Hezbollah's anti-ship missiles bolster its threat to US navy By Laila Bassam and Tom Perry November 9, 2023 https://www.reuters.com/world/middl...ssiles-bolster-its-threat-us-navy-2023-11-08/ Hezbollah members take part in a military exercise during a media tour organized for the occasion of Resistance and Liberation Day, in Aaramta, Lebanon May 21, 2023. REUTERS/Aziz Taher/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights Summary Hezbollah got Russian anti-ship missiles via Syria-sources Warns United States it has prepared for its fleets Group used an anti-ship missile to hit an Israeli ship in 2006 U.S. taking Hezbollah capabilities seriously - U.S. official BEIRUT, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Powerful Russian anti-ship missiles acquired by Hezbollah give it the means to deliver on its leader's veiled threat against U.S. warships and underline the grave risks of any regional war, sources familiar with the group's arsenal say. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Washington last week his group had something in store for the U.S. vessels deployed to the region since war erupted last month between the Palestinian group Hamas and Israel, shaking the wider Middle East. Two sources in Lebanon familiar with the Iran-backed group's arsenal say he was referring to Hezbollah's greatly enhanced anti-ship missile capabilities, including the Russian-made Yakhont missile with a range of 300 km (186 miles). Reports by media and analysts have for years indicated that Hezbollah acquired Yakhont missiles in Syria after deploying there more than a decade ago to help President Bashar al-Assad fight a civil war. Hezbollah has never confirmed possessing the weapon. The Shi'ite group's media office did not immediately respond when reached for comment for this story. Washington says its Mediterranean naval deployment - comprising two aircraft carriers and their supporting ships - aims to prevent the conflict from spreading by deterring Iran, which backs groups including Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Hezbollah perceives the U.S. warships as a direct threat because of their ability to hit the group and its allies. Nasrallah said in a speech on Friday that the U.S. warships in the Mediterranean "do not scare us, and will not scare us". "We have prepared for the fleets with which you threaten us," he said. The White House said after Nasrallah delivered his Friday speech that Hezbollah must not exploit the Hamas-Israel war, and the United States did not want to see the conflict expand into Lebanon. One of the sources said Hezbollah's anti-ship capabilities had developed enormously since 2006, when the group first demonstrated it could strike a vessel at sea by hitting an Israeli warship in the Mediterranean during a war with Israel. "There's the Yakhont, and of course there are other things besides it," the source said, without elaborating. The source added that use of this weapon by Hezbollah against hostile warships would indicate the conflict had escalated into a major regional war. PAYING ATTENTION Three current and one former U.S. official said Hezbollah has built an impressive array of weapons, including anti-ship missiles. "We're obviously paying a lot of attention to that... and we're taking what capabilities they have seriously," one official said, without commenting directly on whether the group had the Yakhont missile. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment candidly about Hezbollah's capabilities. The U.S. officials added that the U.S. naval power recently deployed to the region includes defenses against incoming missiles. They did not elaborate. The Pentagon has deployed warships to the eastern Mediterranean since Oct. 7, when Hamas gunmen stormed Israel from the Gaza Strip in an attack Israel says killed 1,400 people. Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have killed more than 10,000 Palestinians since then, Palestinian officials say. Nasrallah on Friday warned Washington that preventing a regional war depended on halting the Israeli assault. Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israeli forces at the Lebanese border since Oct. 8. That marks the most serious escalation there since the 2006 war. But Hezbollah has so far used only a fraction of its arsenal and the violence has mostly been contained to the border area. Other Iran-aligned groups such as Yemen's Houthis have also fired drones towards Israel while Iran-backed Shi'ite Muslim militias have fired at U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. The ground-launched Yakhont approaches its target at low altitude - 10 to 15 metres (yards) off the ground - to avoid detection, according to a report by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The Yakhont, a variant of the P-800 Oniks missile first developed in 1993, was developed in 1999 for export by a Russian defence firm and can be launched from the air, the ground or submarines, CSIS said. Asked about the sources' accounts of Hezbollah having acquired Yakhont missiles, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "First of all, this is news without any confirmation at all. We do not know if it is true or not." "Secondly, we do not have such information." The Russian defence ministry did not reply to a written request for comment. The Syrian information ministry did not immediately reply to emailed questions from Reuters. 