Secret Israeli Missiles Used In Attack On Iran Can Evade Radar Detection – Report
South Front, Apr 20 2024
Two Western officials told the NYT on Apr 20 the missiles used in the recent Israeli attack on Iran had technology that enabled the weapon to evade detection by Iranian radar systems. Two Iranian officials also told the newspaper that Iran did not detect intrusions into its airspace during the attack on Apr 19, including drones or missiles. The NYT said that the warplane from which the missile was launched was “far from Israeli or Iranian airspace” and neither the jet nor the missile entered Jordanian airspace. Israel opted for this to to keep Amman out of any potential ramifications for the reprisal strike after it helped shoot down drones and missiles fired by Iran at Israel on Apr 13-14.
It’s worth noting that Israel struck several air defense sites in southern Syria during the attack, leading to speculation that Israeli warplanes launched their missiles from some area along the country’s border with Jordan or Iraq. Contrary to the NYT report, Iranian media reported the interception of drones over an air base near the city of Isfahan during the attack. There were also videos showing air defense fire. Israel didn’t acknowledge the attack, neither was officially blamed for it by Iran. However, officials from the two countries as well as the US confirmed to several news outlets that the Israeli military was responsible.
The remains of what is believed to be the first stage of the secret Israeli missiles used in the attack on Iran were found in central Iraq. An basic analysis by SouthFront indicates that the weapon is an air-launched ballistic missile with two stages, most likely divertive from the Israeli Sparrow family of missile targets, more specifically from the mid-ranged Blue Sparrow version. While air-launched ballistic missiles are extremely hard to track and intercept, they can be detected like any other type of aerial targets. The NYT and its sources were likely exaggerating when claiming that the missiles could evade detection by Iranian radar systems.
According to recent reports in US media, one of three missiles launched by Israeli warplanes during the attack hit an air defense site near Isfahan that was part of an array defending the nearby top-secret Natanz nuclear site. Satellite imagery shows damage to the radar of an S-300 system at the Eighth Shekari Air Base in Isfahan, The NYT said in its report. However, this is yet to be verified. The report said that the attack was deliberately designed to send a message to Iran of how a wider attack could look, which is an accurate assessment. Nevertheless, Israel exposed many of its secret capabilities and tactics in doing so.
Palestinian Fighters Deal More Blows To Israeli Forces In Gaza
South Front, Apr 20 2024
The IOF continue to face fierce resistance from the Hamas Movement and other Palestinian armed factions in the Gaza Strip. On Apr 18, Hamas’ military wing, the Izz’ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, released two videos showing one of its snipers taking out an Israeli soldier to the east of the city of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza and an attack with heavy mortars on an IDF gathering near the settlement of Netzarim to the south of the Strip.
The group released another video on Apr 20 showing its fighters targeting an armored bulldozer of the IDF to the east of the area of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
The al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second largest faction in Gaza after Hamas, shared two more videos on Apr 18 & 20, showing rocket attacks on settlements and IOF gatherings close to the Strip.
There have been reports of several Israeli troops being wounded in Gaza in recent days. However, the IOF didn’t announce the death of any soldier or officer recently. In recent months, the IOF withdrew from most of the areas it invaded in the northern and southern parts of Gaza. However, it continues to maintain a large presence in the central part, where its troops split the Strip in half. The IOF has lost 260 soldiers and officers since the start of ground operations in Gaza. More than 1,560 others have been reportedly wounded.
On the Palestinian side, the death toll from the Israeli war has reached 34,049, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the Strip, which also said that at least 76,901 others have been wounded. Women and children make up the majority of the casualties. In addition to the high number of casualties, the war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the Strip’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN. Israel is yet to achieve any of the objects it launched the war for. However, it appears to be determined to go on with the war on Gaza. The next target for the IDF will likely be the city of Rafah in the southern part of the Strip, where more than 1.5 million Palestinians are said to be taking shelter.
