Crossfire War – RAPID FIRE NEWS=TEHRAN – RAMALLAH – DAMASCUS WATCH – West Asia – North – Northeast Africa Theatre: Tehran – Riyadh – Tripoli – Khartoum – Amman – Baghdad – Beirut – Damascus – Gaza – Ramallah/Jerusalem – Paris – Rome – London – Washington – Cairo; US Navy Sealift Command Increases Fuel Supply to B-1 Bomber Base on Diego Garcia – Indian Ocean – Preparations for Air Strike on Iran Nuclear Installations – Fighting in Gaza – West Bank – China Maintains Claims on India Province Arunachal Pradesh
Night Watch: DIEGO GARCIA – Debka reports, as the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Vice-President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, announced some of the latest developments in Iran’s nuclear program, the Pentagon has tendered four tankers for the purpose of shipping one million tons of fuel to its B-1 bomber base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. This is obviously some of the final preparations for the long overdue attack on Iran’s underground nuclear-ballistic missile installations constructed by the engineering firm headquarted in San Francisco. The day after the Gulf War ended in 1991 CNN showed the firm’s London branch office invited to Iran that being the real reason Saddam was left in Baghdad instead of being removed, as he easily could have been that year. The London office was used because Britain’s establishment decided to have no embargo against Iran in order to make billions of dollars-pounds constructing a network of subterranean bases, nuclear bomb proof, similar to the network constructed for the House of Saud during the 1980s. Obviously, there were those in the U. S. establishment who went along with the scheme, which sold the foreign policy to Tehran, and I suspect it was done under the assumption Saudi Arabia-Iran would go to war with each other instead of operating in tandem. When the construction was completed Saddam was removed, 2003, and the trap of Iraq begins. [DEBKA]
A trap, like the one in Afghanistan, in which Allied ground forces and air units are confined to chasing the Jihad around both countries, which has prevented the West from conducting any sustained offensive against Iran, the greatest threat to the industrialized world in seventy years. The fuel is meant to be used by the Pentagon bases in Bahrain-Kuwait-Oman, but they will be under constant attack as part of Tehran’s response to any air strike. The Scottish paper The Herald reports, “The US is secretly upgrading special stealth bomber hangers on the British island protectorate of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to military sources.” In terms of the scale and duration of the air offensive Canada’s Globe and Mail reports, “No one is predicting a full-blown ground war with Iran. The likeliest scenario, a blistering air war that could last as little as one night or as long as two weeks.”
Regular readers of crossfirewar.com know RIA has reported the Pentagon has been testing a super penetrator bomb more powerful than nuclear and designed for underground installations. The same source has also mentioned Russia had developed a conventional vacuum bomb more also powerful than nuclear, which I assume will be used to end the military standoff in the South Caucasus between Russia and Georgia. Turkey-Iran support Georgia and this is the reason former Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger arrived in Moscow in late April to co-chair the Strategic Working Group with former Russia Premier Yevgeny Primakov. They may have timed Russia’s attack, in support of Abkhazia-South Ossetia to take place at the same time as the Pentagon’s air offensive.
There is no guarantee of course Tehran will sit back and allow the Allies to attack first. Tehran is of course monitoring all these preparations and just a few days ago, one of the Iranian generals was quoted on crossfirewar.com as saying “This is the calm before the storm.” When U. S. President George W. Bush began publicly discussing attacking Iran as “an option on the table” an official with Iran’s Defense Ministry responded by stating Iran will not let the U. S. attack first. But Tehran may have decided to let Washington do so in order to continue to portray the U. S. as the aggressor and that Iran and the Islamic world’s responses have always been defensive whether against the West or against Israel. Iran’s Defense Ministry also knows if they respond effectively against any initial attack they will soon be on the offensive, what Tehran had codenamed al-Qiyamah (Judgment Day) outlined on crossfirewar.com April 27, 2006.
Ramallah – Xinhua reports heavy fighting continues to occur in both Gaza and the West Bank between Israel and Palestinian militant groups including the armed wing of Fatah the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades headed by Mahmoud Abbas as he pretends to be a force for peace and cooperation. I suspect he maintains the pretense in order to receive financial aid from Washington while in reality, behind the scenes, works with Tehran-Damascus-Riyadh. Israeli troops, supported by armored vehicles, raided the West Bank town of Marda’ against militant groups and engaged in a firefight with the al-Aqsa. In the central Gaza Strip Israeli units were involved in heavy fighting east of the Palestinian refugee camp al-Maghazi where they exchanged fire with Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC). Islamic Jihad may actually have fired more Qassam rockets and mortars this year than even Hamas and Tehran has enabled them to use an upgraded more powerful Qassam. The action today in northern Gaza was Israel’s response to rocket fire. [XINHUA]
Tawang – Gulf-Times reports Beijing is intensifying the border dispute with Delhi over control of India’s northeastern province Arunachal Pradesh on Tibet’s border. It is not a new dispute and was the reason for China’s invasion in October 1962 for one month and the fighting extended south into Assam state causing India to fire its Defense Minister. There was also heavy skirmishing between Indian/Chinese units in 1986 in the province’s Sumdorong Valley. Last month Zhou Gang, former China’s former Ambassador to India, added to the issue by saying, “I made it clear on many occasions to the Indian public-Tawang belongs to China.” Tawang is the most important city in Arunachal Pradesh. Gang continued by using the Dalai Lama as a reason, “It is the birth place of the sixth Dalai Lama and the Dalai Lama is China’s Dalai Lama, who cannot be the Indian Dalai Lama.” Of course, in Tibet they will say he is Tibetan and not Chinese. [GULFTIMES]
This dispute, in the Dalai Lama front, flared up in November last year with a declaration by China Ambassador to India Sun Yuxi, “The whole of what you call the state of Arunachal Pradesh is Chinese territory, we are claiming the whole of that.” This is actually a continuation of Beijing’s imperial expansion policy since World War II when China invaded East Turkistan in 1946 claiming it belongs to China. The “belong to China” expansion campaign continued when they invaded Tibet in 1950. Chinese units were finally halted by the Soviet Union when heavy border fighting began on a regimental scale between the two governments in the mid-1960s and now Beijing is prepared to take advantage of the next major war between Pakistan/India. December last year Islamabad-Beijing conducted ground maneuvers just west of Kashmir.
Delhi is of course rejecting Beijing’s claims. India’s Chief Minister in Arunachal Pradesh, Dorjee Khandu stated, “It is my request to the Indian government and the Prime Minister to make it clear to China that they should not make any territorial claims over Arunachal Pradesh. Our people still have doubts and apprehensions in their minds and hence it is pertinent for New Delhi to dispel all doubts.” In support of his view, Delhi has increased its defenses in Arunachal Pradesh with India’s military stating there will be no repeat of 1962.
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