The White House released recently declassified intelligence on Tuesday confirming that the Russian mercenary organization Wagner group has been preparing to provide an air defense capability “to either Hezbollah or Iran,” according to National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
Wagner was preparing to provide the capability at the direction of the Russian government, Kirby said.
The newly downgraded intelligence did not specify where the missile system would be coming from. But CNN previously reported that the Wagner Group had been tasked with carrying out the delivery of a surface-to-air SA-22 missile system from Syria to the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad agreed to provide Hezbollah with the Russian-made missile defense system, known as a Pantsir, two people familiar with the intelligence told CNN last month.
Hamas would just target passenger aircraft like the terrorists they are.
The article is about Hezbollah and Iran getting massive S-400 air defense systems. Iran already has S-300 systems from Russia, so this new discussion must be on improving their capability somehow.
We aren’t talking about MANPADS here. An S-400 is an absolutely massive system and suggesting that Hamas could even operate one, nevermind deploy and supply one, frankly, shows a fair bit of ignorance on the issue to make an emotionally-charged statement.
Plus, such a system would definitely be target no. 1 for Israel, and since Gaza is so small it’s very unlikely it could survive.
This will age nicely, I’m sure
If they are allowed to even get them, Israel will just destroy them. The United States has a THAAD launch complex southeast of Gaza and that system would prevent defense of Israel from ballistic missiles and ICBMs so it won’t happen. The United States would send on stealth aircraft and destroy them if Israel didn’t.
I’d expect them to target Israeli military aircraft but I wouldn’t rule out a potential MH17 redux