Laser weapon downs 6 planes in Boeing test

Laser weapon downs 6 planes in Boeing test
by Staff Writers
Albuquerque (UPI) Nov 18, 2009
New laser weaponry being developed at Boeing has dealt a telling blow to airborne aircraft -- all of them unmanned -- in successful tests that take military laser technology a few steps closer to assuming a key role in future conflicts.

Laser weapons are seen by industry analysts as a major step toward a more effective -- and more cost-effective -- deterrent to enemy threats from the air. Laser weapons can be fired at enemy targets without any apparent risk to human crews involved. However, most defense laser technologies are still many stages behind fictional depictions of laser weapons in Hollywood films.

Boeing units in Albuquerque and St. Louis, as well as the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army and Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, Calif., took part in the tests to advance the feasibility of lasers in warfare.

The Boeing Co. said its tests demonstrated the ability of mobile laser weapon systems to track and destroy small unmanned aerial vehicles -- until then a unique mission.

During the U.S. Air Force-sponsored tests at the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, the mobile weapon, called the Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated Experiments, took part in the tests.

MATRIX was developed by Boeing under contract to the Air Force Research Laboratory. It is a mobile, trailer-mounted test bed that integrates with existing test-range radar. MATRIX used a single, high-brightness laser beam to shoot down five UAVs at various ranges. The sixth aircraft was shot down by Laser Avenger, a Boeing-funded initiative. Representatives of the Air Force and Army watched the tests.?

"The Air Force and Boeing achieved a directed-energy breakthrough with these tests," said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Missile Defense Systems' Directed Energy Systems unit. Industry analysts said the potency of the laser beam was one of the issues being worked on before the tests.

Boeing indicated the tests allowed for powerful laser beams to home in on and destroy the intended targets. "MATRIX's performance is especially noteworthy because it demonstrated unprecedented, ultra-precise and lethal acquisition, pointing and tracking at long ranges using relatively low laser power," said Fitzmire.

As warfare becomes technologically advanced there is support on all sides for developing technologies that involve less and less of the human resource that is considered most politically sensitive, analysts said.

Wars that are fought with minimum human input from members of a nation's armed forces are seen less likely to be controversial than conflicts that involve greater human input, as with ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, analysts said.

?Bill Baker, chief scientist of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate, praised his team and Boeing for the successful UAV shootdowns.

?"These tests validate the use of directed energy to negate potential hostile threats against the homeland," Baker said. "The team effort of Boeing and the Air Force in developing MATRIX will pay major dividends for the warfighter now and in the years ahead," he added.

As part of the overall counter-UAV demonstration, Boeing also successfully test-fired a lightweight 25mm machine gun from the Laser Avenger platform to potentially increase the capability against UAV threats. This test falls into the category of a hybrid, combining laser with conventional methods.

Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, a unit of The Boeing Co. with headquarters in St. Louis, is one of the world's largest space and defense businesses and a versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. It is a $32 billion business with 70,000 employees worldwide.

