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Paratroopers Trade Parachutes for Sea Legs

Editor — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 13:57:35 +0000

ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq: Paratroopers here have added another element to their arsenal of maneuver capabilities: amphibious transportation.

The Scout Platoon for the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, will use the aluminum utility boat to conduct reconnaissance throughout their area of operation.

"This new addition gives us the ability to use routes the enemy would not expect us to use," said 1st Lt. Matt Didier, scout platoon leader.

In addition to opening new routes, the boat can carry up to 15 combat-equipped paratroopers versus the five personnel that can be carried in a Humvee.

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Paratroopers from the Scout Platoon, 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, head out on a training mission on the Euphrates River. Such training missions as this one helped the paratroopers get accustomed to water-borne operations.
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Since most of the scout's missions are normally dismounted, the Soldiers went through a swim test and various battle drills before being allowed to incorporate the boat into the unit's missions.

"Each paratrooper had to complete a swim test with full combat gear and learn how to enter and exit the boat," said Didier. "Also, each squad would go over battle drills with reacting to enemy contact and procedures for a downed vehicle."

Before conducting actual missions, the platoon practiced several dry-fire missions to familiarize themselves with water-borne operations.

"It is a very different way to conduct missions for our platoon, but the paratroopers picked up on the training quickly and drove on with the mission without any problems," said Didier. "It is a great asset for our brigade. It is a great tool to help combat the enemy and to help make Iraq a safer place."

Though the boat will not replace the Humvee, Didier said it will greatly add to the unit's effectiveness.

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US: Israel Likely Violated Cluster Bomb Agreement During Hezbollah War

Editor — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:06:52 +0000

, WASHINGTON: The Bush administration has told Congress that Israel likely violated U.S. arms export agreements with its use of cluster munitions against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon last year. The State Department says a preliminary report on the issue has been sent to Congress.

Reports of Israel's widespread use of the cluster munitions during the 34-day conflict drew international criticism and triggered a State Department-led investigation, a preliminary report on which has now been sent to relevant committees of the U.S. Congress.

Cluster munitions are anti-personnel weapons, including artillery shells, rockets and gravity bombs, that scatter tiny bomblets over a wide area.

Since the brief war between Israel and Hezbollah ended last August, scores of civilians in southern Lebanon have been killed or wounded by leftover bomblets despite a costly clean-up effort by the United Nations and other agencies.

The precise terms of the agreements under which the United States has provided cluster weapons to Israel are classified, but officials here have said the weapons are not supposed to be used in populated areas, partly because of the lingering risk of unexploded bomblets.

In a talk with reporters, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said the report on the department's preliminary investigation of the case was sent to Congress Monday, and that it concludes that Israel probably violated those understandings:

"It's a set of preliminary findings. And as I said, the law requires that if after some period of investigation, we believe there was a likely violation of the use agreements, then we send the reports," he said. "You can conclude from the fact that we sent the report that there are some questions about it."

McCormack said that Israel has been very responsive and transparent in providing information to investigators on its use of the munitions.

A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington said the weapons were used to counter unprovoked Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israeli population centers, and that Israel acted as any country would have in self-defense.

Israel says that before firing at suspected rocket launching sites in Lebanese towns, its forces dropped leaflets warning civilians of the attacks.

Spokesman McCormack stressed that the report, prepared by outgoing State Department arms control chief Robert Joseph was not a final judgment. He declined to speculate on what punitive action, if any, might be taken against Israel if a violation is confirmed.

The U.S. government has investigated several complaints of Israeli misuse of American-supplied military hardware over the years.

The Reagan administration imposed a six-year ban on cluster-weapon sales to Israel after a congressional probe found that Israel has used the weapons in civilian areas in its 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

The United States and Israel have also sparred over Israeli sales to China of weapons systems containing U.S.-derived technology. In 2000, the United States blocked a lucrative deal under which Israel was to have sold China an advanced airborne early-warning radar system.

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Iraq Needs Stronger Political Will: Australian Commander

Editor — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 12:24:14 +0000

, The Iraqi government needed a stronger political will to tackle militia violence in Baghdad, Australia Iraq Needs Stronger Political Will: Australian Commander is a post from: DefenceTalk | Defense & Military News - Forums - Pictures - Weapons

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Major European Aeronautics Companies Commit to

Editor — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 08:21:00 +0000

, VIENNA, Austria: Today in Vienna nine leading European aeronautics companies (AgustaWestland, Airbus, Alenia Aeronautica, Dassault Aviation, Eurocopter, Liebherr-Aerospace, Rolls-Royce, SAFRAN, and Thales) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish the Aeronautics Joint Technology Initiative Major European Aeronautics Companies Commit to is a post from: DefenceTalk | Defense & Military News - Forums - [...]

