Latest Articles about Middle East

The London Plot: A Tactical Victory in an Eroding Strategic Environment

On August 10, the British police and security services scored an impressive tactical counter-terrorism victory with the arrest of 24 British subjects—most of Pakistani ethnicity or origin—who had planned to destroy 10 airliners in flight over the Atlantic Ocean. The arrests capped what has been... MORE

Hezbollah’s Creative Tactical Use of Anti-Tank Weaponry

As the world waits to see if the UN-brokered ceasefire in Lebanon holds, the Israeli army will begin assessing its disappointing performance against Hezbollah guerrillas. Among the many aspects to be investigated is the vulnerability of Israel's powerful armored corps to small, hand-held, wire-guided anti-tank... MORE

RUSSIA EYES YET ANOTHER GAS PIPELINE TO CHINA

Apart from preparing to build the Altai gas pipeline from Western Siberia, Russian authorities have also indicated plans to build a new gas pipeline from Sakhalin to neighboring China along a network of gas pipelines to supply domestic consumers in Russia's Far East. After meeting... MORE

RUSSIA WRAPPING UP ITS WAR AGAINST TERROR

The outstanding success of the British secret services in foiling a terrorist plot that could have claimed hundreds of lives did not fail to make headlines in the Russian media. Newspapers emphasized particularly the fact that all detained suspects were young Muslims of Pakistani origin... MORE

Lessons from al-Qaeda’s Attack on the Khobar Compound

The terrorist attack on Khobar, Saudi Arabia—the hub of the Saudi oil industry—by four al-Qaeda operatives on May 29, 2004, provided a significant morale boost for al-Qaeda. The attack resulted in the deaths of 22 foreigners. The jihadi forums used this attack to boast about... MORE

Hezbollah’s Rocket Strategy

Rockets are not new weapons, nor are they strangers to Middle East warfare. Size, range and destructive power are all factors in the development of rocket-based strategies, the ultimate of which was the "Mutually Assured Destruction" of the Cold War. The rockets used by Hezbollah... MORE

MOSCOW AND ASTANA AT ODDS OVER RUSSIAN ROCKET CRASH

On the night of July 26 the Russian Dnepr rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kyzylorda region, Kazakhstan, and crashed 74 seconds after launch. The 250-ton Dnepr booster rocket was meant to carry 18 foreign satellites into space, the most important cargo aboard being... MORE