Saturday 24 August 2013

Terror in the Sinai and a threat to aviation.

Terror in the Sinai and a threat to aviation.

One look at the map of the Middle East will tell the story – a giant threat to the air transport across a very wide area. The Sinai desert – which is part of Egypt – has turned into the “greenhouse” of extreme Islamic terror.

MAP OF THE SINAI PENINSULAR

If Al-Qaeda is the buzzword for hundreds of independent terror groups across the world, they are all represented in the Sinai. Since Egypt’s stability collapsed more than two years ago, this vast desert has lured thousands of terrorists – and they have accumulated a record number of shoulder-launched missiles and rockets.

MANPADS......MAN-PORTABLE-'AIR DEFENCE' SYSTEMS


Rocket fire from the Sinai prompted a rare, late-night alert in Eilat – the Israeli Red Sea resort – that sent residents and tourists scrambling for shelter at 01:00 on 13 August.

EILAT AIRPORT

A single Grad rocket aimed at the city centre was shot down by an Israeli air force Iron Dome rocket interceptor battery that had been deployed near Eilat a month earlier, in response to another rocket threat. Just five days before this attack, on 8 August, Eilat’s airport was shut down for several hours following an Egyptian army warning of a likely terror attack.


IRON DOME DEFENCE SYSTEM
 

The group behind that earlier attack were killed in an aerial strike on 9 August. Foreign press claimed that an Israeli unmanned air system (UAS) performed the pinpoint strike. The direct threat is on Israel.

Steps are being taken to protect international and domestic flights to Eilat, but the threat is wider.

Security experts say the concentration of so many terrorists in an area that not really controlled by any regime has a “damage potential” that is not limited only to the desert.

NOT EXACTLY A DETERENT TO HEAVILY ARMED AND FOCUSED TERRORISTS

Israeli sources say the almost total freedom of operation these groups have in the Sinai will urge them to stage attacks not only in the vicinity but in other places.

To sum it up, the terror concentration in the Sinai directly threatens aviation in southern Israel, Egypt and Jordan – but not only here.

As one source puts it: “The thousands of shoulder-launched missiles and rockets will find potential targets.” When terror reigns in a “no man’s land”, it is imperative to look at the threats not only from the cockpit window.

Just look at what happened to DHL in Baghdad........surface to air missiles will strike again, in my opinion.



Whilst based in Baghdad I saw this DHL A300 aircraft parked out of sight behind the old terminal, which is featured in my Iraq video, which can be viewed on this blog.

So......keep your eyes peeled out there!