” that if an infidel force invades a Muslim territory, its members must be killed until the force has been driven out. They further believe that if non-Muslims commit some act — even an inadvertent one — that Muslims perceive as insulting to...

Despite reports of high-level defections of government and military officials, U.S. intelligence sees no signs of significant deterioration of support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by his inner circle, senior U.S. intelligence officials said Friday. Read also: U.N. envoy to meet with Syria's president The officials, who would speak only on the condition that their names not be used, said that to date, the defections have been of lower-level officials and those in the military. None of those defections, including the group of military officers who are reported to have defected this week, are close enough to al-Assad to truly...

Iran is closer to assembling a nuclear bomb than "people think," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, following a the publication of a report by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog on Tehran's nuclear program. Last week, the hotly anticipated document said Iran appeared to have worked on designing an atomic bomb and that secret research may continue. It was the most detailed International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report to date on the issue.

Washington, Oct.19 (ANI): Security researchers have detected a new Trojan, scarily similar to the infamous Stuxnet worm, which could disrupt computers controlling power plants, oil refineries and other critical infrastructure networks. The Trojan, dubbed "Duqu" by the security firm Symantec, appears, based on its code, to have been written by the same authors as the Stuxnet worm, which last July was used to cripple an Iranian nuclear-fuel processing plant, Fox News reports.

Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that he doesn't believe the peace accord between Israel and Egypt is in any danger, voicing optimism for the future. "The Arab Spring has brought hope for democracy and freedom to many of the people in the region ... and I hope that eventually it will potentially bring about a change in the prospects of a peace agreement to be negotiated between Israel and its neighbors," he said. "But it would require Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories and that's something that so far the Israeli government has been unable to do."

Iran has started moving the machines that enrich uranium for nuclear fuel from its main atomic complex in the central city of Natanz to an underground bunker near the holy city of Qom, its top nuclear official was quoted as saying on Monday. "Transferring Natanz centrifuges to Fordow (near Qom) is under way with full observance of standards," Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani told state broadcaster IRIB, adding "Fordow's facilities are being prepared and some centrifuges have been transferred."

BEIRUT (AP) — Tanks took over a main square in the besieged Syrian city of Hama and electricity and telephone phone lines were cut off Wednesday as President Bashar Assad's regime showed no signs of halting the intense military assault against an uprising now in its fifth month, activists said.

Almost every promise, almost every reset proclamation from Barack Obama about the struggles against, and those within, the radical Muslim world has either been withdrawn or proven bankrupt. On the day the president announced his reelection bid, his administration renounced its loud promises to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a New York civilian court. While blaming Congress for the flipflop, Team Obama conceded that it had no public support for such a sensational courtroom drama — and knew that the trial of the mastermind of 9/11, a few blocks from the site of his mass murdering, might have endangered the...

System designed to defend against rockets at range of 4-70 km; some defense officials warn of ramifications of deploying system without ability to protect all of cities under missile fire. As missile fire from the Gaza Strip escalated on Thursday, the IDF is preparing for the possible deployment of the Iron Dome counter-rocket defense system along Israel’s border with Gaza.

The Syrian people should follow Egypt’s lead and the country’s army should “empower a revolution”, Robert Gates, US secretary of defence, said as thousands marched in a southern city. Mr Gates made his comments – some of the toughest remarks to date by a US official about the rule of Bashar al-Assad, president – on a day of further upheaval in the Middle East and beyond. The White House signalled that it was preparing for a change in power in Yemen, where it has been allied with the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh, president. Officials also said Nato had neared...

The woman who authorities say killed her teenage daughter and son because she was fed up with them talking back and being mouthy will not appear in court Saturday because she's being treated at a hospital for an unknown condition. Authorities say Julie Powers Schenecker was taken to Tampa General Hospital shortly after midnight Saturday to be treated for a medical condition that existed before she was taken to jail. Hillsborough Sheriff's deputies — who oversee jail inmates — said they could not reveal Schenecker's medical condition, citing health care privacy laws. An arrest affidavit said Schenecker shot her son...

Freeper Muawiyah interviewed by Arab Radio station (presumably) from Middle East (probably Hamas) in Springfield Virginia after voting.

The cabinet passed the draft budget for 2011 and 2012 and the Economic Arrangements Law by a large majority on Friday afternoon, after 18 hours of debate that started Thursday evening. Twenty ministers from Likud, Labor and Habayit Hayehudi voted in favor. The five Israel Beiteinu ministers objected, the four Shas ministers abstained, and one Labor minister, Isaac Herzog, was absent. The most contentious portion of the nation’s second two-year budget involved defense − the Finance Ministry fought bitterly to decrease defense spending, while the Defense Ministry pushed for an increase. Ultimately, the matter was put on the table of...

War drums are beating in the Middle East. In a short time, the United States has increased the number of its carrier strike groups opposite Iran to three, and reports are raining down of a tightening ring of American and Israeli concentrations all around the Islamic Republic. On the diplomatic front, the Israelis are unusually concerned about their international image (for example, making concessions in Gaza) while their top officials - including Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself - are shuttling between Jerusalem and Washington. Everybody in the region is restless. Turkey is making spectacular diplomatic...

Russia's Mil Design Bureau has briefed military delegations from Arab and other states on an advanced helicopter expected to begin production by 2015. They said the helicopter would feature capabilities for stealth and the downing of fighter-jets. "We are working on the concept of the fifth-generation combat helicopter," Mil chief executive officer Andrei Shibitov said. At a briefing on May 13, Shibitov said Mil would produce the first fifth-generation helicopter in the world. He said the company would spend $1 billion on the project, with additional funds provided by the Russian Defense Ministry. Industry analysts said any new helicopter must...

Iran has intensified its crackdown on Kurdish nationalists. Opposition sources said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been attacking Kurdish villages throughout northeastern Iran near the border with Turkey. "The terrorists are upset because our intelligence on their network has vastly improved over the last year because of our cooperation with Turkey," an Iranian source said. The sources said the crackdown has targeted the Iranian wing of the Kurdish Workers Party known as Free Life in Kurdisan, or PJAK. "The targets include anybody believed associated with PJAK," an opposition source said. The sources said IRGC, particularly the Basij militia, has...