Remembering the Sabra and Shatila massacre (16-17 September 1982)

The Sabra and Shatila massacre was the killing of between 762 and 3,500 civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese muslims, by Christian right-wing militias close to the Kataeb Party, also called the Phalangists, in the Sabra neighborhood and the adjacent Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war.


Lebanese President-elect Bachir Gemayel, during his days as a Phalangist militia commander

The massacre was presented as retaliation for the assassination of newly elected Lebanese president Bachir Gemayel, a Maronite Christian and the leader of the Lebanese Kataeb Party & former militia commander when his office building was blown up by a hidden bomb. It was wrongly assumed that Palestinian militants had carried out the assassination (in fact the assassination was done by pro-Syrian factions and later, Habib Tanious Shartouni, a Lebanese Christian admitted he was the mastermind behind the bombing).

On the evening of 14 September, following the news that Bashir Gemayel had been assassinated, Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Minister for Defence Ariel Sharon and Chief of Staff Yamos Eitan agreed that the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) should invade West Beirut. The public reason given was to be that they were there to prevent chaos. In a separate conversation, at 20:30 that evening, Sharon and Eitan agreed that the IDF should not enter the Palestinian refugee camps but that the Phalange should be used.The only other member of the cabinet who was consulted was Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir. Shortly after 6.00 am 15 September, the Israeli army entered West Beirut.

By noon on 15 September, Sabra and Shatila had been surrounded by the IDF, which set up checkpoints at the exits and entrances, and used a number of multi-story buildings as observation posts. Hours later, IDF tanks began shelling Sabra and Shatila. The following morning, 16 September, Ariel Sharon and Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan met with Phalangist militia units and invited them to enter Sabra and Shatila, accusing that the PLO was responsible for Gemayel's assassination. An hour later, 1,500 Christian militiamen assembled at Beirut International Airport, then occupied by Israel. Under the command of Elie Hobeika (Bachir Gemayel's close ally, a prominent figure in the Phalanges, the Lebanese Forces intelligence chief and liaison officer with Mossad), they began moving towards the area in IDF-supplied jeeps, with extra weapons and ammunition provided by the IDF (after the massacre, ammunition boxes with IDF markings and discarded ration packs with hebrew writing was presented as proof of Israeli support). Ostensibly the orders given to the militiamen was only to escort civilians to the football stadium for questioning by Lebanese intelligence services and Mossad on the whereabouts of PLO fighters and the existence of weapons caches inside the camps.


Phalangist militiamen during the Lebanese civil war

What followed was a 72-hour orgy of violence and bloodshed. Eyewitnesses report of families being gunned down in their homes, women publicly stripped and gang-raped, children and babies bayonetted or hacked with axes & machetes and young men being lined up and executed, ganglang-style, at every street. Nurses at the UN-run hospital report of militiamen gunning down and bayonetting patients in their hospital beds. In the inquiries done following the massacre, former IDF veterans recall Phalangists borrowing an IDF bulldozer to dig a large hole and dumping bodies into the impromptu mass grave, in plain sight of soldiers not 300 meters from an IDF observation post. Meanwhile, IDF checkpoints denied passage and in some cases shot at people trying to flee the massacre and IDF mortar crews fired illumination flares over the camps at night to aid the Phalangists' operations in the blacked-out camps. During this time reports of massacres and indiscriminate killings started to filter out to journalists & foreign observers and questions were started to be asked. By the time the IDF ordered the Phalangists to clear out on the morning of 18 September, it is estimated by eyewitnesses and foreign observers that anywhere up to 3,500 Palestinians, Lebanese muslims and a few foreign medical and aid personnel had died in the massacre.


The bodies of the massacre victims littering the streets


The aftermath. Bodies of the victims of the massacre are collected for identification

In an attempt to find out what happened, several commissions were created to determine the events. The independent commission headed by Sean MacBride, however, did find that the concept of genocide applied to the case as it was the intention of those behind the massacre "the deliberate destruction of the national and cultural rights and identity of the Palestinian people". Individual Jews throughout the world also denounced the massacre as genocide.

The MacBride commission's report, Israel in Lebanon, concluded that the Israeli authorities or forces were responsible in the massacres and other killings that have been reported to have been carried out by Lebanese militiamen in Sabra and Shatila in the Beirut area between 16 and 18 September.

