Vol. 76/No. 43      November 26, 2012

The exercise, called Austere Challenge 2012, involves more than 1,000 U.S. troops stationed throughout Israel alongside a similar number of Israeli troops. An additional 2,500 U.S. forces based in Europe and the Mediterranean are also participating in the drill. It’s scheduled to last about three weeks.

According to the United States European Command, “Patriot air defense batteries, an Aegis ballistic missile defense ship and related air defense systems will be deployed and integrated with Israeli equipment as part of an overall air defense network,” reported the New York Times.

As these exercises were getting under way, government officials in Sudan said four Israeli planes Oct. 24 bombed the Yarmouk industrial complex south of Khartoum, the country’s capital, setting the plant ablaze and killing two people. The area, which includes a factory where conventional weapons are reportedly produced, is in a “heavily populated low-income neighborhood,” reported the Associated Press.

“It was a double whammy, the explosion at the factory and then the ammunition flying into the neighborhood,” Abd-al Ghadir Mohammed, 31, told AP. “The ground shook. Some homes were badly damaged.”

When asked about the attack by Israel’s Channel Two News, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak responded that “there is nothing I can say about this subject.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed away from immediate threats to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities.

Netanyahu’s earlier stance was opposed by many high ranking Israeli military officers, the majority of his cabinet, as well as the Obama administration. As incentive to shift away from the bombing threats, the White House responded by “upgrading American security assistance to Israel,” reported the Times, “so much so that earlier this year Mr. Barak described the level of support as greater than ever in Israel’s history.”

Meanwhile, Iranian fighter jets fired at a U.S. surveillance drone over the Persian Gulf Nov. 1, the Pentagon disclosed Nov. 8, after the incident was reported in the press. Iran’s defense minister, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, said the drone had entered Iranian airspace.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home