Iran Shocks World With New Missile Launches

Islam --The Religion of Peace--

Sunday, September 27, 2009 6:40 AM


TEHRAN – Iran said it successfully test-fired short-range missiles during military drills Sunday by the elite Revolutionary Guard, a show of force days after the U.S. warned Tehran over a newly revealed underground nuclear facility it was secretly constructing.



Gen. Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, said Iran also tested a multiple missile launcher for the first time. The official English-language Press TV showed pictures of at least two missiles being fired simultaneously and said they were from Sunday's drill in a central Iran desert. In the clip, men could be heard shouting "Allahu Akbar" as the missiles were launched.


"We are going to respond to any military action in a crushing manner and it doesn't make any difference which country or regime has launched the aggression," state media quoted Salami as saying. He said the missiles successfully hit their targets.


The powerful Revolutionary Guard defends Iran's clerical rulers. It has its own ground, naval and air units and its air force controls the country's missile program.


The tests came two days after the U.S. and its allies disclosed that Iran had been secretly developing a previously unknown underground uranium enrichment facility and warned the country it must open the nuclear site to international inspection or face harsher international sanctions. The drill was planned in advance of that disclosure.


The newly revealed nuclear site in the arid mountains near the holy city of Qom is believed to be inside a heavily guarded, underground facility belonging to the Revolutionary Guard, according to a document sent by President Barack Obama's administration to lawmakers.


After the strong condemnations from the U.S. and its allies, Iran said Saturday it will allow U.N. nuclear inspectors to examine the site.


Nuclear experts said the details that have emerged about the site and the fact it was being developed secretly are strong indications that Iran's nuclear program is not only for peaceful purposes, as the country has long maintained.


By U.S. estimates, Iran is one to five years away from having a nuclear weapons capability, although U.S. intelligence also believes that Iranian leaders have not yet made the decision to build a weapon.


Iran also is developing a long-range ballistic missile that could carry a nuclear warhead, but the administration said last week that it believes that effort has been slowed. That assessment paved the way for Obama's decision to shelve the Bush administration's plan for a missile shield in Europe, which was aimed at defending against Iranian ballistic missiles.


Salami said Iran would test medium-range Shahab-1 and Shahab-2 missiles on Sunday night and long-range Shahab-3 missiles on Monday, during drills set to last several days.


Salami said Fateh, Tondar and Zelzal missiles were test fired on Sunday, but did not give specifics on range or other details. All are short-range, surface-to-surface missiles.




He told reporters Iran had reduced the missiles and their ranges and enhanced their speed and precision so they could be used in quick, short-range engagements. He also said they are now able to be launched from positions that are not as easy to hit.


He said the Revolutionary Guards' current missile tests and military drills are indications of Iran's resolve to defend its national values and part of a strategy of deterrence and containment of missile threats.


Salami claimed Iran has started "running into difficulties storing so many missiles" with its recent progress on its missile program.


Iran has had the solid-fuel Fateh missile, with a range of 120 miles (193 kilometers), for several years. Fateh means conqueror in Farsi and Arabic. It also has the solid-fueled, Chinese-made CSS 8, also called the Tondar 69, according to the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a private group that seeks to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. The Tondar, which means thunder, has a range of about 93 miles (150 kilometers.)


State media said the Revolutionary Guard tested a multiple launcher for the first time, designed for the Zelzal missile. Tehran has previously tested the Zelzal — versions of which have ranges of 130-185 miles (210-300 kilometers) — but only single launch.


In July 2006, Israeli military officials said their jets had destroyed a missile in Lebanon named Zelzal, which they said Hezbollah had received from Iran and could reach Tel Aviv. Zelzal means earthquake.


Iran's last known missile tests were in May when it fired its longest-range solid-fuel missile, Sajjil-2. Tehran said the two-stage surface-to-surface missile has a range of about 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) — capable of striking Israel, U.S. Mideast bases and Europe.


The revelation of Iran's secret site has given greater urgency to a key meeting on Thursday in Geneva between Iran and six major powers trying to stop its suspected nuclear weapons program.


The U.S. and its partners plan to tell Tehran at the meeting that it must provide "unfettered access" for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, within weeks.


The facility is Iran's second uranium-enrichment site working to produce the fuel that could eventually be used in a nuclear weapon.


A close aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday the site will be operational soon and would pose a threat to those who oppose Iran.


"This new facility, God willing, will become operational soon and will blind the eyes of the enemies," Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani told the semi-official Fars news agency.


