Iran/Israel/United
States: On Ground Updates
A Massive
Storm is now Brewing
Thursday, July 05, 2012
.Image Credit IAF
.
* The New York Times had the following report posted late Wednesday
evening and it goes in part like this. …The Iranians raised the shrill
tone a notch on Wednesday, when the air force commander of Iran’s elite Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps, which has been conducting the missile tests, said
he had contingency plans to hit 35 American bases in the early
minutes of any conflict… “All these bases are within the reach of our
missiles,” the commander, Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, was quoted as saying
by Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency. He was also quoted as saying Israel
had provided “good targets for us as well.”… The increasingly hostile tone has mirrored pessimism over the lack of
visible progress in the nuclear negotiations. [Ya THINK!!!]…
Read this
report in full at link below…
.
* FOX News had the following AP report posted up on their website Wednesday
afternoon and it starts off like this… Iran declared Wednesday that it can destroy nearby U.S.
military bases and strike Israel within minutes of an attack on the Islamic
Republic, reflecting tensions over Iran's suspect nuclear program…
The veiled threat came during a military drill that has included the firing of
ballistic missiles. The elite Revolutionary Guards, conducting the war games in
Iran's central desert, said that the missiles were aimed at mock-ups of foreign
military bases…
Read the full report at
link below…
.
* Guardian News reported it this way… Iran is prepared to launch missiles at US
bases throughout the Gulf within minutes of an attack on the Islamic Republic,
according to a commander of the country's Revolutionary Guards… In an apparent response to reports that the
US has increased its military presence in the Gulf, the commander of the
Revolutionary Guards' air force said on Wednesday that missiles had been aimed
at 35 US military bases in the Gulf as well as targets in Israel, ready to
be launched in case of an attack… The semi-official Fars news agency
reported Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh as saying: “We have thought of
measures to set up bases and deploy missiles to destroy all these bases in the
early minutes after an attack.”…
Read the
rest, short video too, at link below…
.
* Columnists
Robert Fox has this take on the news
and it goes in part like this. …The United States has increased its
minesweeper force in the Gulf to eight ships. The UK already has a
long-standing patrol of minehunters there. US
F-22 Raptor stealth fighter-bombers and F15c bombers have been sent to various
bases throughout the region, and two aircraft carrier groups are on standby…
Britain has plans for putting a squadron of Typhoon Eurofighters in the Gulf,
either in Qatar or the UAE. An infantry battalion can be moved at short notice.
A western alliance led by the US, Britain and France is preparing forces to
suppress Iran’s coastal anti-aircraft missile batteries and their shore-based
anti-ship missiles if there is a sudden flare-up round the Straits of Hormuz… In
the past 48 hours, officials in Washington and London have lessened the
likelihood that the Iranian military and Revolutionary Guard will try to shut
the Straits of Hormuz. But fears have been growing in the past few weeks that
Israel may carry out a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear centrifuges -
principally those at Natanz…
Read
the rest at link below…
………………………………
Iran Tests Ballistic Missiles as Oil Embargo Takes
Effect: US Navy Enters Persian Gulf
About above News Video: Iran
has launched several ballistic missiles as part of a military exercise, the
country's official news agency IRNA reported. The missiles - which included
long-range ones capable of hitting US Navy in the Persian Gulf - successfully
hit their targets. The military maneuver coincides with a European Union oil
embargo underway since 1 July aimed at applying pressure on the country over
its nuclear program. Iran, OPEC's second-biggest producer, is finding fewer
countries willing to buy its crude, which could pinch global supplies.
………………………………
.
POST UPDATE:
Saturday, July 07, 2012
.
MINA
SALMAN PORT, Bahrain
Tugboats
assist the Afloat Forward Staging Base (Interim) USS Ponce (AFSB-I) as the ship
pulls into the Kingdom of Bahrain. Ponce is deployed to support maritime
security operations and mine countermeasure efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area
of responsibility.
(Image
from July 6, 2012)
U.S. Navy
photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ashante Hammons
…
* GulfNews.com brings us the following report and it goes in
part like this… An
ageing American Amphibious Naval Ship, converted into a Floating Base,
has been equipped with helicopter landing deck, space for troops and more…
Read this
report at link below...
.
* Reuters had
this report posted on their website late Saturday morning and it goes in part
like this. …Four U.S. minesweepers arrived in the Gulf
last month to bolster the Fifth Fleet and ensure the safety of shipping routes
in a waterway through which 40 percent of the world's seaborne oil exports flow…
They arrived amid a flaring war of
nerves between the United States and Iran over Tehran's disputed nuclear energy
program and Iranian threats to block the Strait of Hormuz, the slender oil
shipping channel out of the Gulf, in retaliation for a new European Union ban
on its oil exports… The four minesweepers were ticketed for a
seven-month deployment in an area of operations that includes the Gulf,
Gulf of Oman, Red Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean…
Read the
full report at link below...
.
* YNETNews.com reports… Top commander says Iran won't shut strategic waterway,
unless its interests are compromised…
……………….
AubreyJ………
ROMNEY2012
.
