Israel Uses 'Secret' Anti-Tank Guided Missile to Attack Damascus

Smoke rises after an Israeli missile attack in Damascus countryside (AP)
Smoke rises after an Israeli missile attack in Damascus countryside (AP)
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Israel Uses 'Secret' Anti-Tank Guided Missile to Attack Damascus

Smoke rises after an Israeli missile attack in Damascus countryside (AP)
Smoke rises after an Israeli missile attack in Damascus countryside (AP)

Israel released footage for the first time of its "secret fire-and-forget anti-tank guided missile" after Syria claimed the weapon was used in an alleged Israeli attack in the country.

A recent report by Ynet newspaper claimed that the surface-to-surface "Tamuz" missile was developed by Israel's military industries in 1973 and had never been revealed publicly.

The project of Tamuz missiles remained top secret, and a senior military source told the newspaper that some of its types were used in wars against Hezbollah and Hamas.

Ynet said that 30 years after the weapon became operational, never-before-seen footage shows experiments conducted with the highly accurate surface-to-surface projectiles believed to be used in the recent attack on an Iranian weapons convoy in Syria.

Tamuz missiles were given to the Air Force to be installed on Apaches as an accurate long-range weapon. It was successfully used against Hamas and Hezbollah targets.

Though Tamuz missiles are kept as a last resort solution due to their very high cost, according to Syrian reports on Saturday, Israel attacked a convoy carrying advanced weapons systems.

The missile has an accurate 50 km long-range and was sold in various versions to 38 countries worldwide, including NATO forces.

Last Saturday, sources in Syria accused Israel of bombing Damascus countryside during the day, injuring two Syrian soldiers.

State-owned SANA news agency reported that Syria's air defenses responded Saturday to Israeli missiles fired toward Damascus suburbs, injuring two soldiers.

"The Israeli enemy fired a salvo of surface-to-surface missiles from northern occupied Palestine targeting positions near Damascus," SANA said, quoting an unnamed military official.

"Our anti-aircraft defenses were activated and were able to hit some of the enemy missiles," the source said, adding that the attack wounded two soldiers and caused other damages.



Sudan Army Says Recaptures Key State Capital

Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
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Sudan Army Says Recaptures Key State Capital

Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP

The Sudanese army said Saturday it had retaken a key state capital south of Khartoum from rival Rapid Support Forces who had held it for the past five months.

The Sennar state capital of Sinja is a strategic prize in the 19-month-old war between the regular army and the RSF as it lies on a key road linking army-controlled areas of eastern and central Sudan.

It posted footage on social media that it said had been filmed inside the main base in the city.

"Sinja has returned to the embrace of the nation," the information minister of the army-backed government, Khaled al-Aiser, said in a statement.

Aiser's office said armed forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had travelled to the city of Sennar, 60 kilometres (40 miles) to the north, on Saturday to "inspect the operation and celebrate the liberation of Sinja", AFP reported.

The RSF had taken the two cities in a lightning offensive in June that saw nearly 726,000 civilians flee, according to UN figures.

Human rights groups have said that those who were unwilling or unable to leave have faced months of arbitrary violence by RSF fighters.

Sinja teacher Abdullah al-Hassan spoke of his "indescribable joy" at seeing the army enter the city after "months of terror".

"At any moment, you were waiting for militia fighters to barge in and beat you or loot you," the 53-year-old told AFP by telephone.

Both sides in the Sudanese conflict have been accused of war crimes, including indiscriminately shelling homes, markets and hospitals.

The RSF has also been accused of summary executions, systematic sexual violence and rampant looting.

The RSF control nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur as well as large swathes of Kordofan in the south. They also hold much of the capital Khartoum and the key farming state of Al-Jazira to its south.

Since April 2023, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 11 million -- creating what the UN says is the world's largest displacement crisis.

From the eastern state of Gedaref -- where more than 1.1 million displaced people have sought refuge -- Asia Khedr, 46, said she hoped her family's ordeal might soon be at an end.

"We'll finally go home and say goodbye to this life of displacement and suffering," she told AFP.