Khaibar-1

) is a recently named artillery rocket used by the militant group Hezbollah to attack cities and towns in northern Israel. The name of the rocket was first revealed on July 28, 2006 by Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah in a speech on the group's Al-Manar television station.

The Khaibar-1 is significant because it has a 75-km range, longer than most of the Katyusha-type rockets in Hezbollah's arsenal. The rocket was first fired at the Israeli city of Afula, south of Haifa. In early August 2006, Khaibar-1 rockets were reported to hit Beit Shean, about 70 km south of the Lebanese border, [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525808035&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull] Hadera, [http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3286401,00.html] and Haifa, Israel's third-largest city. [http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3290729,00.html] The Israel Defence Force claims the Khaibar-1 rocket is a renamed Iranian-made Fajr-5 or Fajr-3 rocket. The Khaibar-1 rocket reportedly has four times the destructive power (about 100 kilograms of explosives) and range of 122mm Katyusha rockets, Hezbollah's until-now standard rocket launcher.

The expression 'Hai-bar' in Hebrew, which is pronounced in the same way as Khaibar, means a breeding ground for animals [http://www.trekker.co.il/english/yotvata-wildlife-preserve.htm] . This resulted in many Israelis reacting to the name of the rocket with humour. The expression 'Hai-bar' in Hebrew, which is pronounced in the same way as Khaibar, means a breeding ground for animals [4] because it was the place of a stronghold Jewish settlement (of 10,000 individual) in Arabia before they where defeated by a mere 400 Muslim fighters. This resulted in many Israelis reacting to the name of the rocket with humour.

ee also

* 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
* Iran's missile forces

References