China’s New Missile May Create a ‘No-Go Zone’ for U.S. Fleet

Share BusinessChina’s New Missile May Create a ‘No-Go Zone’ for U.S. Fleet By Tony Capaccio Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- China’s military is close to fielding the world’s first anti-ship ballistic missile, according to U.S. Navy intelligence. The missile, with a range of almost 900 miles (1,500 kilometers), would be fired from mobile, land-based launchers and is “specifically designed to defeat U.S. carrier strike groups,” the Office of Naval Intelligence reported.
Five of the U.S. Navy’s 11 carriers are based in the Pacific and operate freely in international waters near China. Their mission includes defending Taiwan should China seek to exercise by force its claim to the island democracy, which it considers a breakaway province. The missile could turn this region into a “no-go zone” for U.S. carriers, said Andrew Krepinevich, president of the Center for Strategic and Budget Assessments in Washington. Scott Bray, who wrote the ONI report on China’s Navy, said China has made “remarkable progress” on the missile. “In little over a decade, China has taken the program from the conceptual phase” to “near fielding a combat-ready missile,” he said. Bray’s report, issued in July, was provided to Bloomberg News on request.
China also is developing an over-the-horizon radar network to spot U.S. ships at great distances from its mainland, and its navy since 2000 has tripled to 36 from 12 the number of vessels carrying anti-ship weapons, Bray, the ONI’s senior officer for intelligence on China, said in an e-mail. China’s Strategy The new missile would support China’s “anti-access” strategy to detect and if necessary attack U.S. warships “at progressively greater distances” from its mainland, Krepinevich said.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a Sept. 16 speech, said China’s “investments in anti-ship weaponry and ballistic missiles could threaten America’s primary way to project power and help allies in the Pacific -- particularly our forward bases and carrier strike groups.” Admiral Gary Roughead, chief of U.S. naval operations, says the new Chinese missile was one factor in his 2008 decision to cut the DDG-1000 destroyer program from eight ships to three because the vessels lack a missile-defense capability. The Navy instead plans to build up to seven more Lockheed Martin Corp. Aegis-class DDG-51 destroyers and equip them with the newest radar and missiles. China’s ballistic missile “portends the sophistication of the threats that we’re going to see,” Roughead said in an interview earlier this year.
China has ground-tested the missile three times since 2006 and conducted no flight tests yet, Navy officials said. ‘Limited Capability’ General Xu Caihou, China’s No. 2 military official, played down the weapon’s significance. “It is a limited capability” to meet “the minimum requirement of” China’s national security, Xu, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, said in response to a question following an Oct. 26 speech in Washington. Mark Stokes, an analyst who has studied the missile program, said the Navy’s assessment indicates China started to develop the weapon after the March 1996 Taiwan “crisis.” That’s when the Clinton administration sent two aircraft carriers and escort warships into the Taiwan Strait and the surrounding area after China fired missiles near the island before its presidential election, Stokes said. Stokes just published a study of the weapon for the non- profit Project 2049 Institute in Arlington, Virginia, that studies Asia security issues.
Alter Rules
An article in the May 2009 edition of Proceedings, a magazine published by the U.S. Naval Institute, said the missile “could alter the rules in the Pacific and place U.S. Navy carrier strike groups in jeopardy.” “The mere perception that China might have an anti-ship ballistic missile capability could be a game-changer, with profound consequences for deterrence, military operations and the balance of power in the Western Pacific,” the article said. Paul Giarra, a defense consultant who studies China’s weapons, called the missile “a remarkably asymmetric Chinese attempt to control the sea from the shore.” “No American military operations -- air or ground -- are feasible in a region where the U.S. Navy cannot operate,” Giarra, president of Global Strategies and Transformation, based in Herndon, Virginia, said in an e-mail. The missiles are intended for launch to a general location where their guidance systems take over and spot carriers for attack with warheads intended to neutralize the ships’ threat by destroying aircraft on decks, launching gear and control towers, Giarra said.
The Pentagon, in its latest annual report on China’s military, for the first time included a sketch of the notional flight profile of the new Chinese missile but gave little additional detail. Sky Wave Bray said China has the initial elements of its new over- the-horizon radar that can provide the general location of U.S. vessels before launching the new missile. Stokes said the so-called Sky Wave radar can spot U.S. vessels as far away as 1,860 miles (3,000 kilometers). Unlike traditional radar that fires radio waves off objects straight ahead, over-the-horizon radar bounces signals off the ionosphere, the uppermost layer of the atmosphere, which can pick up objects at greater distances. The radar is supplemented by reconnaissance satellites, another Navy official said, requesting anonymity. There are 33 in orbit and that number may grow to 65 by 2014, 11 of which would be capable of conducting ocean surveillance, he said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net

Arabs go for air power to counter Iran

Arabs go for air power to counter Iran

The combined air strength of the Gulf Arab states greatly outnumber the Iranian air force, which has suffered tremendously from U.S.-led arms embargoes on the Islamic republic over the last 30 years. Phot courtesy AFP.

by Staff Writers
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UPI) Nov 17, 2009
Arab states, particularly in the Gulf, are seeking to build up their air power and missile defenses to counter any challenger from Iran.

Mostly they're looking to their traditional arms suppliers in the West, the United States, Britain and France, but Russia is pushing hard for a piece of the action.

This year's biennial Dubai air show, which opened Sunday in the United Arab Emirates, provided a showcase for the latest technology on offer.

Air power has been the deciding factor in most Middle Eastern conflicts since the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict, when Israeli warplanes annihilated the air forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan, largely on the ground, in pre-emptive strikes at the outset.

