DEBKAfile - Persian Gulf

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Kuwait government sets up emergency team to prepare for an Iran-US military conflict

April 24, 2007, 1:49 PM (GMT+02:00)

Kuwait City: 130 km west of Bushehr

Deputy Saleh Ashour reported Tuesday that the Kuwait cabinet had formed a team to draw up plans to keep the country running during a war. Parliament will be briefed.

Found 1 articles

US-Led Military Thrust Focuses Heavily on Broad Naval Deployment

October 30, 2006, 11:53 AM (GMT+02:00)

Hundreds of US and allied war ships foregathered in the strategic seas of the Middle East and India in the last days of October 2006 for two primary missions: To prepare for a US-led military strike against Iran which has stepped up its uranium enrichment program with a second centrifuge project - undeterred by the prospect of UN sanctions; and measures to fend off palpable al Qaeda threats to oil targets. American, Italy, France, Britain, Australia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are taking part in an exercise practicing the interception of ships carrying nuclear materials or components for use in advanced weapons. Saudi Arabia did not join the multinational Bahrain exercise, but instead mustered its entire navy and all its special forces for deployment in dense defensive array around the biggest oil terminal in the world, at Ras Tanura. Riyadh acted in response to tangible intelligence that al Qaeda is preparing to attack its oil installations. That the Saudis have by and large switched their defenses against al Qaeda to coastal targets indicates the receipt of intelligence input of a new local sea base established by al Qaeda, which enables the jihadist group to stretch its capabilities for assaulting oil and Western shore targets from the sea.
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Oil-Rich Gulf States Placed on Al Qaeda’s Front Burner

February 1, 2005, 3:08 PM (GMT+02:00)

Kuwati special forces tackle al Qaeda

In a belated iron clampdown, Kuwait’s security forces have waged four bloody gun battles with al Qaeda gangs in less than a month. Oman has rounded up several hundred “Islamists” in the same period. Over the weekend, Jordan and Saudi Arabia went on terror alert to hunt down a group calling itself “Returnees from Fallujah” which was lurking in the Jordanian-Saudi border area ready to strike. From back stage of al Qaeda’s Iraq and Saudi theaters, the Gulf emirates have been promoted to al Qaeda’s prime target for Islamist terror on a par with Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Recent al Qaeda publications appearing in Saudi Arabia register dissatisfaction with the organization’s over-involvement in Iraq and urge the relocation of resources for a more even spread of armed violence across the Middle East.
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Iranian Death Train Thought Sabotaged

February 20, 2004, 5:42 PM (GMT+02:00)

Little credence is given in Tehran to the official claim that the colossal train explosion which killed at least 300 people and struck five villages in the northeast Khorassan province Wednesday, February 18, was caused by colliding wagons carrying industrial chemicals, fertilizers, diesel fuel and cotton. Such flammable freights are usually shipped separately in Iran. DEBKAfile’s sources in Tehran have heard unconfirmed reports that the disaster was no accident, but possibly sabotage carried out by anti-government forces in Khorassan province, which borders on Afghanistan. This report ties in without another that claims the train was not carrying innocent industrial cargoes but hundreds of tons of explosive materials Iran was smuggling into Afghanistan via the Shiite city of Herat to be used by Iranian saboteurs and agents for guerrilla attacks on US troops and the forces of President Hamid Karzai, as well for supplying the Taleban in their Kandahar stronghold.
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Iran Builds Cruise Missile

February 6, 2004, 8:31 PM (GMT+02:00)

Iran's threat to Gulf shipping

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary regime last month marked the 25th anniversary of its victory over the Shah by launching a sophisticated missile dubbed Raad and its accompanying advanced radar system designated DM-3b. Minister of defense Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani led the ceremony in full naval dress uniform. To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly click HERE . The official handout described the radar system as navigating and guiding the combatant missile in its final stage. The medium-range Raad missile is equipped with a self-guidance device. Shamkhani enthused: the two systems manufactured in Iran’s state aviation industry further enhance the capabilities of Iranian armed forces. What the handout did not reveal was that Raad is no ordinary coastal or shipboard projectile but a cruise missile, capable of halting Personal Gulf shipping by blockading the Hormuz Strait.
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Crackdowns in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kenya, Blunted Al Qaeda Mega-Terror

August 16, 2003, 1:22 PM (GMT+02:00)

Al Qaeda had fixed on last week to launch its most devastating simultaneous mega-terror offensive since September 11, 2001, in several countries of the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and East Africa. However, sweeping, timely counter-action blunted its impetus. Revealing this, DEBKAfile’s exclusive counter-terror sources name three countries known to have been targeted – Saudi Arabia, Kenya and Yemen, where attacks on a scale larger than the Riyadh bombings of May 12 were plotted. Additional countries in al Qaeda’s sights have not been disclosed. Their authorities are still vigorously hunting cell members of the extremist network. The information reaching DEBKAfile emanates from the interrogations of men taken in the latest crackdowns, especially in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
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