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Strike By Israeli Robot Drone Kills Four Gunmen In Gaza

Editor — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 09:26:00 +0000

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,

Gaza City: Four armed Palestinians from the ruling Islamist Hamas movement were killed early Monday in the Gaza Strip when an Israeli drone fired a missile at them, a Palestinian security official said. The four members of a special forces unit of the Palestinian interior ministry, controlled by Hamas, were out on the street in Gaza City's eastern Shejaya neighborhood when the attack took place, the official said.

Separately, 20-year-old Palestinian, Wassim al-Masri, was killed early Monday when he refused to stop at a roadblock near the southern town of Khan Yunis and Hamas security forces opened fire on him.

On Sunday, three Palestinians, including two Hamas members, were killed by Israeli forces near the Karni border crossing in the Gaza Strip.

Since June 28, when Israel launched a massive offensive in Gaza to recover a captured soldier and stop rocket attacks, at least 191 Palestinians have been killed.

The latest deaths brought to 5,352 the number of people killed since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000, most of them Palestinians, according to an AFP count.

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Up To 71 Taliban Killed In Southern Afghanistan

Editor — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 08:15:00 +0000

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,

Kandahar, Afghanistan: Up to 71 Taliban rebels and five Afghan police and soldiers have been confirmed killed in a major clash in southern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday. The battle erupted late Saturday after scores of Taliban attacked volatile Panjwayi district in Kandahar province, the birthplace of the movement that has been waging an insurgency since being removed from government in late 2001.

"We have 35 Taliban bodies in Panjwayi town and 11 out of the town," district governor Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi told AFP.

Another 25 bodies were found in nearby Sperwan village, he said.

The defence ministry in the capital said it could confirm only 60 bodies had been found in Panjwayi town and Sperwan.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force that was involved in the operation said it had been told by Afghan security forces that between 60 and 70 Taliban were killed.

An Afghan soldier and four policemen were also killed in the five-hour battle, Afghan security forces said.

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Israeli army chief sold stocks hours before war

Editor — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 08:24:00 +0000

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,

Israel's army chief Dan Halutz reportedly offloaded his stock portfolio hours before the Jewish state unleashed a massive offensive in Lebanon and the stock market tumbled.

According to the Maariv daily, Halutz sold the shares at noon on July 12, three hours after two soldiers were seized by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid and as Israeli artillery began to pound the positions of the Shiite militia in Lebanon, the paper said.

Israel's main TA-25 index slumped by 8.3 percent over two days from July 12.

Halutz confirmed that he sold his shares for 120,000 shekels (26,000 dollars) and said he lost 5,400 dollars in the transaction.

"It's true that I sold these shares at noon on July 12, but you can't link the transaction to the war. At that moment I did not think that there would be a war," Maariv quoted Halutz as saying.

A UN-brokered ceasefire went into effect on Monday after one-month of war in Lebanon but Israel's political and military leaders are facing criticism over the conduct of the offensive and calls for an inquiry.

Israeli media have blasted Halutz for his handling of the war and the lack of preparation by the military for the offensive, with some reports saying that troops lacked basic equipment, like flak jackets, upon being sent in.

Following Tuesday's report, lawmakers called on Halutz to step down and for Prosecutor General Menahem Mazuz to open an investigation.

"This marks a serious problem of priorities during a time when state security was in the balance," Colette Aviattal, a Labor MP, said, calling for Halutz to step down.

"The country was under fire and all that was important to him was his stock portfolio," he said.

Zevulon Orlev, from the right-wing National Religious Party, echoed the sentiment.

"During critical hours for a nation, one expects the chief of staff to be totally involved in the running of the war and not in personal questions of winnings or losses on the stock market," he said.

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US Deny Israeli Request for Cluster Munitions Use in Lebanon Has Killed and Maimed Civilians

Editor — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 08:49:00 +0000

Human Rights Watch, WASHINGTON: The United States should reject any request by Israel to transfer cluster munitions for use against targets in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch wrote in a letter to National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley today. Civilians in Lebanon have already died from Israel's use of similar weapons, which blanket a wide area with deadly submunitions.

According to the August 11 edition of the New York Times, Israel has requested delivery of surface-launched M26 artillery rockets for use against locations in Lebanon where it believes Hezbollah fighters are launching Katyusha rockets into Israel. The wide dispersal pattern of submunitions from M26 rockets makes it very difficult to avoid civilian casualties if civilians are in the area. Moreover, because so many of the submunitions initially fail to detonate, M26 rockets leave behind large numbers of hazardous explosive "duds" that are akin to landmines, injuring and killing civilians long after the attack.

