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Israel carried out a major military exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, a media report said on Friday.
Citing several American officials, the New York Times said the Israeli exercise appeared to be an effort to develop
the military's capacity to carry out long-range strikes and to demonstrate the seriousness with which Israel views Iran's nuclear programme.
More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters participated in the manoeuvres, which were carried out over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece during the first week of June, American officials were quoted as saying.
The exercise also included Israeli helicopters that could be used to rescue downed pilots. The helicopters and refuelling tankers flew more than 900 miles, which is about the same distance between Israel and Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, American officials told the paper.
Israeli officials, the Times said, declined to discuss the details of the exercise. A spokesman for the Israeli military would say only that the country's air force regularly trains for various missions in order to confront and meet the challenges posed by the threats facing Israel.
But the scope of the Israeli exercise virtually guaranteed that it would be noticed by American and other foreign intelligence agencies, the report said. A senior Pentagon official who has been briefed on the exercise told the paper that the exercise appeared to serve multiple purposes.
One Israeli goal, the Pentagon official said, was to practice flight tactics, aerial refuelling and all other details of a possible strike against Iran's nuclear installations and its long-range conventional missiles. A second, the official said, was to send a clear message to the United States and other countries that Israel was prepared to act militarily if diplomatic efforts to stop Iran from producing bomb-grade uranium continued to falter.
"They wanted us to know, they wanted the Europeans to know, and they wanted the Iranians to know," the Pentagon official was quoted as saying. "There's a lot of signalling going on at different levels."
Several American officials told the paper that they did not believe that the Israeli government had concluded that it
must attack Iran and did not think that such a strike was imminent.
Iran, the paper said, has shown signs that it is taking the Israeli warnings seriously, by beefing up its air defences
in recent weeks, including increasing air patrols. In one instance, Iran scrambled F-4 jets to double-check an Iraqi
civilian flight from Baghdad to Teheran, it added. "They are clearly nervous about this and have their air defence on guard," a Bush administration official said of the Iranians.
Any Israeli attack against Iran's nuclear facilities would confront a number of challenges. Many American experts
were quoted as saying they believe that such an attack could delay but not eliminate Iran's nuclear programme.
Much of the programme's infrastructure is buried under earth and concrete and installed in long tunnels or hallways, making precise targeting difficult, the paper said.
There is also concern that not all of the facilities have been detected. To inflict maximum damage, multiple attacks
might be necessary, which many analysts say is beyond Israel's ability at this time, according to the Times
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