From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Mar 31 2009 - 11:35:06 EST
Israeli warplanes bombed Sudan convoy-Time
Tue Mar 31, 2009 4:09pm GMT
* Israel maintains silence over reported Sudan strike
* Olmert says his government ordered secret operations
(Adds comments by Israel's Olmert, paragraphs 7-8)
LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - Israeli fighter-bombers, backed by drones,
ships and helicopters, attacked a convoy in Sudan in January after agents
told it the trucks were taking Iranian missiles to Hamas, Time magazine said
on Tuesday.
Quoting two senior Israeli security sources, the magazine said the 23-truck
convoy was carrying the missiles to Gaza's Hamas Islamist rulers who were
then fighting Israel.
Israel has declined to comment on media reports about the attack, and
Defence Minister Ehud Barak declined to reveal any details when asked about
the Time article.
"I don't believe that in our current situation we have the privilege to talk
too much. We must do what is needed and keep quiet," he told reporters
during a tour of the Golan Heights.
The magazine said U.S. officials were informed of the strike, but were not
involved.
"The attack was a warning to Iran and other adversaries, showing Israel's
intelligence capability and its willingness to mount operations far beyond
its borders in order to defend itself from gathering threats," it said on
its Web site (www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1888352,00.html).
The closest Israel has come to an apparent public statement was last week,
when outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel acted "wherever we can"
against its enemies: "There's no point getting into details -- everyone can
use his imagination."
In further remarks on Tuesday, Olmert said that during his three-year term,
Israel had carried out "security operations -- some of them of dramatic
value -- whose details should remain classified."
"Who dares wins -- and we dared," Olmert, invoking the motto of Britain's
Special Air Service (SAS) commandos, said in a farewell speech to
parliament, which convened to ratify Benjamin Netanyahu's new government.
ISRAELI CENSORSHIP
The Time magazine story, like others in the past week on the subject, was
widely picked up by Israeli media, which operate under strict military
censorship when reporting local security affairs.
On Friday, Sudan said it suspected Israel of two attacks on smuggling
convoys in a remote northern region that killed up to 40 people. A foreign
ministry spokesman said the vehicles hit in the raid were too small to be
smuggling weapons.
Israel accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons, despite Tehran's denials.
Like Olmert, Netanyahu has not ruled out Israeli military action to prevent
Iran acquiring an atomic arsenal, even if Israel's key ally the United
States does not cooperate.
Analysts question Israel's long-range military capabilities but its forces,
which are widely assumed to possess their own nuclear weapons, do train for
missions as far away as Iran, much of which lies further from Israel than
does northern Sudan.
The Jewish state, which surprised Saddam Hussein with an air strike on
Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981, bombed a site in Syria in 2007 that U.S.
officials called a secret nuclear facility. It has long had a reputation for
covert action around the world.
Time said F-16 fighter-bombers carried out two runs on the convoy, while
F-15 fighters provided cover and naval helicopters were on hand to rescue
any downed pilots. In-flight refuelling tankers were also used, its sources
said.
After a first bombing run, unmanned drones sent back images showing some
trucks were not hit and the F-16s went in again.
An Israeli security source told Reuters that Israel suspected Iran was
trying to provide Hamas with missiles, based on a Soviet design commonly
known as FROG. Their range of 70 km (45 miles) is more than double that of
Hamas's current arsenal. (Editing by Janet Lawrence)
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----