Evidence of the clandestine facility was presented Friday by Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh. On Saturday, Obama offered Iran "a serious, meaningful dialogue" over its disputed nuclear program, while warning Tehran of grave consequences from a united global front.


Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Saturday the revelation was firm proof Iran was seeking nuclear weapons.


Israel considers Iran a strategic threat with its nuclear program, missile development and repeated calls by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel's destruction. It has not ruled out a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear sites.


In 1981, Israeli warplanes bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reaction and in 2007, Israel bombed a site in Syria that the U.S. said was a nearly finished nuclear reactor built with North Korean help that was configured to produce plutonium — one of the substances used in nuclear warheads.


Israel's Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment on the missile tests.


Iranian Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads the country's nuclear program, said Saturday that U.N. nuclear inspectors could visit the nuclear site. On Sunday, he told Press TV Iran and the IAEA would work out the timing of the inspection.


The small-scale site is meant to house no more than 3,000 centrifuges — much less than the 8,000 machines at Natanz, Iran's known industrial-scale enrichment facility, but they could still potentially help create bomb-making material.


Experts have estimated that Iran's current number of centrifuges could enrich enough uranium for a bomb in as little as a year. Washington has been pushing for heavier sanctions if Iran does not agree to end enrichment.


2009 Associated Press

.

Now Robert, you want to cram this news up your Bung Hole there dude.

And remember; ALLAH SUCKBAR !!!!!!!!!!!

.

No one is going to do a damn thing except maybe Israel. MAYBE.

Now we now why Obama released the news Thursday.

(09-27-2009 01:36 PM)NIU05 Wrote:  No one is going to do a damn thing except maybe Israel. MAYBE.

Now we now why Obama released the news Thursday.

Don't worry, Obama's Deputy Sec'y of Defense is already talking about plans to act as the first line of defense for Iran and knock out any incoming Israeli jets using American assets.

This administration of radicals is a complete and total f'n joke.


EDIT: Correction, it was Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter's National Security Adviser and someone who no doubt has Obama's ear.

I'm shocked.

I think this would be easy to solve, send some jets in there (remember they have 0 AWACS and no in-flight intelligence now) and strategically bomb those manufacturing area. I would hate to see what happens there but it needs to happen. I am and have always been an advocate for peace and understanding but we have a lot of interests in the region that involve our own people and I believe that it would only be right to do whatever we need to do to protect said interests.

These fools are signing their death warrant and have no clue what they are getting involved in. Israel is going to bomb them into dust.

(09-27-2009 02:24 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  I think this would be easy to solve, send some jets in there (remember they have 0 AWACS and no in-flight intelligence now) and strategically bomb those manufacturing area. I would hate to see what happens there but it needs to happen. I am and have always been an advocate for peace and understanding but we have a lot of interests in the region that involve our own people and I believe that it would only be right to do whatever we need to do to protect said interests.

I would pick slightly different targets. The palaces of the leaders (even better if they're home) and the secret police HQ. Then let the people's uprising take care of things.

(09-27-2009 03:37 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(09-27-2009 02:24 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  I think this would be easy to solve, send some jets in there (remember they have 0 AWACS and no in-flight intelligence now) and strategically bomb those manufacturing area. I would hate to see what happens there but it needs to happen. I am and have always been an advocate for peace and understanding but we have a lot of interests in the region that involve our own people and I believe that it would only be right to do whatever we need to do to protect said interests.

I would pick slightly different targets. The palaces of the leaders (even better if they're home) and the secret police HQ. Then let the people's uprising take care of things.

Great idea actually. Let the people get their own independence and figure it out for themselves.

Idiotically we let Ahmadinejad into the country and even more idiotical is that we let him out.

Well, the President is looking for a reason to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan. I think they just gave him the most expedited way out (read: rolling assets east from Iraq and west from Afghanistan).

I don't think we'll leave afghanistan any time soon. He's said since his time in the Senate that he supports the war over there.

I wonder how good the targeting is on these missiles? Send one towards Jerusalem, hit the Dome of the Rock. Fire one at Ashkelon, hit the Gaza Strip.

And a lot of this Iraniain rhetoric sounds a lot like Iraqi rhetoric and Baghdad Bob. Iran's traditional forces would crumple in the face of a Western force.

The only thing that makes me think that they won't try to hit Jerusalem. That's a holy city for a lot of religions, including theirs.