And for the Gulf states that lie across the waterway from Iran, air power and their ability to counter the Islamic republic's ballistic missile arsenal will be crucial in any conflict that erupts.

"Acquisition of the best air assets as politically and economically feasible -- be these fighter aircraft, helicopters, transports or unmanned aerial vehicles -- has thus become a priority in the Middle East," an analysis by Germany's Defense Professionals group concluded.

It stressed that the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain -- have given top priority to building up their air power.

"Political decision-makers in the region are acutely aware of the importance of air assets and the need to upgrade them with better firepower and/or expanded numbers whenever required," it said.

The combined air strength of the Gulf Arab states greatly outnumber the Iranian air force, which has suffered tremendously from U.S.-led arms embargoes on the Islamic republic over the last 30 years.

However, air power is needed not only as a deterrent but as a critical element to counter Iran's overwhelming strength on the ground if hostilities erupt, with GCC energy industries a key target.

The GCC states, along with Egypt and Jordan, are the recipients of U.S. military systems worth more than $20 billion under a package unveiled by President George W. Bush in 2007 to bolster Arab capabilities against Iran's nuclear program and its expansionist policies.

Under this they will be able to acquire advanced systems, some of them long denied Arab states because of Israeli opposition, such as the Patriot air-defense missile, the over-the-horizon AMRAAM air-to-air missile as well as fighter upgrades and electronic systems that outclass anything Iran is known to have.

The United Arab Emirates, one of the world's major oil producers, has built up an impressive air strength that rivals the Saudi air force and is currently spending $3.3 billion of the Patriot system manufactured by the Raytheon company of Massachusetts.

U.S. government-to-government arms sales rose 4.7 percent in 2008 to a record $38.1 billion and are expected to total about the same this year, the Pentagon announced Nov. 7.

Among the top buyers were the United Arab Emirates with $7.9 billion, Saudi Arabia with $3.3 billion, Egypt with $2.1 billion and Iraq with $1.6 billion.

Leading U.S. arms manufacturers Lockheed Martin Corp., the Boeing Co., Northrop Grumman Corp., Raytheon and the General Dynamics Corp are all seeking to boost sales in the Middle East to counter U.S. budget cuts that are likely to slow big-ticket purchases by the Pentagon.

Iran has sought to counter the air and missile threat, not just from the United States and Israel but the GCC states as well, with Russian air-defense systems.

The Saudis, apparently with the encouragement of Washington, have offered Moscow an arms-buying package worth more than $2 billion if it tears up a 2007 contract to supply Iran with the advanced S-300PMU air-defense system, considered one of the most effective in operation.

So far, the Russians have held up deliveries, much to Tehran's annoyance. The Saudis are offering to buy the S-400 air-defense system, successor to the S-300 and far more dangerous, along with tanks and other systems if Moscow plays ball.

That would crack open the lucrative Gulf arms market for the Russians. If the Americans have indeed agreed to Riyadh's offer to Moscow, it demonstrates just how far they are prepared to go to ensure that Iran is contained.

Iran sends warships to Yemeni waters

Iran sends warships to Yemeni waters

File image courtesy AFP.

by Staff Writers
Sanaa, Yemen (UPI) Nov 18, 2009
Iran has sent warships to the Gulf of Aden, ostensibly to combat Somali pirates preying on major shipping lanes.

But the deployment, announced Saturday in Tehran, could bring closer the prospect of a confrontation with Saudi Arabia, its regional rival, amid rising tension in the Gulf and Red Sea regions, both vital oil arteries.

The Iranian move coincides with a Saudi naval blockade in the Red Sea to intercept arms shipments allegedly sent by Iran and Eritrea to Shiite rebels fighting Saudi forces in northern Yemen.

The Yemeni government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh claims the Iranians are arming the Zaidi Shiite rebels who have fought Saleh's forces to a standstill in three months of combat in the mountains of Saada province along the border with Saudi Arabia. Yemen is predominantly Sunni Muslim.

The rebellion began in 2004 but intensified sharply in August, when Saleh launched an all-out offensive dubbed Operation Scorched Earth against the tribesmen.

Two weeks ago the Saudis, in a rare use of Riyadh's military power, joined forces with Saleh's army to fight the rebels after they crossed the 930-mile frontier and killed a Saudi officer.

Since then the Saudis, who see themselves as the guardians of Sunni Islam, have mounted repeated airstrikes against the rebels.

Riyadh also sent ground forces into Saada province to establish a 7-mile-deep cordon sanitaire inside Yemeni territory.

The territorial intrusion was apparently condoned by Saleh's beleaguered regime. It is also grappling with an increasingly violent separatist movement in south Yemen, a socialist state before union with the north in 1990, a resurgent al-Qaida and a collapsing economy that is causing unrest.

The Saudis, who do not want to see Yemen collapse into chaos that al-Qaida could exploit to menace the kingdom, dispatched three warships with marine commandos from its Red Sea base at Yanbu last Thursday to patrol off northern Yemen.

The Sanaa regime claimed its navy intercepted an Iranian-crewed ship laden with weapons in the Red Sea on Oct. 26. Tehran denies it is aiding the rebels.

However, Texas-based security consultancy Stratfor reports that Tehran has also been ferrying veteran fighters from Lebanon's Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah movement to Yemen to bolster the insurgents, known as Houthis after the clan that leads them.

The objective of the Saudi blockade is to interdict the alleged Iranian arms route via Eritrea, on the western shore of the Red Sea.

Relations between Eritrea and Yemen have been strained for some time, and border clashes were reported throughout the 1990s.

The regime in Asmara, Eritrea's capital, is one of the most secretive in Africa and is accused by its neighbors of aiding Islamist militants fighting in Somalia.

Stratfor says that since the Saudi blockade began, the Iranians are now using a longer route that starts at Asab, a port in southeastern Eritrea, to move the weapons.

The route curls eastward around the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula into the Gulf of Aden, where Iranian naval vessels are now deploying, to Shaqra on Yemen's southern coast.

From there, Stratfor maintains, the arms are moved north overland to Marib in central Yemen, and then on to the Saada mountains. If that is the case, the Saudis are likely to deploy their own warships in the Gulf of Aden.

Stratfor reported Monday that "Iran appears to be using the naval assets (in the Gulf of Aden) to protect its supply lines to the Houthi rebels Â…

"It is not yet clear how aggressive Saudi and Iranian rules of engagement are, or how close they are to coming into conflict with one another.

"But with Iranian warships apparently facilitating the smuggling of arms that Riyadh is intent on interdicting, the potential for an incident or conflict at sea is certainly on the rise."

As the proxy war between the two Gulf powers appeared to escalate, Iran's army commander, Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, warned Tuesday that Saudi "Wahhabi state terrorism" in Yemen could have consequences across the region.

The official Saudi Press Agency reported that King Abdullah met with U.S. Director of Central Intelligence Leon Panetta in Riyadh Sunday.

In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with Saudi Arabia's visiting deputy defense minister, Prince Khaled bin Sultan, Tuesday to discuss "regional security issues."

China gave Pakistan bomb-grade uranium for nukes: report

China gave Pakistan bomb-grade uranium for nukes: report
WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (AFP) Nov 13, 2009
China provided Pakistan with weapons grade uranium for two bombs in 1982, according to notes made by the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, the Washington Post reported Friday.

In written accounts cited by the newspaper, Abdul Qadeer Khan said China also supplied a blueprint for a simple bomb that significantly speeded Pakistan's nuclear weapon program.

The Post said the deliberate act of proliferation was the culmination of a secret nuclear deal struck in 1976 by Chinese leader Mao Zedong and Pakistan's prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

"Upon my personal request, the Chinese Minister ... had gifted us 50 kg [kilograms] of weapon-grade enriched uranium, enough for two weapons," Khan wrote in what the Post said was a previously undisclosed 11-page narrative of the Pakistani bomb program.

Khan prepared the narrative for Pakistani intelligence officers after his January 2004 detention for unauthorized nuclear commerce. He is still under house arrest.

In a separate account sent to his wife several months earlier, he wrote, "The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us kg50 enriched uranium."

The Post said China has long denied helping any other nation acquire nuclear weapons, but that Khan's accounts confirm the long-held conclusion of US intelligence that China provided such assistance.

US President Barack Obama is expected to raise nuclear proliferation issues with China when he visits Beijing on Tuesday.

Khan, the alleged mastermind of a nuclear proliferation network that stretched to Libya and possibly Iran, stated that top politicians and military officers were immersed in Pakistan's foreign nuclear dealings, the Post said.

"The speed of our work and our achievements surprised our worst enemies and adversaries and the West stood helplessly by to see a Third World nation, unable even to produce bicycle chains or sewing needles, mastering the most advanced nuclear technology in the shortest possible span of time," Khan boasts in the 11-page narrative.

All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse.

Pakistani hostages freed from Taliban, no word on tunnel link to nuclear arsenal

Pakistani hostages freed from Taliban, no word on tunnel link to nuclear arsenal

October 11, 2009, 7:28 PM (GMT+02:00)
Defending Pakistani army HQ against Taliban

Defending Pakistani army HQ against Taliban

A day and a night after an armed Taliban takeover of Pakistan's main military headquarters in Islamabad, a Pakistani military spokesman said early Sunday, Oct. 11, that all the assailants were killed or arrested and 39 of the 42 hostages they took freed. In the rescue operation Sunday, three hostages, two soldiers and four assailants were killed. Pakistani news coverage was blocked from Saturday, after Taliban gunmen dressed as soldiers burst into its headquarters firing automatic weapons and hurling grenades from a white van. Four assailants were killed and 8 soldiers including a lieutenant general in the ensuing gunfight. The remaining gunmen roamed through the compound and seized the 42 officers hostage.

The secret department in charge of securing Pakistan's nuclear weapons is at the headquarters compound.

During the 22-hour siege at the HQ compound, a second battle took place between Pakistani paramilitary forces and a second group of insurgents for control of a road tunnel which connects the towns of Darra Adam Khel and Kohat in the North West Frontier Province. There was no word on its outcome.

On May 15, DEBKA-Net-Weekly exclusively named Kohat and the Wah Cantonment Pakistani Ordnance Complex in the city of Kamra, both in the NWFP, as keys to Pakistan's nuclear and missile arsenals.

Our military sources stressed at the time that Kohat's fall to the Taliban would cut off Islamabad and the Pakistani high command from Kamra and its nuclear arsenal. This appeared to be the object of the Taliban push on the tunnel-road coupled with its assault on the military headquarters.

In a rare news conference Saturday, Khalid Kidwai, chief of Pakistan's strategic planning division which controls its nuclear program, rejected international fears that Pakistan's weapons could fall into the wrong hands and warned against any foreign intervention over the issue. "'The state of alertness has gone up," he admitted without going into details, but stressed: "There is no conceivable scenario, political or violent, in which Pakistan will fall to the extremists of the al Qaeda or Taliban types."

A day before, the chief of Pakistan's army, General Ashfaq Kiyani, dismissed as "unrealistic" fears that al Qaeda could seize the country's nuclear weapons.

Washington sources reported: The attacks occurred at a defining moment in Washington for the Afghan/Pakistan conflict. President Barack Obama is completing a military review of US military strategy in the two arenas with his top advisers and military commanders. The conference is tilting toward shifting the US military focus away from the Taliban to al Qaeda, despite three factors now illustrated in blood Saturday:

1. Just as Taliban and al Qaeda are inseparable, so too are the Afghan and Pakistan warfronts.

2. Those two organizations hold the war initiative, rather the American army. They are capable of answering the White House's decisions on strategy in unexpected places and ways.

3. Pakistan, America's chosen senior ally in the war against Taliban and al Qaeda, is a broken reed in military terms and too vulnerable to lean on.

By striking inside Pakistan military headquarters, those adversaries demonstrated their ability to reach into any part of government, including the presidential palace, and topple his regime, the same tactic employed in Kabul. They also appeared to be within range of key locations for Pakistan's nuclear and missile arsenals.

For some weeks, the Pakistani army has been concentrating a large force of more than 100,000 men for a big offensive against Taliban and al Qaeda strongholds in the lawless tribal territories of Waziristan bordering on Afghanistan. The attack on its headquarters in Islamabad carried a message: If this offensive goes forward, Pakistan's major cities will pay the price.

Pakistani army chiefs are flatly opposed to President Ali Zardari's deal the Obama administration for $1.5 billion in US aid in return for seriously battling the Taliban and al Qaeda. They accuse the US of interfering in relations between civil government and the military.

