{"id":65166,"date":"2013-09-03T13:20:04","date_gmt":"2013-09-03T12:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/israel-launches-test-missiles-amid-soaring-regional-tensions\/65166\/"},"modified":"2013-09-03T13:20:04","modified_gmt":"2013-09-03T12:20:04","slug":"israel-launches-test-missiles-amid-soaring-regional-tensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/israel-launches-test-missiles-amid-soaring-regional-tensions\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Launches Test Missiles Amid Soaring Regional Tensions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ftpimagefix\" style=\"float:left\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/headline\/2013\/09\/03-0\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/sites\/commondreams.org\/files\/imagecache\/headline_image\/article_images\/warship.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" class=\"imagecache imagecache-headline_image imagecache-default imagecache-headline_image_default\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>With Middle East tensions spiking amid concerns of a U.S.-led assault on Syria, Russian alarm bells caused a stir Tuesday morning after radar detected missile activity in the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"image-right\"> <span class=\"caption\"> File picture of the USS Stout, one of five US warships operating in the eastern Mediterranean. (Photograph: PHAA JENNIFER ASPEY\/AFP\/Getty Images) <\/span><\/span>As <em>Reuters<\/em> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2013\/09\/03\/us-syria-crisis-russia-defence-idUSBRE9820AC20130903\">reports<\/a>, however, the flurry of activity was related to joint Israel\/U.S. missile testing with Israel Defense Ministry later confirming that it had &#8220;tested a missile used as a target in a U.S.-funded anti-missile system at 9:15 a.m (0615 GMT), about the same time as the Russian radar picked up the launch.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Though the Russians first said the objects appeared to have been launched from either U.S. or Israeli warships stationed in the Mediterranean, subsequent details and a statement from Israeli officials revealed the test was a ballistic missile launch from an Israeli base on land. As <em>Haaretz<\/em> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/news\/middle-east\/1.545100\">reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The [Israeli] confirmation came after morning reports indicated that Russia had detected two ballistic &#8220;objects&#8221; launched toward the eastern Mediterranean from the central part of the same and a U.S. denial that its navy had been involved.<\/p>\n<p>The Arrow III missile defense system was tested with a &#8220;sparrow&#8221; missile, which simulates a ballistic missile launched from a plane during the exercise.<\/p>\n<p>The exercise was carried out from an Israel Air Force base in central Israel, the Defense Ministry said in the statement.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The U.S. would only say that &#8220;no missiles&#8221; were fired from its ships.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is Israel saying &#8216;we can defend ourselves&#8217;. They do these tests frequently but they would have chosen today as a reminder (to Israel&#8217;s enemies),&#8221; said Tim Marshall, foreign affairs editor for <em>Sky News,<\/em> which also <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/1136479\/syria-israel-fires-missiles-in-mediterranean\">covered<\/a> the confusing events of Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>On Twitter:<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License<\/p>\n<p>Republished from: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/headline\/2013\/09\/03-0\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Israel Launches Test Missiles Amid Soaring Regional Tensions\">Common Dreams<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Middle East tensions spiking amid concerns of a U.S.-led assault on Syria, Russian alarm bells caused a stir Tuesday morning after radar detected missile activity in the Mediterranean Sea. File picture of the USS Stout, one of five US warships operating in the eastern Mediterranean. (Photograph: PHAA JENNIFER ASPEY\/AFP\/Getty Images) As Reuters reports, however, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-65166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}