'PREPARED AND READY' Nasrallah's Friday speech marked one of his strongest warnings yet to the United States, which holds his group responsible for a suicide attack that destroyed U.S. Marines headquarters in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 servicemen, and for a suicide attack on the U.S. embassy the same year that killed 63 people. While Hezbollah has denied being behind those attacks, Nasrallah indirectly referred to them in his speech, saying those who defeated the United States in Lebanon in the early 1980s were "still alive". Nasser Qandil, a Lebanese political analyst close to Hezbollah, explained how the Yakhont missiles in the group's arsenal could be used against U.S. warships, in remarks on his private Youtube channel posted last month. He described the missile as "the most important prize" of Hezbollah's involvement in the war in Syria, where the group helped turn the tide of the civil war in Assad's favour. "Yes, Hezbollah is prepared and ready," Qandil said. The two sources who spoke to Reuters said Hezbollah obtained the weapon from Syria whilst fighting in support of Assad, whose military has long been armed by Russia. Hezbollah keeps its arsenal and how it is sourced shrouded in secrecy. In rare comments on the topic in 2021, Nasrallah explained how the group had obtained Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles via Syria. In an interview with the Lebanese, Iran-aligned broadcaster al-Mayadeen, he said the Syrian defence ministry had purchased the weapons from Russia for Syrian use, and Hezbollah had later taken them as a form of "support" to defend Lebanon. Hezbollah used the weapon extensively in the 2006 war. Moscow said in 2010 it had signed a deal to send anti-ship cruise missiles including a version of the Yakhont to Damascus. Additional reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart in Washington, John Davison and Maya Gebeily in Beirut, Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow; Writing by Tom Perry and John Davison; editing by Claudia Parsons
Now if Hamas will only allow Palestinian civilians to go south and stop using them as human shields. Israel-Gaza live updates: Israel agrees to 4-hour pauses in Gaza each day, White House says The pauses will be announced three hours ahead of time. https://abcnews.go.com/International/live-updates/israel-gaza-hamas/?id=104617602
Hamas presented the bait and blind jesus Biden took it, hook line and sinker..... Expect Americans in body bags’: Middle East on the brink as U.S., Iran spiral toward war Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testifies before … more > By Ben Wolfgang The Washington Times Thursday, November 9, 2023 https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/nov/9/expect-americans-body-bags-middle-east-brink-us-ir/ The U.S. and Iran edged closer to a full-blown military confrontation Thursday after a series of clashes between American troops and Iranian proxy forces, as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to drag the entire Middle East into a new cycle of conflict........
Not exactly true, Netanyahu baited the trap and both him and blind biden fell into Netanyahu's snare.
Biden administration privately warned by American diplomats of growing fury against US in Arab world By Priscilla Alvarez and Alex Marquardt, CNN Thu November 9, 2023 https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/09/politics/biden-diplomats-warn-middle-east-fury An Israeli soldier operates amid the ongoing ground invasion against Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip, November 8, 2023. American diplomats in the Middle East are warning the Biden administration of growing anger against the US over it's support of Israel's military campaign. Ronen Zvulun/Reuters CNN — The Biden administration has received stark warnings from American diplomats in the Arab world that its strong support for Israel’s destructive and deadly military campaign in Gaza “is losing us Arab publics for a generation,” according to a diplomatic cable obtained by CNN. The cable underscores profound concern among American officials about the growing anger against the United States that erupted soon after Israel launched its operations against Hamas, following the militant group’s attacks in Israel on October 7 that left over 1,400 Israelis dead. “We are losing badly on the messaging battlespace,” reads a Wednesday cable from the US Embassy in Oman, citing conversations with “a wide range of trusted and sober-minded contacts.” The robust US support for Israel’s actions is being seen, the cable warns, “as material and moral culpability in what they consider to be possible war crimes.” The cable from the embassy was written by the second-highest US official in Muscat and sent to, among others, the White House’s National Security Council, the CIA and the FBI. While it’s just one cable from a regional embassy, it provides a private snapshot of the alarm over the growing anti-US wave sweeping the Middle East. Another cable obtained by CNN from the American embassy in Cairo relayed back to Washington the commentary in a state-run Egyptian newspaper that “President Biden’s cruelty and disregard for Palestinians exceeded all previous US presidents.”
