Thursday, September 20, 2007

Iran Plans Retaliatory Air Strikes on Israel

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- A senior Iranian air force commander said his troops have prepared operational plans to retaliate against Israel's possible air strikes on the Islamic Republic.

"Israel's rhetoric about air strike (on Iran) is just psychological warfare, because this regime does not have the power to launch air strikes on Iran. Israel is not capable of posing a serious threat to Iran because it does not have the actual power and capabilities needed," Air force lieutenant commander for operations General Mohammad Alavi told FNA here on Wednesday.

He reminded that Israel is within the range of Iranian missiles while "we can also attack them by our fighter planes and respond to their possible air strikes," although Israel is unlikely to launch a strike on Iran.

The General warned that the Iranian air force is not boasting, and said, "Such a plan is not just a hollow threat and we do everything on the basis of correct and precise planning and we have gained the needed readiness. Thus, Israel should give up foolishness."

He further dismissed enemies' propaganda about blitzkriegs on specific Iranian targets, and said, "We have gained the required preparedness to confront different plans and strategies and we do not allow their fighters to launch such easy attacks on our country as they allege."

The senior commander assured that enemy air force will lose average 30% of its fighters during any possible blitzkrieg on Iran.

He said that Iranian air force has distributed its RADAR sites according to a special pattern that it can pick up any belligerent move on the screen immediately.

"A majority of our blind points have been covered and all flying objects are under our control. Our air defense plans are also of variety and use such special tactics that have placed us in a unique position," he continued.

The General said that all the country's borders are controlled by Iranian RADAR systems and other electronic equipment 24-hour a day, adding that alien troops in the region are well informed of the said capabilities of the Iranian army.

He said Iran monitors all activities round the clock and would provide immediate response to any air intrusions.

The General further dismissed some recent reports that Iran is not equipped with the needed capabilities to counter Cruise Missiles, and said, "We have gained the required preparedness to confront these missiles, we have studied their performance and volume and range of fire and we have the needed systems to confront them."

"Children of the army are ready to respond to any enemy attack, irrespective of the number of missiles and fighters used by the enemy," he continued.
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(Note: while Iran can definitely strike Israel with missiles, the general's words that "
we can also attack them by our fighter planes" are simply not credible. There is no way that the Iranian Air Force could successfully send aircraft to strike Israel, or even just get passed CENCTOM forces without being shot down. Iran's Air Force would even be hard pressed to defend its own air space from an Israeli airstrike as such as strike would have full US support and therefore would be conducted under USAF and USN protection - VS).