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Iran Launches Direct Assault on Israel
A wave of drones and ballistic missiles have been launched from Iran to Israel Saturday night, marking a new phase in the wider Middle East conflict. While Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp has been behind many attacks against Israel, tonight is the first instance of a direct assault from the territory of the Islamic Republic against the Jewish State.
The extent of the attack is not yet clear. The New York Times reports that more than 200 drones and missiles have been launched in the retaliatory strike—a response to the deadly strike on an Iranian embassy in Syria.
Israeli, American and other allied forces claim to have intercepted dozens of drones and most missiles before reaching the territory. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari has confirmed minor damage to an Israeli military base and a single casualty to a young girl.
Surreal footage of the Iranian attack over Jerusalem's Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif pic.twitter.com/NuSvF25HLX
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) April 13, 2024
The United Nations Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting Sunday afternoon.
Published in General
Many Happy Returns.
The UN Security Council will no doubt condemn Israel for forcing Iran to launch an attack onto Israeli territory. [spit]
I have very little doubt that this will happen. Surely the US won’t abstain from that vote, right?
Iran launched some 185 drones, 110 surface-to-surface missiles, and 36 cruise missiles at Israel, two Israeli officials tell The New York Times.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-april-14-2024/
Being a very presidential president, his schedule of very important issues will not be disrupted.
He’s unable to react to events that occur after 4 PM Eastern.
I was highly alarmed by this attack, but something didn’t make sense to me when I heard that Iran “Announced” that they had launched drones and missiles at Israel. I got an idea in my head and then it seemed to be confirmed when an Iranian official announced that “this should conclude matters.” I also kept in mind that Iran make a public statement about attacking Israel days beforehand.
What I suspect is that Iran did the same thing they did against U.S. targets after Trump made the hit on Solemani and friends during his visit to Iraq – they launched a rocket attack that was meant to fail, but send a message to their own people and terrorist surrogates, that they were going to stand up to the big guys. Iran doesn’t really want to get into a war with military superpowers that could wipe them off the map. They just want to act tough, without riling the U.S. and Israel into taking devastating action. If they really meant to do grievous damage, they would have launched a complete surprise attack, the way Hamas did.
Any thoughts?
Counting Joup?
It didn’t fail. None were intercepted, very few missed their targets. American servicemembers were injured.
In this case, it looks like there were established defensive CAPs and they were used. In all probability, the drones were detected by surveillance radar; while due to the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, the MRBMs were detected at launch. The treaty regime includes worldwide monitoring of high intensity heat plumes via satellite with immediate notification to signatories. The Iranian announcement has nothing to do with the response.
Nothing could disturb his “Hazel” binging.
And it’s ALWAYS after 4pm Eastern.
Agree. And they said it’s done now Any escalation after this isn’t on them, it’s on Israel.
Unfortunately for Iran, Israel gets a vote on when it’s done.
I do not understand why Hezbollah did not launch at the same time, to overwhelm the defenses.
I’m sure the missiles were launched “accidentally.” Even so, they were mostly peaceful missiles.
Ballistic missiles. Those seem like pretty worthless ballistic missiles. I’d like to know more about that.
And for shooting down most of the attacks . . .
Iran is up to its neck in every conflict in the Middle-East, and has inflicted or funded mass killings in Syria and Yemen. It has turned those two countries and Lebanon into failed States. It uses their territories to carry out attacks. Israel has shown remarkable forbearance in the face of attacks and threats from Iran and its proxies.
I wouldn’t say that. They were very accurate when Iran attacked the airbase in Iraq following the killing of Solomani. Rather, Israel has invested heavily in ballistic missile defense since Iraq attacked them with Scuds in 1991. Looks like that investment paid off.
I do love how the UN (and @zafar) beclowned themselves by blaming Israel for the attack and demanding a ceasefire.
Maybe one of Iran’s drones will drop a bomb on the golden dome. That would be a delightful outcome to the mullahs’ chicanery.
Nuke Tehran. Get it over with quickly.
A wonderful display of the mentality and maturity of a typical sixth grade bully. The adults in the area should treat them appropriately.
Well, it seems pretty impressive that they shot so many of them down. It looks like a hard problem to me.
“An” embassy in Syria? How many others does Iran have there?
I’m being pedantic. It’s probably just a consulate. Maybe the newspaper article said that. I don’t have a New York Times subscription and I’m not giving them my e-mail address. Anyway, whatever Editors’ [sic] Desk this is coming from or being relayed through, I think details matter. Sometimes. The Middle East seems to cycle between insincere diplomacy and real fury, now thrilling to technicalities, now losing patience with them.
I am just wondering if he does speak to the nation regarding this incident, will he condemn Iran as harshly as he has condemned Israel for defending themselves.
Wow – I don’t know what to make of this report assuming it’s true. What kind of ally are we to Israel if we had fore-knowledge of the attack and blessed it?
Nah. He won’t comment on it at all…
By the time he gets back to the office, it’ll be Monday or Tuesday… If asked he’ll just respond with some version of:
“Man! that was like 4 days ago!”
That may eventually happen. I’m concerned that this attack from Iran is only the first of many. There are countries expressing disapproval of Iran’s attack, but with more attacks, I’m thinking there will be fewer expressions of disapproval, and as with Gaza previously, accepted as a “ new normal”. Over time ( a few years , perhaps), Hezbollah may occasionally join in these rocket attacks until, one day, Israel faces another “October 7”, but from the North.
My wife thought that the attack might have been more to goad Israel into striking back, rather than to damage them. That way Iran could have the excuse to launch a more devastating attack that would garner praise from all the world’s bad guys and leftists. They just had to know that drones, which take hours to reach Israel and are easily detected by radar and shot down, would do no serious damage. Tiger Lily’s comment about Iran informing Turkey, our NATO ally, about the attack beforehand, is further evidence that this was not meant to be a Pearl-Harbor like surprise event. I would assume that Iran has a pretty good idea of the strength of Israel’s “Iron Dome” and “David’s Arrow” missile defense systems, since they have been in full operation and on public display for the last two decades.
There is yet a third theory that Iran was testing Israel’s defense systems to see how many hits they could absorb at once, in order to gauge how many missiles are needed in a future “major attack.”
All of those theories are plausible to me. All of them.
Yes, Muslims would never forgive Israel for that.