[Washington Times] Bill Gertz - North Korea and Iran are cooperating in developing long-range missiles, the deputy director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said Monday. Army Brig. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly said Iran is working on a space launcher that would help develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that could hit the U.S. "They are working in concert with the North Koreans," he said. "They have made a claim that they are working towards developing a space launch capability, which also would give them an ICBM capability." The Pentagon believes the Iranians "could have an ICBM capable of reaching the U.S. before 2015," according to a Missile Defense Agency briefing chart. Gen. O'Reilly also stated that Hizbullah's short-range rockets and missiles, used in last year's fighting in Lebanon, were a threat to Israeli forces and that more than 4,500 were fired. "They had small ball bearings, about 300, in their warhead, and they were very effective at shutting down a lot of the maneuvering capability of the Israeli army and also shutting down over 70% of the commerce in northern Israel during that period of time," he said.
2007-01-30 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive