Yesterday, it was reported that a “huge fire” had broken out at a weapons factory in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. The Sudanese government, after some consideration, claimed that it was a bombing by “four planes” coming in “from the east,” and blamed Israel.
....FP reports that the Sudanese government will lodge a formal complaint against Israel with the U.N. Security Council. This wouldn’t be the first time Israel’s performed such a strike: In 2010, Israel bombed a convoy of trucks with weapons likely being used to supply Hamas that was traveling through northeastern Sudan.
...the factory struck seems to have been an Iranian Revolutionary Guard facility
The Atlantic has more:
The defense ministers of Sudan and Iran signed a "military cooperation agreement" in 2008. Sudan has hosted Iranian Revolutionary Guard personnel, and allegedly served as a transit point for weapons bound for Hamas, in the Gaza Strip.
So no doubt this attack angers up the blood of the Iranian mullahs. They've lost a training facility of their own, and a deniable weapon-production plant used to arm allies who fight Iran's proxy war against Israel. So that's gotta sting. But there is even a larger message here, kind of an "oh...shit" moment for the mullahs, in which they realize they are nowhere near as safe from an Israeli attack as they believe:
Assuming it was also Israel's doing, the destruction of the weapons facility would represent another level of audacity. "I would say that if the Sudanese government's claims are correct, then this is longest strike -- the farthest strike -- ever executed by the Israeli air force," says Ehud Yaari, the Israel-based Lafer International Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "We are talking about something that is 1,800 or 1,900 kilometers [from Israel], depending on the route. That's farther away than the range from Israel to the main Iranian nuclear installations in Natanz and Qom."
Khartoum isn't just further away and more densely populated than either of Israel's previous alleged targets inside the Sudan. It's probably better-protected as well. According to the 2012 edition of the International Institute for Strategic Studies' The Military Balance, the Sudanese air force still consists of 61 combat capable aircraft, as well as Russian-built Divina 2 anti-aircraft missiles.
Check out the "fireworks" at the 30 second mark...
So here's what the Iranian power structure is digesting today:
-Israel would have no problem getting it's jets to their primary nuclear facilities
-Iran's defensive systems, both mobile and stationary, would provide virtually no resistance to an Israeli assault
-The Israeli Air Force can conduct a surgical-strike mission while causing very little loss of civilian life, and minimal damage to civilian infrastructure
There's a fourth point, perhaps directed at Iran, or maybe at one Barack Hussein Obama:
-Israel can pull off a long-range strike against Iran without any permissions, or help, from the United States.
Looks like Iran has just found out their best friend is now as useless to them as he has been to us. And Obama has been put on notice, as well. He can get on board with the inevitable Israeli attack, or be perceived as standing on the sideline, unwilling to help an ally pull of one of the boldest(and necessary) military strikess in decades. Regardless, Obama will be forced to choose sides, and it will be a hard, hard thing for him....
Most likely, he hasn't even been paying attention. And President Mitt Romney will likely give the Israelis any aid and assistance they need.
But the truth is, it really doesn't even matter any more. Israel just sent a signal to the world they can act on their own, and will do so, to protect their existence Politicians, terrorists, and pundits ignore this message at their peril...
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