Israel's own Kahan commission found that only "indirect" responsibility befitted Israel's involvement. The Kahan Commission concluded Israeli Defense minister Ariel Sharon bears personal responsibility "for ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge" and "not taking appropriate measures to prevent bloodshed". Sharon's negligence in protecting the civilian population of Beirut, which had come under Israeli control, amounted to a non-fulfillment of a duty with which the Defense Minister was charged, and it was recommended that Sharon be dismissed as Defense Minister.

At first, Sharon refused to resign, and Begin refused to fire him. It was only after the death of Emil Grunzweig after a grenade was tossed by a right-wing Israeli into the dispersing crowd of a Peace Now protest march, which also injured ten others, that a compromise was reached: Sharon would resign as Defense Minister, but remain in the Cabinet as a minister without portfolio. Notwithstanding the dissuading conclusions of the Kahan report, Sharon would later become Prime Minister of Israel. The Kahan commission also recommended the dismissal of Director of Military Intelligence Yehoshua Saguy, and the effective promotion freeze of Division Commander Brig. Gen. Amos Yaron for at least three years.

The commander of the Phalangist militia, Elie Hobeika was assassinated by a car bomb in Beirut on 24 January 2002. Lebanese and Arab commentators blamed Israel for the murder of Hobeika, with alleged Israeli motive that Hobeika would be ‘apparently poised to testify about Sharon’s role in the massacre'.

Rafale Display in the Stunning Switzerland Mountains!!! Sion Airshow



Not every Day you get to watch a Airshow from above! but most of this display is below us.
Breitling Sion Airshow 2017


Iran Military Parade 2017





South Korea K808/K806 8X8/6X6 Armoured Wheeled Vehicles

Indonesian Army new M109A4-BE SPHs parked at Indah Kiat Port Cilegon in preparations for TNI 72nd Anniversary. Credit to original uploader.



This post has been edited by azriel: Sep 27 2017, 11:10 AM

177 Soldiers Participating In Exercise Suman Protector 2017



GEMAS: A total of 177 soldiers from the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) nations are participating in the 12-day Suman Protector Exercise which began yesterday.

Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) chief General Tan Sri Raja Mohamed Affandi Raja Mohamed Noor said the objectives of the exercise were to strenghten interoperability between FPDA nations and enhance staff planning skills in Joint Operational Training of a Combined Joint Task Force.

“This is the third series of the exercise after it was held in Butterworth in 2007 and in Singapore in 2012.

We believe that it’s not the number but the outcome of the exercise that we want to achieve and it will be something interesting for us to move ahead concerning our cooperation under the FPDA,” he told the media after officiating the Exercise Suman Protector 2017 Opening Ceremony at the Syed Sirajuddin Camp here today.



The FPDA, signed in 1971, involves defence cooperation between five Commonwealth countries – Malaysia, Singapore, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand – in the event of threat of armed attack on Malaysia or Singapore .

The word ‘Suman’ is derived from the names of the nations – Singapore, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.

Exercise Suman Protector is a complex Tier 3 multi level Command Post Exercise hosted in turn by Malaysia or Singapore, and assisted in turn byAustralia, New Zealand or the United Kingdom.

Older T-55 and T-62 still used human loader though. Only T-64 start develop autoloader.

Bizarrely, in these older tanks the loader's position is on the right side of the turret (thus on the right side of the main gun), meaning if the loader is not left-handed the main gun-loading process is awkward & tiring as hell as he would have to operate the breech and ram in the shell home with his left hand/arm.

Plus the ammo storage racks was placed all over the place in the fighting compartment instead of a central location and the loader had to reach in every sort of nook and cranny all over the turret to take out the shells to load his gun. To do this in a notoriously cramped Soviet-era tank turrets only made the job harder.



Why they though this design would be a good idea in the first place is beyond me.

ukraine ammo dump goes boom

Tarantul-class missile boats with 16 Kh-35 "Harpoonski" AShMs... Vietnam has about 8 or more. Hnnnggghhh or not?



the infamous Arm-Eater

Soviet designs, really value the tank over human life

what's the betting its Spetsnaz's work?

Why they wear our NS cheloreng? Haha

It's pretty common back then, a holdover from the early days when tanks had only 2-man turrets (tank commander/gunner and a loader).

Dunno why but I think all european tanks of that era always had the tank's commander/gunner on the left side of the turret with the loader on the right side. Even later tanks with 3-man turrets like the T-34/85, Churchill and Tiger tanks positioned their turret crew the same way, with all its inherent problems, like forcing right-handed loaders to operate a cannon breech and load a heavy shell into it with their left hands.

