North Korea gets new air defense from Russia; Hezbollah and Israel trade fire
(Originally published Nov. 25 in “What in the World‘) The Iran-backed Hezbollah militia launched what Israel said was at least 250 missiles and drones against Israel.
The attack came as Israel launched airstrikes Sunday in Beirut’s southern suburbs and a day after an Israeli strike in central Beirut killed 29 people. Hezbollah said it was targeting a naval base in southern Israel. The barrage also hit the outskirts of Tel Aviv, and northern and central Israel.
Hezbollah is reportedly using a knock-off off an Israel missile, the Almas, which Iran copied after one was captured in southern Lebanon in 2006 when Israel and Hezbollah were again at war.
For those just tuning in: Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon Oct. 1 was in response to cross-border reprisals by Hezbollah in support of Gaza, which Israel invaded in October 2023 to retaliate for Iran-backed Hamas’ invasion Oct. 7, 2023, of Israel in which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed. Israel’s invasion of Gaza also sparked reprisals by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, Iran-backed militants in Syria and Iraq, and by Iran itself in April and again on Oct. 1, when it launched 180 missiles against Israel in retaliation for Israel’s assassination in July. Israel retaliated against Iran’s attack with its own airstrike last month against Iranian military sites.
Iran now says it has accelerated production of enriched uranium to protest a censure by the International Atomic Energy Agency for its failure to cooperate with the agency’s inspectors. The censure followed the agency’s publication last week of a confidential report after a visit last week by its monitors to Iran saying that Iran had increased its stockpile of 60% enriched uranium had increased by more than 10% to 182.3kg. That’s enough to build four atomic bombs. Iran could convert the uranium into weapons-grade fuel in just a few days, but building and deploying a bomb would still take it several months, U.S. officials estimate.
South Korea says Russia has given antiaircraft missiles to North Korea in return for the roughly 11,000 North Korean troops Pyongyang has sent to help Russia turn back Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk province. Moscow has also allegedly been giving Pyongyang help in perfecting its ICBM program in return for North Korean missiles and artillery to help offset a shortage of weapons to use on the front lines in Ukraine.