"Harm to civilians is inevitable if Israel uses M26 rockets in Lebanon,"
said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "These weapons killed or wounded hundreds of civilians in Iraq in 2003.

Washington has a duty not to assist in replicating that death toll in southern Lebanon."

The United States approved a license with a value of $615,496 for the commercial sale of 1,300 M26 rockets to Israel in Fiscal Year 2005, according to State Department records. The State Department is reported to be weighing Israel's request for expedited delivery.

The M26 rocket is launched from the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) to ranges of 32 to 38 kilometers and it creates a wide-area effect by dispensing 644 M77 submunitions. A typical volley of six rockets would release 3,864 submunitions over an area with a 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) radius.

U.S. testing data puts the initial failure rate of M77 submunitions at anywhere between 5 percent and 23 percent. British military testing indicates an initial failure rate of between 5 percent and 10 percent. Both governments note that initial failure rates largely depend on ground conditions, range and other operational factors.

"The M26 rocket epitomizes a retreat from precision targeting," said Roth. "It kills civilians across wide areas and leaves volatile submunitions scattered across the countryside that can kill civilians for years to come. This deadly weapon should never be used anywhere near civilians."

In the current conflict, Israel has already used artillery-fired cluster munitions against populated areas, causing civilian casualties. According to eyewitnesses and survivors of an attack interviewed by Human Rights Watch, Israel fired several artillery-based cluster munitions at the village of Blida around 3:00 p.m. on July 19. Three witnesses described how the artillery shells dropped hundreds of cluster submunitions on the village.

The attack killed 60-year-old Maryam Ibrahim inside her home. At least two submunitions entered the basement that the Ali family was using as a shelter, wounding 12 people, including seven children.

The New York Times quoted an Israeli embassy spokesman in Washington, David Siegel, as denying this use in Blida, but his summary denial is simply false.

To encourage delivery of the cluster munitions, Israel has vowed not to use them in populated areas, but its actions to date make that vow unreliable. As Human Rights Watch demonstrated in its recent report, "Fatal Strikes: Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon," the Israeli military has repeatedly launched indiscriminate attacks in populated areas, targeting civilian vehicles and houses as if there were no civilians left in southern Lebanon. In fact, despite Israeli warnings to evacuate, an estimated 100,000 civilians remain in southern Lebanon because of infirmity, inability to afford exorbitant taxi fares to leave, or fear of becoming yet another roadside casualty of Israeli attacks.

"Israel's persistent failure to recognize the reality that many civilians remain in southern Lebanon makes its promise not to use cluster munitions in civilian areas unreliable," said Roth.

Background Information and Notes

In July 1982, the Reagan administration announced that it would prohibit new exports of cluster munitions to Israel. The United States found that by using U.S.-supplied cluster munitions against civilian targets during its military operations in Lebanon and the siege of Beirut, Israel may have violated its 1952 Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement with the United States. In November 1988, the United States quietly lifted the ban.

The United States stockpiles 369,576 M26 rockets in its active inventory.

The Netherlands announced in 2005 plans to destroy its stockpile of 16,000 M26 rockets, citing concerns about the potential to create disproportionate collateral damage. M26 rockets are also stockpiled by Bahrain, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Turkey and the United Kingdom. France is considering replacing its M26 rockets, which have unreliable submunitions, with a unitary warhead rocket. Germany does not envisage using M26 rockets until it has been provided with a mechanism to limit its operational life.

The United States caused hundreds of civilian casualties in 2003 when it used M26 rockets in widely populated areas in Iraq, including Hilla, Najaf and Karbala. The strikes were deadly because they covered a broad area and because they scattered a large number of initially unexploded submunitions.

View the full letter from Human rights Watch to National Security Advisor

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Australia To Send More Troops to Afghanistan

Editor — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 09:33:00 +0000

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Aug. 9 he was sending 150 more troops to Afghanistan, amid an escalating Taliban-led insurgency in the country Australia To Send More Troops to Afghanistan is a post from: DefenceTalk | Defense & Military News - Forums - Pictures - Weapons

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Global outrage greets Israel 'war crime' in Qana

Editor — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 08:38:00 +0000

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,

Israel's air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana sparked global outrage, with the UN Security Council deploring the deaths and Arab and Muslim leaders and thousands of livid protesters in the Middle East branding the assault a war crime.

Diplomats said the United States again forced the emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to water down its statement so that Israel was not openly criticised.

But the statement said: "The Security Council strongly deplores this loss of innocent lives and the killing of all civilians in the present conflict and requests the secretary general to report to it within one week on the circumstances of this tragic incident."

Qatar, which proposed the statement, had wanted to call the attack "deliberate" and to call for a ceasefire.