Meanwhile the US looked at these european designs and said: "screw this, you guys are weird" and designed the M4 Sherman which actually placed the tank commander and gunner on the right of the main gun and the loader on the left, ensuring right-handed loaders could work more efficiently and the tank had better reaction time from acquisition and firing.

Later most post-war MBTs followed this turret design. Except the Russians, of course.


This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Sep 28 2017, 10:06 AM

malaysian new frigate can fight anot tarantul class?

they spammed ASM missiles cirit edi KD maharajalela..lulz

This post has been edited by shadow_walker: Sep 28 2017, 12:08 PM

Rheinmetall to upgrade Bundeswehr Leopard 2 tanks to the Leopard 2A7V standard



Rheinmetall has been contracted by Germany's army, the Bundeswehr, to perform a combat performance upgrade to 104 Leopard 2 tanks.

The upgrades under the contract, worth nearly $139.4 million, will modernize the tanks to state-of-the-art design status, the company announced on Wednesday.

Rheinmetall, based in Dusseldorf, said the contract involves 68 Leopard 2A4, 16 Leopard 2A6 and 20 Leopard 2A7 main battle tanks, which will be brought up to the A7V standard. Rheinmetall will eliminate obsolescent features in the tank's fire-control computers and control consoles and install new laser rangefinders and thermal imaging devices.

The company will also supply the new L55A1 gun for the 68 Leopard 2A4 MBTs to be modernized, enabling them to fire the latest high velocity armor-piercing ammunition.

The Leopard 2A7V aka Leopard 2 A7V (v for “verbessert”, German for “improved”) is the latest version of the Leopard 2A7. The main improvements to the Leopard 2A7 Tank is a new armored modular system for the upper front glacis plate of the hull and a more powerful Auxiliary Power Unit of the current APU used on the A7 model.

Other Leopard 2A7V Tank Upgrades include:

Hull mine protection
20 kw Auxiliary Power Unit
Air-Conditioning Unit
Solar reducing Barracuda matting
Battlefield Management System
FLW 200 Remote Weapons System
Third-generation Attica thermal imaging unit for both Commander’s Independent Sight and Gunner's Sight
Spectus multi-spectral driver’s vision device
Fire Control System modifications to program DM 11 High Explosive 120mm round
Upper Glacis added modular Armor

The upgraded tanks will be delivered back to the German army beginning in 2020.

Certainly not. Not with only 16 point-defence MICA on board. But Gowind is not designed to face such fire anyway - not even Singkie Formidable would do wel. IMHO it would take an advanced AA ship like Burke or Type 45 to knock down all those missiles, and the outcome would not be certain at all. But mind you naval warfare is far from just throwing more missiles at the other guy.

Aselsan - Korhan 35mm Next Generation Infantry Fighting Vehicle Combat Simulation.

oh shit, never saw this kaming

aku dah ada kat field waktu penutup nanti

well 16 mica plus ciws maybe can kowtim 10 ASM...lel..the rest GG liao

i think thats vietnam strategy anyway with china ships...spam and forget..hahah

What ciws? The 30mm MSI gun is not a ciws. The antiship missiles coming in low means only a few will be successfully engaged.

Then again, this kind of ship to ship battle is all about who sees who first. The guy who gets the firing solution first wins.

Russia's new elite tank force took part at Zapad 2017 exercises, causing consternation in western Europe


Russian T-72B3 tanks during the Zapad 2017 military exercises

At the recently concluded Russian military exercise 'Zapad 2017', the most threatening aspect of the exercises to some parties is the participation of the 1st Guards Tank Army, which resurrects a legacy of aggression and occupation.

The First Guards Tank Army, has an extensive and storied pedigree. The unit, originally called 1st Tank Army (Stalingrad Front) battled the Germans during World War 2 on the Eastern Front in the battles of Stalingrad, where it was nearly destroyed and was disbanded in August 1942. Joseph Stalin reconstituted the unit on 30th January 1943, personally appointing Lieutenant-General Mikhail Katukov (popularly nicknamed as 'The Russian Guderian' from his skillful command of tank units during the Battle of Moscow) as its commander. The unit later participated in the Battle of Kursk, fighting on the Southern part of the salient against the 4th Panzer Army. As commendation for the unit's successes during the battle, the 1st Tank Army was raised to 'Guards' status and Katukov promoted to Colonel-General.

