DEBKAfile Special Report October 15,
A top-secret Iranian military installation was struck by a triple blast Tues. Oct. 12 the day before Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Lebanon. debkafile’s military and intelligence sources report the site held most of the Shehab-3 medium-range missile launchers Iran had stocked for striking US forces in Iraq and Israel in the event of war – some set to deliver triple warheads (tri-conic nosecones).
The 18 soldiers officially reported killed in the blasts and 14 injured belonged to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) main missile arm, the Al-Hadid Brigades.
The Imam Ali Base where the explosion occurred is situated in lofty Zagros mountain country near the town of Khorramabad in the western Iranian province of Lorestan. This site was selected for an altitude which eases precise targeting and the difficulty of reaching it for air or ground attack. It lies 400 kilometers from Baghdad and primary American bases in central Iraq and 1,250 kilometers from Tel Aviv and central Israel. Both are well within the Shehab-3 missile’s 1,800-2,500-kilometer operational range.
Our Iranian sources report that Tehran spent hundreds of millions to build one of the largest subterranean missile launching facilities of its kind in the Middle East or Europe. Burrowed under the Imam Ali Base is a whole network of wide tunnels deep underground. Somehow, a mysterious hand rigged three blasts in quick succession deep inside those tunnels, destroying a large number of launchers and causing enough damage to render the facility unfit for use.
In its official statement on the incident, Tehran denied it was the result of “a terrorist attack” and claimed the explosion “was caused by a nearby fire that spread to the munitions storage area of the base.” In the same way, the regime went to great lengths to cover up the ravages wrought to their nuclear and military control systems by the Stuxnet virus – which is still at work.
In actual fact, debkafile’s military sources report, Iran’s missile arsenal and the Revolutionary Guards have also suffered a devastating blow. Worst of all, all their experts are a loss to account for the assailants’ ability to penetrate one of Iran’s most closely guarded bases and reach deep underground to blow up the missile launchers.
The number of casualties is believed to be greater than the figure given out by Tehran.
The soldiers’ funerals took place Thursday, Oct. 14, as the same time as Ahmadinejad declared in South Lebanon that Israel was destined to “disappear.” A few later, he ended his contentious two-day visit to Lebanon.
This week, Aviation Week discovered that the new intermediate-range BM-25 Musudan ballistic missile exhibited at the North Korean military parade Sunday Oct. 10 – at which Kim Jong-un also paraded his son and heir – bore a strong resemblance to the Iranian Shehab-3.
It is therefore possible that the explosions at the IRGC base in Lorestan Tuesday also sabotaged secret models of the Iran’s latest road-mobile, liquid-fuel version of the Shehab-3 ballistic missile.
Forgive me if I don’t share your overconfidence. With the current leadership in and out of the IDF, based on our performances since 73 war and the massive arming of our enemies with American training as well I’m not sure about anything. I do know this though that an Israel alone without big brother either to lean on or prevent us from another victory we have a chance. With America we have no future.
If 67 was our high water mark it was accomplished against American demands that we not initiate the conflict , with no American help or from anybody else. We were outmatched in numbers and top of the line planes and tanks but with our backs to the wall we did the seeming impossible. I want us to return the the mindset and psychology of before 67.
67 was when America was preparing to invade Sinai to prevent us from defeating Egypt and taking all of Sinai. We were just too fast for them. Think about it!
The paradoxes of our time:
Read: EU Asks Technion to Help Improve Airport Security
Um, you’re welcome….I guess.
Alternatively, I’d rather have the U.S. as a genuine ally of Israel, and with unequivocal U.S. backing of Israel as the context, the Arabs being forced to accept Israel without a big bloody war. In theory, this could ultimately happen, though obviously, this isn’t happening in the immediate future.
To the extent that I agree with you, Yamit, is that if the anti-Israel segment of the U.S. power elite and their associated Arab puppetmasters think they can get “peace” by “dumping Israel”, what they are going to wind up with is war that will leave a lot of the Arabs/Moslems as confounded – not to mention dead – as ever. I don’t care about them; if they start a big war then they deserve everything they get. But I do care about Israel, and while I expect Israel to prevail, this will still mean a lot of dead Jews, and a lot of suffering for Jews short of death in terms the effects of sanctions, embargoes, and so on, as well as violence against Jews in the Diaspora.
Better that it shouldn’t come to all of that, but if it does, so much the worse for our enemies.
Correct and you have made my case. Israel needs to separate from America for your exact reasons. Thanks for making my position clear. 8)
Once again, Israel’s enemies are miscalculating.
They think that with Saudia’s poodle, Obama, in the Oval office, they’ve got Israel on the ropes. Just like they thought back in 1967, when they had pried their principal patron, France, away from Israel, they had her trapped….and then they went on to get their asses kicked, even when Israel had no real assurance that the U.S. or any other major power would replace France.
No adversary more dangerous than a cornered Israel with nothing to lose. I think most of the Arabs/Moslems who know this are dead or retired by now.
Sound like a “softening up” situation (as does the Stuxnet situation). I’ll not speculate…