[ Ha'aretz] Yuval Azoulay and Yossi Melman - The long-range missile launched as part of a large-scale military exercise in Iran on Wednesday is not a more capable version of the Shahab-3 ballistic missile as Iran claimed, according to Israeli experts. "From what I saw, this is an old version of the Shahab-3 and, contrary to their claims, it is not capable of reaching 2,000 kilometers, only 1,300 kilometers," said Uzi Rubin, who was program director for Israel's Arrow anti-missile system. "The Iranians have a tendency to exaggerate to a certain extent the capabilities of their missiles," he said. Intelligence analysts estimate that Iran has several hundred Shahab-3s in its arsenal, as well as a much larger stockpile of several thousand shorter range missiles (up to 400 km.) capable of targeting U.S. forces in Iraq or their allies in the Persian Gulf.
2008-07-10 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive