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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Generous Iran trains Gazans |
| 2011-11-17 |
| A select group of Paleostinian beturbanned goons in the Gazoo Strip have undergone extensive military training recently in Iran, turning them into expert operators of sophisticated anti-tank missiles, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The IDF believes that Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... have obtained several hundred advanced Russian-made antitank missiles -- such as the Kornet and the Fagot -- which have a range of more than 4 kilometers and are capable of penetrating armored personnel carriers and some IDF tanks. Terrorist groups in the Gazoo Strip had a small number of these missiles ahead of Operation Cast Lead -- Israel's offensive against Hamas in 2009 -- but only used them in a handful of known instances. "They were not trained well then, and as a result, the missiles were not effective," a senior IDF officer explained this week. "Since then, the groups have significantly increased the stockpile and have also sent specific beturbanned goons to Iran for extensive training where they became anti-tank missile experts." The level of expertise was demonstrated earlier this year when Hamas fired a Kornet anti-tank missile at a school bus near Nahal Oz, which killed 16-year-old Daniel Viflic. The missile was fired from a distance of close to 3 kilometers and the operator had to fire in between the Gazoo security fence and electrical cables. "He also had to hit the bus, which was not easily seen on the road," the officer said, explaining the complexities of the attack as a demonstration of the level of expertise in Gazoo. The anti-tank missiles are obtained by Hamas in several different ways. In some cases, they are purchased directly from Russia by Syria and are then transferred to Hamas or Hezbullies. In other cases, Hamas operatives buy the weaponry on the black market and then smuggle it into the Gazoo Strip via the tunnels it maintains under the Philadelphi Corridor. "The Gazoo Strip is completely different today than what it was almost three years ago," a senior defense official said. "The amounts of weaponry are significantly higher as well as the type of weaponry and its sophistication." In face of the threat, the IDF is moving forward with plans to install the Trophy active protection system on Merkava Mk 4 tanks that are in production ahead of their delivery to the 401st Armored Brigade. Two of the brigade's battalions have already received the system and the remaining battalion will finish receiving it by the beginning of 2012. The Trophy system creates a hemispheric protected zone around armored vehicles such as the Merkava tank, which operated prominently in Leb and the Gazoo Strip. Using advanced radar, the system is designed to detect and track a threat and counters it with a launched projectile that intercepts the anti-tank missile. |
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