The attack on the army's headquarters Saturday would have been taken as a gesture of support for the opponents of a US-Pakistan alliance. It was also a warning that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal may not be entirely safe from terrorist control.

Courtesy of Debka File

Iran scrambling to assemble Russian S-300 air defense systems

Iran scrambling to assemble Russian S-300 air defense systems

LONDON — Industry sources said Iran has acquired both S-300PMU1 and S-300PMU2 systems from Russia via Belarus. The sources said the systems arrived in Iran in the spring of 2008 and were being assembled near strategic facilities. "The systems came in a series of deliveries and assembly is taking place in southwestern Iran," an industry source said. "They are doing everything they can to reach initial operational capability." The Russian systems were said to be capable of both air and missile defense.

The New American Uprising

It is Time.............................................................

Al Qaida bailing: Out of Iraq, into Africa

Al Qaida bailing: Out of Iraq, into Africa

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

BAGHDAD — The Al Qaida network in Iraq, battered in the U.S.-led coalition offensive, has been sending scores of operatives to Africa.

Iraqi security sources said the Al Qaida network in Iraq has ordered hundreds of foreign operatives to leave the country. The sources said scores of Al Qaida fighters left Iraq for northern and eastern Africa during 2008.

"Many of them have escaped through the borders with Syria and Iran to hotter zones such as Somalia and Sudan," Iraqi Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal said.

[On Tuesday, 35 police recruits were killed in a double suicide bombing east of the Diyala provincial capital of Baquba. Security sources said the military base where 200 people had been recruited to the police did not contain security.]

Kamal, director of investigations at the Iraqi Interior Ministry, said the exodus was sparked by the U.S.-led surge against Al Qaida in 2007. He said cells of the so-called Al Qaida Organization in Mesopotamia were being dismantled amid the flight of operatives.

"Our intelligence information indicates the withdrawal of certain groups of Al Qaida from Iraq because of the military strikes," Kamal said in a briefing to the Abu Dhabi-based Gulf News. "I believe this is the beginning of the complete withdrawal of Al Qaida from Iraqi territory."

The security sources said Al Qaida operatives in Iraq were also trying to reach North Africa, particularly Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco. They said Iraqi and U.S. raids of Al Qaida strongholds in Iraq yielded plans to resettle in several countries in Africa.

"Al Qaida has sought to replenish the dismantled cells with volunteers from North Africa," a security source said. "But not enough people have arrived."

Al Qaida operations in Iraq were said to have declined significantly during 2008. The network was said to remain active in such provinces as Diyala and Nineveh while sustaining major damage in Anbar and Baghdad.

Still, officials assess that Al Qaida would maintain an operational presence in Iraq. They said Al Qaida regards the war against the U.S. military in Iraq as a major tool in recruitment and fund-raising. Iraq and the United States plan a major operation in Diyala to capture Al Qaida's leadership.

"This [Al Qaida withdrawal from Iraq] will take years," Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abdul Jalil Khalaf, a former police commander in Basra, said.

Pakistan tribesmen say NATO forces mass on Afghan border

Pakistan tribesmen say NATO forces mass on Afghan border
by Staff Writers
Miranshah, Pakistan (AFP) July 15, 2008
Pakistani tribal elders Tuesday raised the alarm over a build-up of hundreds of NATO-led troops on the Afghan side of the border, but the military downplayed fears of any intrusion.

The gathering of foreign troops came as Islamabad was under growing pressure from the United States to curb cross-border attacks by Taliban militants, with the US military chief flying into Pakistan at the weekend for urgent talks.

"We have heard there is a build-up of foreign troops," said Malik Mohammad Afzal Khan Darpakhel, a local tribal leader in North Waziristan who is not affiliated with the Taliban.

"We want to warn them that three million tribesmen will rise against them if they try to move in," Darpakhel told a news conference held by five elders in Miranshah, the main town in the region.

Intelligence sources said some 300 NATO soldiers equipped with tanks, armoured vehicles and heavy weaponry have been moved very close to Lwara Mundi, a border village in North Waziristan.

The village is also close to Camp Tillman, a US forward operating base in Afghanistan's Paktika province named after American footballer-turned soldier Pat Tillman, who was killed by friendly fire in 2004.

"They have not crossed into Pakistan but this is the first time that such a large number of foreign troops have come so close to the border," Darpakhel said.

