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IRGC Says it Neutralized Terrorist Cell, 4 of its Members Killed

IRGC members during an attack (Asharq Al-Awsat)
IRGC members during an attack (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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IRGC Says it Neutralized Terrorist Cell, 4 of its Members Killed

IRGC members during an attack (Asharq Al-Awsat)
IRGC members during an attack (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said its forces had neutralized a "terrorist cell" in Salmas near the Turkish border.

The IRGC issued a statement announcing that its ground forces tasked with protecting the border triangle with Turkey and the Kurdistan region of Iraq "neutralized a terrorist cell after intelligence monitoring."

The statement explained that the cell intended to enter the country and carry out sabotage acts, but the officers of Hamza Sayyid al-Shuhada base in the border area, ambushed it ahead of the attack.

"The cell was destroyed," the statement asserted, noting that the IRGC officers confiscated equipment and ammunition.

The statement asserted "no losses" for the Revolutionary Guards without referring to the timing of the clashes.

On Friday, the Hengaw website for human rights violations in Iran reported that at least four Revolutionary Guards members were killed in armed confrontations with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The Kurdish website pointed out that the clash occurred Thursday evening in the mountains of Salmas.

The report said at least four IRGC members were killed in the clashes and taken to hospital in Salmas.

Armed factions loyal to the Iranian-Kurdish opposition are active in the area between Iran, Turkey, and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Usually, the region witnesses bloody confrontations between the IRGC and parties that say they are fighting for Kurdish national rights.

Last May, an IRGC artillery fire hit an area north of Erbil, targeting what Iranian state television described as "terrorist" bases.

In March, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards launched about ten ballistic missiles at the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region in an unprecedented attack aimed at the US and its allies.

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Global Interest in Israel's Air-Launched Ballistic Missiles

This handout picture released by the Israeli army on October 26, 2024, shows an Israeli fighter jet departing a hangar at an undisclosed location in Israel. (Photo by AFP)
This handout picture released by the Israeli army on October 26, 2024, shows an Israeli fighter jet departing a hangar at an undisclosed location in Israel. (Photo by AFP)
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Global Interest in Israel's Air-Launched Ballistic Missiles

This handout picture released by the Israeli army on October 26, 2024, shows an Israeli fighter jet departing a hangar at an undisclosed location in Israel. (Photo by AFP)
This handout picture released by the Israeli army on October 26, 2024, shows an Israeli fighter jet departing a hangar at an undisclosed location in Israel. (Photo by AFP)

Israel's effective use of air-launched ballistic missiles in its airstrikes against Iran is expected to pique interest elsewhere in acquiring the weapons, which most major powers have avoided in favor of cruise missiles and glide bombs.
The Israeli Army said its Oct. 26 raid knocked out Iranian missile factories and air defenses in three waves of strikes.
Researchers said that based on satellite imagery, targets included buildings once used in Iran's nuclear program, according to Reuters.
Tehran defends such targets with “a huge variety” of anti-aircraft systems, said Justin Bronk, an airpower and technology expert at London's Royal United Services Institute.
Cruise missiles are easier targets for dense, integrated air defenses than ballistic missiles are.
But ballistic missiles are often fired from known launch points, and most cannot change course in flight.
Experts say high-speed, highly accurate air-launched ballistic missiles such as the Israel Aerospace Industries Rampage get around problems facing ground-based ballistic missiles and air-launched cruise missiles - weapons that use small wings to fly great distances and maintain altitude.
“The main advantage of an ALBM over an ALCM is speed to penetrate defenses,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California.
“The downside - accuracy - looks to have been largely solved,” he said.
Ground-launched ballistic missiles - which Iran used to attack Israel twice this year, and which both Ukraine and Russia have used since Russia's invasion in 2022 - are common in the arsenals of many countries. So, too, are cruise missiles.
Because ALBMs are carried by aircraft, their launch points are flexible, helping strike planners.
“The advantage is that being air-launched, they can come from any direction, complicating the task of defending against them,” said Uzi Rubin, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, one of the architects of Israel's missile defenses.
The weapons are not invulnerable to air defenses. In Ukraine, Lockheed Martin Patriot PAC-3 missiles have repeatedly intercepted Russia's Khinzhals.
Many countries, including the United States and Britain, experimented with ALBMs during the Cold War. Only Israel, Russia and China are known to field the weapons now.
The US tested a hypersonic ALBM, the Lockheed Martin AGM-183, but it received no funding for the 2025 fiscal year.
Because it has a large arsenal of cruise missiles and other types of long-range strike weapons, Washington has otherwise shown little interest in ALBMs.
A US Air Force official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said ALBMs are not used in Air Force operations.
Raytheon's SM-6, an air-defense missile that has been repurposed for air-to-air and surface-to-surface missions, also has been tested as an air-launched anti-ship weapon, said a senior US defense technical analyst, who declined to be identified because the matter is sensitive.
In tests the missile was able to strike a small target on land representing the center of mass of a destroyer, the analyst said. Publicly, the SM-6 is not meant for air-to-ground strikes.
Because ALBMs are essentially a combination of guidance, warheads and rocket motors, many countries that have precision weapons already have the capability to pursue them, a defense industry executive said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
“This is a clever way of taking a common set of technologies and components and turning it into a very interesting new weapon that gives them far more capability, and therefore options, at a reasonable price,” the executive said.