I think israel is burning down the forrest kill a bird and Palestinians (not Hamas) have a right to be supported around the world but I have to admit, when Hamas went and killed 1400 civilians including women and children, it was kind of quiet around the world until the first missles dropped in Gaza... I dont remember any global outrage or show of support for those 1400... Israel has to keep posting about bringing them home... Palestinians are not Hamas they say but apparently all Jews are Israel from the growing violence we are seeing around the U.S. alone and statements out of Middle East.
you didn't look hard enough. It was condemned widely. It doesn't help when Israel matches the kill count in what, 48 hrs?
sad but citation needed THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) — Southern California authorities investigating the death of a Jewish man following a confrontation with a pro-Palestinian demonstrator over the Israel-Hamas war haven’t determined whether a crime occurred and on Tuesday asked for the public’s help to unravel what happened. Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff said deputies determined that Paul Kessler, 69, who died early Monday at a hospital, had fallen backward and struck his head on the ground at a pro-Palestinian demonstration Sunday afternoon in Thousands Oaks, a suburb northwest of Los Angeles. The pro-Palestinian demonstrator stayed at the scene and told deputies he had called 911, Fryhoff said. Authorities from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday night they currently do not have enough evidence to make an arrest in the death of a Jewish protester in Southern California. In a lengthy statement released Thursday evening, the sheriff's office said the findings of the autopsy have been "misinterpreted by many.” Homicide means Kessler's death was caused at the hands of another but "does not provide sufficient evidence to establish probable cause for an immediate arrest of a suspect," the sheriff's office said in a release. Investigators have photos and videos from before and after the incident, in which Kessler fell backward and hit his head, authorities said. However, the sheriff’s office said it does not have any footage of the actual incident taking place, "which would be extremely helpful in this case and would undoubtedly show or could even refute criminal culpability,” the release read.
I have to look really hard to find condemnation about Hamas killing 1400 Israelis? I think you just answered my question because I still do not see the outrage but quite an amazing global support for the civilians getting killed in Gaza. It is interesting that even at marches for the Palestinians there are chants of From the River to the Sea which is a direct call to wipe out Israel. Unfortunately that has spread to large antisemitism acts on college campuses. As usual, it is "They are Hamas, we are Palestinians" often followed up with "All Jews are colonizers etc..." Israel already lost the war of public opinion by equating all Palestinians but speaking with a lot of Israelis I know they are not in favor of what their GOVERNMENT (not a religion) is doing but quite hurt that the events of October 7th are either being justified or forgotten. It is sad all the way around and I am 100% sure there is NO real solution that will work as Israel is not stopping at all.
Sadly, if using google or even Bing, the algos no longer prioritize relevance of searches but whatever makes them most profits. That means if you look for "Condemnation for oct8" you'll get news pieces that are likely more focused on newer events w/the words "condemnation" and "following oct 8". What I'm saying here is the news search is pretty garbage and you'll probably have to move to the last page in the search results. https://archive.ph/2023.10.02-12315...tory/google-antitrust-lawsuit-search-results/ As to the "from the river to the sea", I've heard the narrative, I'm not Jewish w/a long history in the region so don't know how genuine the arguments being pushed by either side are. Protesters are yelling "allauh akhbar" too, a chant used by terrorists but a literal translation of "god is great" and of deep meaning to all non-terrorist muslims. https://forward.com/opinion/415250/from-the-river-to-the-sea-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-means/