A Pakistani military spokesman denied there was any unusual troop movement on the border. The spokesman said the NATO forces may be gathering for an operation on the Afghan side.

"There may be some operational movement of these forces in Afghanistan," the spokesman said.

Later US President George W.Bush said at a White House press conference that he was "troubled" by Islamic extremists moving from Pakistan to Afghanistan but said the new Pakistani government understands the danger.

He said there was "no question" that extremists are moving across the border.

"That's troubling to us. It's troubling to Afghanistan. And it should be troubling to Pakistan," he said. "We share a common enemy."

"I certainly hope that the (Pakistani) government understands the dangers of extremists moving in their country. I think they do," Bush said.

A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said there was no question of troops entering Pakistan.

"Our mandate stops at the border," spokesman Captain Mike Finney said.

There was some "extra activity" on the border with troops searching for surviving insurgents after Sunday's attack that killed nine US troops, he said.

But Pakistani tribal elders vowed to support the army in case of any incursion.

"We will protect every inch of our territory and we will support our army in fighting these foreign forces," said Darpakhel.

"We urge the tribesmen to clean up their weapons and be ready for jihad if foreign forces enter our area."

Analysis: Iran changes prelude to attack

Analysis: Iran changes prelude to attack
by Shaun Waterman
Washington (UPI) Jul 15, 2008
Iran has named three new leaders to its Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to local news reports, a move said by analysts to be the latest in a series of changes to prepare the force to resist a possible attack by the United States.

The appointments, made at a ceremony over the weekend and reported by Iran's Press TV, are "the continuation of a major reshuffling of the (corps) in recent months to make it more mobile and decentralized as a force to conduct irregular military activities against an invading enemy," analyst Rasool Nafisi told UPI.

Press TV said the appointments were made in a decree by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

The corps' ground forces and volunteer militia got new commanders, as did its base in Tehran, from which Nafisi said it would suppress any unrest in the capital.

Brig. Gen. Mohammad Jafar Assadi, a longtime corps commander and veteran of the 1988 war with Iraq, was put in charge of its ground forces, while Hojjatoleslam Hossein Taeb was tapped to head the corps' Baseej militia of civilian volunteers. Brig. Gen. Mohammad Hejazi was appointed commander of the corps' Tharallah military base in Tehran.

Press TV said the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces and other high-ranking commanders attended the ceremony held for the inauguration of the new commanders.

Nafisi said Taeb was a cleric, considered ideologically very close to the supreme leader. "Like (Khamenei), he has made a special study of ¿¿ counter-sedition," said Nafisi, adding it was referred to as "knowing the enemies of the revolution."

"That is not a very common thing."

According to Nafisi, an Iranian-American who teaches at Washington's Strayer University and follows the corps closely, Taeb previously had been the deputy commander of the Baseej force, a militia of between 12 million and 15 million spare-time civilian volunteers he said was organized to "spy on their workmates and neighbors, take part in demonstrations of support for (the regime) and ¿¿ suppress (opposition) demonstrations."

"They do whatever the regime requires of them," he said.

The Baseej force is one of the five elements that make up the corps -- the others being ground, air and naval forces, and the notorious al-Quds brigade, which recently was designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

The Quds brigade, Nafisi said, is "an independent force (in the corps) in charge of international activities ... spreading the Islamic revolution."

He said the force recently had become "very powerful, almost like a second-tier foreign policy organization" behind the nation's Foreign Ministry.

Nafisi said a few months ago the training for the Baseej militia had been expanded to include heavier weapons. "They are preparing to use them as a resistance force in case of invasion by the United States or Israel," he said.

By contrast, Assadi, who now heads the corps' ground forces, is a veteran of the group's military operations, who led the paramilitary force that defeated the incursion by the Iraqi-backed People's Mujahedin Organization after the end of the Iran-Iraq war.

Assadi, who has a degree in military strategy from an Iranian government institution, is an ethnic Lor from Iran's Fars province who started his career in the corps as a volunteer, said Nafisi.

Hejazi, who in his new job would be responsible for suppressing any unrest in the capital, "is one of the most powerful (corps) commanders" who previously headed its ideological bureau, said Nafisi.

"His new appointment as the commander of the Tharallah base ¿¿ means more power for him, and less worry for the leadership."