Israeli Attack On Iran Targeted Air Defense Site Near Natanz Nuclear Facility
South Front, Apr 20 2024
The Apr 19 Israeli attack on Iran targeted an air defense site near the top-secret Natanz nuclear facility close to the city of Isfahan, several news agencies reported. The attack came in response to the Apr 13-14 Iranian missile and drone strikes on Israel, which was a retaliation to an Israeli strike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus at the beginning of the month that claimed the lives of several senior members of the IRGC. Iranian media reported the interception of drones over Isfahan air base during the attack, and said that there were no casualties or losses. Israel didn’t acknowledge the attack, neither was officially blamed for it by Iran. However, officials from the two countries as well as the US confirmed to several news outlets that the Israeli military was responsible. Contradicting Iran’s claims, ABC quoted a US official as saying that the attack included three missiles launched by Israeli Air Force warplanes from outside of Iranian airspace. It said the strike was “very limited,” and that according to an initial assessment, the strike took out the radar site, but the assessment had not yet been completed. The ABC report did not clarify however if the missiles were used in the attack in addition to the drones earlier reported by Iran. Another report by the NYT also said that Israeli warplanes fired the missiles and noted:
The new information suggests that the Israel strike included more advanced firepower than initial reports indicated. It was not immediately clear the types of missiles used, from where they were fired, whether any were intercepted by Iran’s defenses or where they landed.
It’s worth noting that the remains of what is believed to be the first stage of a never-seen-before Israeli air-launched, two-stages ballistic missile were found in central Iraq after the attack on Iran. Also during the attack, Israel struck several air defense sites in southern Syria, leading to speculation that Israeli warplanes launched their missiles from some area along the border between Syria, Jorda and Iraq. Meanwhile, Fox News reported, senior US military sources, that the target of the strike was a military base in Isfahan, and not the not the heavily fortified Natanz nuclear facility. One of the sources told Fox News:
The Israelis hit what they intended to strike. There was one main target that was hit multiple times. Iran’s Russian-made air defense system was proven ineffective. The targets of the strike included air defense systems at the military base used to protect the nearby nuclear facilities. Israel’s message with the strike was to sell the Iranians on the idea that “we can reach out and touch you.”
Synthetic aperture radar satellite images taken hours after the Israeli attack also showed evidence that the radar site in Isfahan was targeted.
Despite the reports that the radar site had been destroyed, other SAR satellite images published by CNN did not appear to show any extensive damage to Iran’s Isfahan air base. CNN said:
There does not appear to be any large craters in the ground and there are no apparent destroyed buildings. These findings needed to be confirmed by regular satellite pictures that could detect things like burn scars.
The attack on Isfahan was apparently meant to send a message to Iran that the Israeli military can strike its heavily fortified nuclear facilities. Iran, which has played down the limited attack, will not likely respond, at least not directly against Israel. Still, tensions between the regional foes will not likely ease as long as Israel continues its war on the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
Suspected Israeli Strikes Hit Iraqi Popular Mobilization Base South Of Baghdad
South Front, Apr 20 2024
A series of large explosions rocked early on Apr 20 the Kalso military base which is located in the Babylon province about 50 km to the south of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and used by both the Iraqi military and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). In a statement, the PMF said that an “explosion” had inflicted “material losses” and casualties, without specifying the number of wounded. It added that its premises on the military base had been hit and that investigators had been sent to the site. The PMF was formed by Iranian-backed armed factions in Iraq to fight ISIS in 2014. Four years later, the Iraqi government fully reorganized the group.
An official of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior told AFP that an “aerial bombing” on the base had killed one person and wounded eight others, while a military source reported three Iraqi service members had been wounded in a strike. Responding to questions from AFP, the sources would not identify who was responsible, or say whether it had been a drone strike. Shortly after the attack, the US CENTCOM said that its forces were not behind the reported attack on Iraq, tweeting:
The US has not conducted airstrikes in Iraq today. Reports that US forces had carried out a strike were not true.
Later, the Sabreen news channel on Telegram, which has ties to the PMF, reported, citing an Iraqi security source, that the Kalso military base was hit by Israeli airstrikes. The Israeli military has not confirmed or denied this.
These accusations were repeated by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), which announced that it had carried out a drone attack against Eilat in response to the airstrikes on the Iraqi base. Hebrew media didn’t report any incident at the city.
The IRI is also an umbrella group made up of armed factions which are backed by Iran. Some of the PMF’s key factions, like Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba and Kata’ib Hezbollah, are thought to be also members of the IRI. The group began launching attacks against Israel as well as against US forces in Iraq and Syria on Oct 17 in response to the Israeli war on Gaza, which broke out just ten days earlier, and Washington’s unwavering support for it. The group suspended attacks against US forces last February after the death of three US troops in a drone strike on a base in Jordan, reportedly upon a request from Iran’s IRGC. Nevertheless, it escalated attacks against Israel starting from March. This may be the motive behind the Israeli attack on Iraq. The suspected Israeli airstrikes on the Kalso military base came just a day after strikes also attributed to Israel hit Isfahan.
Niqnaq 