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DEBKA News: WEEKLY

February 28, 2011, 10:52 PM (GMT+02:00)
USS Kearsarge to be "repositioned" off Libya

 

The US is weighing military intervention to break the standoff between Muammar Qaddafi's army and rebel forces over the towns commanding the roads to the capital Tripoli where Qaddafi is barricaded. Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan stated Monday, Feb. 28 that the US "is repositioning its naval and air forces around Libya." His reference to "various contingency plans" related to the USS Enterprise and USS Kearsarge with 1,800 marines aboard soon to be redeployed off Libya.

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Top two Iranian opposition leaders secretly jailed. West fails to act
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
February 28, 2011, 10:17 AM (GMT+02:00)
Tags:  Iran's opposition   Karroubi   Mousavi   US 
Mir-Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi jailed

 

The White House strongly condemned Iran's "intimidation campaign and blatant violation of its citizens' universal rights," Sunday night, Feb. 28 after a human-rights group said two opposition figures had been taken to an unknown location. They were too late: debka

file's sources reveal that the two prominent opposition leaders, Mir-Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, were secretly hauled out of their homes in sacks Thursday, Feb. 24 and taken to the infamous Parchin prison in Tehran. Their wives have also disappeared. Read more
Qaddafi's air force ferries fresh troops for Tripoli
DEBKAfile Special Report
February 27, 2011, 10:10 PM (GMT+02:00)
Tags:  Libya   Obama   Qaddafi   UN sanctions 
Libyan Air Force Ilyuchin Il-76

 

Hours after the UN Security Council unanimously imposed sanctions on Col. Muammar Qaddafi and his regime, his reactivated air force was flying troop and tribal reinforcements from the south and landing them at the military airfields of Tripoli, Misrata and Sirte, debka

file's military sources report. They were immediately deployed Sunday night, Feb. 27 at the main road intersections leading to the capital.  This move lessened the military significance of the rebels' reported takeover of towns around Tripoli, including Al Zawiya.  Read more

Middle East oil war spreads. First demos in Saudi Arabia
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis
February 26, 2011, 3:06 PM (GMT+02:00)
Tags:  Iran   Iraq   Libya   MidEast unrest   Oil gas war   Saudi Arabia 
First Saudi street demonstration

 

Iraq's biggest oil refinery at Baiji, 180 kilometers north of Baghdad, was blown up early Saturday, Feb. 26, by an Al Qaeda cell activated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Al Qods Brigades, debka

file's Middle East sources report. Tehran is using the Middle East turbulence to generate fuel shortages in Iraq and boost oil prices worldwide. Thursday night saw the first signs of unrest in Saudi Arabia with demonstrations by young people and by Shiites living and working in the kingdom's eastern oil regions.. Read more

Hamas hits Beersheba as Iranian warships dock in Syria
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
February 24, 2011, 11:26 AM (GMT+02:00)
Iranian warship heading for Mediterranean port

 

Israel's security leaders ought not to have been surprised when Hamas fired two long-range Iranian-made Grad missiles Wednesday night, Feb. 23 at the Negev cities of Beersheba and Netivot. The attack occurred exactly when Iranian Navy commander Adm. Habibollah Sayyari was due in Syria's Latakia port to attend the welcoming party for the two Iranian warships which made it through the Suez Canal without US or Israeli interference. It also marked a fresh, redoubled Hamas offensive against Israel.

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Qaddafi launches jihad with sea barrage on Benghazi
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
February 22, 2011, 8:07 PM (GMT+02:00)
Tags:  Libya   oil   Qaddafi   Tripoli 
"I will die a martyr!"

 

In a long, fiery speech broadcast by Libyan state TV Tuesday, Feb. 22, Libya's ruler Col. Muammar Qaddafi declared war on his enemies at home and abroad. He accused the Cyrenaicans of the East of conspiring to establish an Al Qaeda emirate that would bring the Americans over and create the same situation in Libya as in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Straight after his speech, Tripoli announced that Libyan oil and gas exports were blocked to Europe, causing pandemonium and Libyan missile ships began pounding Benghazi from the sea.

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US warships box in Iranian flotilla, delay Suez passage
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
February 21, 2011, 4:55 PM (GMT+02:00)
USS Enterprise parked opposite Iranian flotilla at Suez Canal entrance

 

The delays and uncertainty surrounding the two Iranian warships' transit of the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean are the result of a standoff between them and five US warships deployed in recent days at and around the waterway, debka

file's sources disclose. A battle of nerves is underway since Friday, Feb. 18, when  the USS Enterprise carrier, escorted by the USS Leyte Gulf and USNS Arctic, cornered the Iranian Navy's Kharg cruiser and Alvand missile destroyer at the Red Sea entrance. The USS Kearsarge reached the Bitter Lake first.  Read more
Cairo and Tehran connive to slip Iranian warships through Suez
DEBKAfile Special Report
February 19, 2011, 12:37 AM (GMT+02:00)
Tags:  Egypt   Iran   Israel   Suez Canal   warships 
Iranian Kharg with missiles for Hizballah

 

The two Iranian warships transited the Suez Canal and have reached the Mediterranean, Iran state TV announced Sunday, Feb. 20.  Cairo is still saying they will sail only Monday.  debka

file reports Tehran and Cairo have connived fake delays to obscure the ships' movements. Egypt's military rulers' permission for their passage was not contingent on an inspection of their freights for banned cargo. Sunday, the region was beset with a sandstorm which would have masked the flotilla from spy satellites. Read more

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