The unit's most famous war exploit is how it helped destroy the crown jewel of the Wehrmacht tank forces, the 1st Panzer Army under Field Marshall Erich von Manstein during the battle of Kamenets-Podolsky (only 45 German armored vehicles escaped the pocket, the German troops however, managed to cut their way out of the pocket on foot). The unit eventually spearheaded the relentless Soviet Red Army advance into Eastern Europe, Germany and finally Berlin before becoming part of the Soviet force that occupied Germany. After the war, the unit was awarded the order of the Red Banner for its spectacular war records.

During the Cold War, the unit was stationed in Dresden and thus was one of the Warsaw pact crack units expected to spearhead and break through NATO defenses during an invasion of Western Europe. Indeed, its commander, General Katukov was appointed the Supreme commander of Mechanized Units of the Soviet Forces Group in Germany. In 1968, the unit participated in the invasion of Czechoslovakia to ruthlessly crush the Prague Spring. The unit returned to Germany afterwards and stayed until the fall of the Berlin wall and Russian withdrawal from Eastern Europe.

After the end of the Cold War, the unit was withdrawn to Smolensk, near the border with Belarus, losing its 'tank' designation before being disbanded in 1998 due to budget cuts. But the unit has been reconstituted by order of President Vladimir Putin in November 2014 to give the Russian military more offensive punch and present a visible demonstration of Russian power. The unit is currently being commanded by Lieutenant-General Alexander Chayko and comprises of the 4th Kantemirovskaya Tank Division and the 2nd Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division, both decorated elite units with a long history.

“That name was chosen for a reason,” said former NATO Supreme Commander General Philip M. Breedlove. “It sends a very clear message to the Baltics and Poland.”

As fitting for the unit, the Russian military has accorded itself to ensure the 1st Guards Tank Army received the best and latest Russian military equipment. Indeed, the unit is slated to be the first to receive the T-14 Armata battle tank and the Kurganetz IFV when they come into full production. The unit is also one of the few Division-level Russian units on permanent 'standby mode', with 80% unit readiness at all times.

While war is not imminent, the deployment of the First Guards Tank Army on the western border of Russia is sending a message of intimidation to Europe.

“There is only one reason you would create a Guards Tank Army, and that is as an offensive striking force,” said General Ben Hodges, USAEUR commander. “This is not something for homeland security."

Standard doctrine is to fire 2 missiles at each incoming missile. 16 MICA means maximum 8 shot down in a 'perfect' battle. But a ship will only have less than 2 minutes to detect, react and defend itself at 16 sea-skimmers coming from the horizon at 1000kph...

Yeah Harpoon, Exocet and Kh35 are basically fire and forget missiles. The downside is that they are likely to lock on to other targets, especially when dealing with semi-stealth ships like Gowind or Formidable, and especially in these crowded waters - bad news for cargo ships and fishing boats as well as the attacker.

But the biggest question as pointed out above is, who gets a clear picture of the enemy first...

Indonesian Army new M113 Arisgator Amphibious APCs. Credit to Yonarmed 10.

Russian Army tinkering with specialist 'Urban Assault Battalion'


Russian combat engineer with Urban Assault protective vest system

Russian Federation Combat Engineers Chief, Lieutenant General Yuriy Stavitskiy, announced that the first assault engineer-sapper battalion has been established in the Russian Armed Forces on the basis of the 1st Combat Engineer Brigade in Murom.

"We have assault units within the Airborne Forces, and from this model we formed a specialized battalion of this type within the 1st Combat Engineer Brigade. So far it's the only one. We'll see how it operates," he said on Tuesday.

The new battalion is manned only by professional soldiers and is subordinated directly to the Chief of Combat Engineer Forces. It will include two assault companies and one heavy specialized equipment company. It will also receive specialized urban assault and engineering equipment being developed for the unit. "For the moment it will not participate in exercises. The battalion has already been formed and staffed, now we have to train and prepare it--it's all new methodology. We are still experimenting. We have to create new assault training lanes, materiel depot, equipment," Stavitskiy summed up.

He emphasized that the idea represents the embodiment of the unique experience of the Great Patriotic War, when the Combat Engineer Forces had 10 sapper armies and about 20 special purpose assault sapper brigades.

"Any urban area, any fortified area, which came under assault by our forces, was accompanied by our sappers. They had special body armor, the troops were specially selected, no more than 30 years of age, preferably sportsmen, with a high level of fitness", " We aim to replicate this" Stavitskiy said.