• As Truck Attacker Plows Into Jerusalem Crowd, Killing at Least Four
• Blast kills dozens in rebel-held Syrian town

Experts from ISI say that the launchers are hidden under camouflage nets the majority of the time, but the heavy rains seen across the region over the past several weeks forced the Russians to move the launchers out from underneath the nets, thus exposing them to the satellite.

Two other vehicles were seen in the area, and it seems as if they are also part of the SS-26 Iskander system.

The Iskander ground to ground missiles are able to be shot 400-500 kilometers. They are accurate to within 5 meters, and can carry a warhead weighing half a ton. Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa are all within range of these missiles.

The Russians used the SS-26 during their conflict with Georgia in 2008, and their effectiveness was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The missile have also seen action in Syria on several occasions.

The Assad regime and the Iranians have both asked the Russians to sell them the missile systems, but have thus far refused their requests at Israel’s insistence. However, this request hasn’t kept the Russians from using the missiles themselves against ISIS and Fatah Jabhat al-Sham (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra).

Israel is worried that some of the missiles might be stolen from the Russians in Syria and given to Hezbollah. Meanwhile, the West is worried about the missiles’ presence in Syria in general, mainly due to the heavy warhead they carry.

It seems as if the Russians have put the missiles in western Syria as a deterrence to the West, especially in light of European nations increasing spending on anti-ballistic missile systems, along with Western nations carrying out war games in Baltic countries bordering Russia.

Interestingly, Russia announced on Friday its intention to bring back its aircraft carrier, and to draw down its troop presence in Syria. The aircraft carrier and the various advanced missiles the Russians brought with them to Syria were believed to be used as deterrence against Western intervention.

A high ranking IDF official said that Syria has the best non-Western air defense in the world, including S-400, SA-3, and SA-17 surface to air missiles. Foreign sources have reported that these advanced surface to air systems have made their way to Hezbollah, and that some were allegedly blown up by Israel while the missile were en route to the Lebanese terror group.

The Russians are still worried that the US will try to attack their Syrian ally, specifically because of US President Barack Obama’s repeated claims that the Syrian regime fights using chemical weapons.

However, with the election of Donald Trump to the Whitehouse, the Russians may believe that there is less of a chance of US military intervention, and are therefore more willing to draw down their troop presence.

In the meantime, a truck rammed into a crowd of soldiers on a popular promenade in Jerusalem on Sunday, killing at least four people and wounding 15 others, officials said, in an attack that the prime minister said was carried out by a supporter of ISIS.

Magen David Adom ambulance service said four soldiers — three women and a man — had been pronounced dead. One severely wounded person was evacuated to a hospital.

The Israel Defense Forces identified the four as: Yael Yakotiel, 20, of Givatyim; Shir Hagag, 22, of Ma’ale Adumin; Shira Tzur, 20, from Haifa; and Erez Orbach, 20, of Alon Shvut.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the scene that authorities knew the identity of the attacker, and “as much as we know, he is a supporter of the Islamic State.”

Israel’s national police chief, Roni Alsheikh, told reporters that the truck was driven by “an east Jerusalem Palestinian” who was killed by other soldiers after the attack. Pictures from the scene showed the truck’s windscreen pockmarked with several bullet holes.

A police spokesman described the incident, at the Armon Hanatziv promenade, which overlooks Jerusalem’s Old Walled City, as “a terrorist attack,” although an investigation remains ongoing.

Security camera video shown on Israeli Channel 2 TV showed the truck barreling at a high speed off the road and into the crowd of people. The truck is seen backing up quickly, apparently trying to crush more people, before the driver is shot dead.

“There was no sense in that reverse,” Leah Schreiber, a witness, told reporters. “He drove backward to crush more people. That was really clear.”

MDA paramedic Chen Lendi Sharon, who was first on the scene, said: “When we arrived, there was chaos. I saw a truck that rammed youngsters getting off the bus next to the Armon Hanatziv view point. On the grass near the road, [there] lay 10 trapped individuals.”

The White House National Security Council said in a statement that the United States “condemns in the strongest terms today’s horrific terrorist attack in Jerusalem.”

“Such cowardly acts can never be justified, and we call on all to send a clear and unequivocal message that terrorism must never be tolerated,” NSC spokesman Ned Price said in the statement.

Since last year, Palestinian attackers have killed 40 Israelis and two visiting Americans in a series of mostly stabbing attacks. During that time, 229 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were attackers, while the rest died in clashes.

In another development, a fuel truck has exploded in the centre of a rebel-held town near Syria’s border with Turkey, killing dozens of people.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 48 people, mostly civilians, were killed when the tanker blew up in front of a courthouse in the northern town of Azaz. Around 14 of the dead were rebel fighters or courthouse guards, it said. Dozens more were injured.

Turkey’s privately owned Dogan news agency said a car bomb planted by Islamic State was responsible. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the militant group.

Osama al-Merhi, a lawyer at the scene of the blast, also pointed the finger at IS.

“These kinds of crimes are only committed by the terrorist group Daesh,” he told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for IS. “They are the ones who target civilians and the cadres who are building this country.”

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency cited a doctor in Azaz as saying that at least 60 people had been killed and more than 50 wounded. An Azaz resident who went to the local hospital told Reuters he had counted around 30 bodies laid out.

The attack appeared to be the deadliest yet in the town in northern Aleppo province, which has been regularly hit by bombings targeting rebels and civilians. In November rebels said 25 people – civilians and opposition fighters – were killed in a car bombing of a rebel headquarters. The rebels accused the Islamic State group of being behind that attack.

Syria’s nearly six-year war has create a patchwork of areas of control across the country.Azaz is a stronghold of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), an alliance of moderate rebel groups whose fighters have, with Turkish military support, pushed Islamic State militants out of the border area.

In a roundup of its military operations over the last 24 hours in support of rebels in northern Syria, the Turkish military said on Saturday that 21 Islamic State militants had been killed in clashes.

It said its warplanes had destroyed buildings and vehicles in airstrikes on 12 Islamic State targets.

The blast comes during a fragile nationwide ceasefire brokered by Syrian government ally Russia and Turkey. The truce came into effect on December 30 and is intended to pave the way for new peace talks in Kazakh capital Astana, which regime ally Iran is also helping organise.

But the ceasefire and the planned talks have been threatened by ongoing violence in the rebel-held Wadi Barada region outside Damascus, which is the main water source for the capital.

Honest Reporting with additional report from NBC and Guardian