The statement said: "The Security Council expresses its concern at the threat of escalation of violence with further grave consequences for the humanitarian situation, calls for and end to violence, and underscores the urgency of securing a lasting, permanent and sustainable ceasefire.

The final statement was agreed after the United States announced that Israel has agreed to suspend its air attacks for 48 hours pending an investigation into the Qana bombing.

The 15-nation council met in emergency session at the demand of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora after the Israeli raid left 52 people dead, including at least 30 children.

"We must condemn this action in the strongest possible terms, and I appeal to you to do likewise," Annan told the council.

"I'm deeply dismayed that my earlier calls for immediate cessation of hostilities were not heard, with the result that innocent lives continue to be taken and innocent civilians continue to suffer," he said.

In Lebanon, where the deadlist attack of the 19-day-old conflict killed at least 52 people, more than half of them children, the government accused Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity as thousands of demonstrators attacked the UN headquarters in Beirut.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was forced to cancel a visit to the Lebanese capital after a furious Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said there was no place for talks without an immediate ceasefire following the strike.

"These aggressions are crimes against humanity and war crimes in all senses of the words," Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said. "It is to hide their failure in achieving their military objectives."

Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said he "strongly condemned Israel's ongoing barbaric attacks on Lebanon, the latest of which is the attack on the village of Qana."

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference said "the latest Israeli massacre amounts to a war crime and shows Israel's contempt for international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in times of war."

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose country has been involved in diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis, called Israel's attack "irresponsible" and reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire.

Jordan, another regional broker, also strongly condemned the raid. "This criminal aggression is a flagrant violation of international laws," said Jordan's King Abdullah II in a statement.

Iran blamed the bloody attack on Rice's visit to the region.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas condemned the attack and asked the United Nations to oversee an immediate ceasefire, top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.

"Abu Mazen (Abbas) has called the Lebanese president and prime minister and offered his deepest condolences (for) the victims of the crime that was committed by Israel in Qana which he condemned in the strongest possible terms," he said.

Some 2,000 Palestinians protested in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The United Arab Emirates joined the chorus of condemnations of the "ugly massacre".

"This crime ... provides new proof of Israel's systematic policy of using its destructive weapons to kill in an indiscriminate way and without consideration for international laws and conventions that protect civilians," said Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

Rice voiced deep sadness over the loss of "innocent" life in the attack and urged Israel to take "extraordinary care" to avoid civilian casualties.

She pledged to work for a ceasefire as soon as possible but again stopped short of demanding an immediate halt to hostilities. Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Rice said it was time to "get to a ceasefire" in Lebanon.

US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said the deaths were "tragic" but that they did not constitute a war crime.

"Not only do we feel sorrow for what happened in Qana, but also a determination that it is really important to remove the conditions that led to that," chief White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters Sunday.

Israel expressed "regret" over the civilian casualties but rejected increased international pressure for an immediate ceasefire. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the village was a "safe haven" for militants.

It ordered an inquiry into the incident, with one official suggesting the lethal blast could have been caused by Hezbollah explosives.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's personal representative in Lebanon was "deeply shocked and saddened" by the civilian deaths, and called for an immediate ceasefire and an investigation.

In Europe, Finland, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said it was "shocked and dismayed" by the strikes.

"There is no justification for attacks causing casualties among innocent civilians, most of them women and children," it said in a statement, echoing condemnations from Scandinavian and other European countries.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett described the Qana raids as "quite appalling" and said Britain had "repeatedly urged the Israelis to act proportionately".

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed "profound pity" for the victims, calling on Israel to observe "proportion" in its attacks and avoid civilian casualties, and reiterating calls for a swift ceasefire.

Britain and Germany issued a joint statement saying the events at Qana "have underlined the urgency of the need for a ceasefire as soon as possible."

French President Jacques Chirac condemned the bombing as an "unjustifiable action which shows more than ever the need to agree on an immediate ceasefire".

Spain announced that Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, a former EU Mideast envoy, would visit Lebanon on Wednesday out of "solidarity with the Lebanese people and government."

The governments of Italy and Ireland also expressed their consternation, as did Greence, saying: "Nothing can justify the massive slaughter of civilians."

Switzerland said it acknowledged the right of Israel to defend itself but added: "The operations should adhere strictly to the rules of international humitarian law."

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said nothing could justify the Qana bombing, adding that the EU backed an "immediate ceasefire".

Morocco dubbed the attack "odious" and reiterated calls for the international community to press for an end to hostilities.

China "strongly condemned" the attack and reiterated calls for a ceasefire, state media said Sunday. A Chinese national was among four UN observers killed in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon last week.

Around 5,000 protesters marched in Belgium following the attacks, as did more than 600 in Paris.

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