Defence`s Feeds

A Saddam-era army commander, Yaseen al-Muadhidi, also known as Abu Taha, has been appointed as a ‘new war minister’ of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.

Photo: betanews.com

A Saddam-era army commander has been appointed as a ‘new war minister’ of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in order to replace former war minister, Abu Omar al-Shishani, who was killed this summer, a senior commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, Colonel Nazem al-Chuqaifi said on Tuesday.

“ISIL leaders at a meeting, held in the vicinity of Iraq’s Anbar province, chose former senior Iraq Army officer Yaseen al-Muadhidi, alias Abu Taha, as the terrorist group’s new war minister,” al-Chuqaifi said.

Abu Taha is one of the most senior commanders and emirs in the hierarchy of the IS, who has been fighting on the side of the group for about five years. According to intelligence data, Taha was one of the most prominent officers in the now-disbanded Iraqi Army under Saddam Hussein and served as a lieutenant general in 2003.

The new IS war minister held a number of senior positions, including post of the commander of the special forces in Hussein’s Army, as well as other high-ranking security and military positions.

In July, the death of Abu Omar al-Shishani was eventually confirmed by the IS. The statement was published by the IS Amaq news agency four months after several sources publicly reported about the killing.

Abu Omar al-Shishani, a Chechen by nationality, who had a reputation of a top military adviser to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was born in 1986 in Georgia, when it still was a part of the Soviet Union. At birth, he was named Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili. Before to join Georgia’s military in 2006, the notorious terrorist fought as a rebel in Chechnya.

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The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) will be supplied with the Zolfaqar missiles that were first presented on Wednesday.

Photo: Tasnim News Agency

Iran plans to supply the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces with a large number of various types of the Zolfaqar missiles, the Fars news agency reported on Tuesday, citing commander of the Aerospace Force of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (AFAGIR), Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.

“The new Zolfaqar missile is being supplied to the IRGC Aerospace Force and a large number of this missile will be supplied to our units by the yearend,” Hajizadeh told Fars.

Answering the question if Iran has any plans to develop missiles, capable to hit targets at a distance more than 2,000 km, the Brigadier General said: “Our target is Israel and we don’t need missiles with a range of more than 2,000 km.”

On Sunday, mass-production of the domestically-designed Zolfaqar missiles, which are capable of hitting targets at a distance up to 700 km with a zero margin of error, was started in Iran. Iranian Defense Minister, Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan, and General Hajizadeh attended an opening ceremony of the production line.

The Zolfaqar mid-range missiles were first presented on Wednesday, during the nationwide parades of the Armed Forces.

In recent years, Teheran has made giant advancements in developing of long-range missiles. In March, two domestically-designed Qadr H ballistic missiles were fired from the Eastern Alborz Mountains at a target on Iran’s Southeastern Makran seashore, located at a distance 1,400 km. One missile had a message, written on it, that said in Hebrew: “Israel should be wiped off the Earth.” The missiles were fired during the main stage of the IRGC drills in Central Iran and various parts of the country.

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The first six upgraded F16 aircraft will arrive in Romania over from Portugal on Wednesday, September 28. The aircraft have been upgraded, have new engines and were painted in several shades of gray.

The F-16s have had their engines changed and went through a process of modernization, called mid-life upgrade – improvements at the mid-cycle of operations.
The Romanian pilots that will operate the F-16s were trained by the Portuguese specialists. After two years of training at the basis of Monte Real, our air forces have nine F-16 pilots and 80 engineers and technicians who will handle the maintenance of these aircraft.

Three years ago, Romania decided to buy twelve F-16 aircraft from the Portuguese Air Forces to replace part of its fleet of Russian built MiG-21 Lancer fighter aircraft. The initial intent was to buy 24 airplanes, but the final decision was for 12, for budgetary reasons. Beside the F16, offers were made by companies producing the JAS-39 Gripen and the Eurofighter Typhoon, the offers being for new aircraft. Furthermore, the offer for French Dassault Rafale planes was analyzed.

The aircraft package includes nine upgraded Portuguese Air Force F-16MLU aircraft, and three former US Air Force aircraft supplied to Portugal for the resale under the US Excess Defense Article program. The Portuguese military procurement agency DGAIED will buy those latter three F-16s and have the Portuguese Air Force upgrade them to the F-16 Mid Life Update (MLU) standard with assistance of OGMA-Indústria Aeronáutica de Portugal prior transfer to Romania.

The price for the 12 F16 aircraft was set at 628 million euro, the planes going on to be stationed at the air bases in Fetesti and Campia Turzii, two airbases especially modernized for this type of aircraft.

However, experts say that Romania needs 48 multirole aircraft, meaning four squadrons. In 2015, Romanian authorities announced the intention to buy other F16 airplanes.
Minister of Defence Mihnea Motoc stated in February that Romania intends to buy another 12 F16 airplanes.