AGM-114F Hellfire Rocket Hits Egyptian Security Headquarters in Northern Sinai (photos of missile fragments)

by Scott Creighton

Who attacked the Egyptian Security Headquarters in Northern Sinai? “Jihadists”? The Americans? The Israelis? It was “northern” Sinai, wasn’t it? Did it actually happen or did the Egyptian interior ministry simply scatter some parts of one of their own missiles on the ground and scream “JIHADISTS!”?

It is being reported by Egypt’s new interior ministry that “Jihadists” used a U.S.-made ballistic missile to attack the Egyptian Security Headquarters in Northern Sinai. Curiously, back in January of this year, the interior ministry intercepted a shipment of U.S. made ballistic missiles heading to Gaza, they claimed.

This latest attack is being used as the pretext to justify another brutal crackdown by the junta’s special police and the military in the region.

“Jihadists attacked the Egyptian security headquarters in northern Sinai ostensibly using an American-made ballistic missile, Egypt’s interior ministry said early Monday morning.” Times of Israel

Though many outlets are talking about the attack, few are posting the images that the interior ministry posted on their Facebook account which supposedly show fragments of the missile itself. Even fewer still are giving out the name of the missile itself. But I am doing both.

The AGM-114F Hellfire air-to-ground missiles (specifications on that page match the reported length of the missiles as well  as the identifying plate on it’s side as you will see in the image below) can’t be launched by ragtag “Jihadists” on the ground. They are a laser guided system and are usually launched by Israeli or U.S. drones or by Israeli or U.S. attack helicopters.

You know who else has Hellfires?  The Egyptian military, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar and of course, the Brits.

The plot thickens, huh?

I found those images and it took all of 1 minute to discover what the missile was: a U.S. made AGM-114F Hellfire air-to-surface missile.

Here are the images released by the interior ministry of Egypt:

After seeing the images, I simply took the number off the side of the missile and plugged in into Google and guess what I found?

It is the American made AGM-114F air-to-surface Hellfire missile currently in use in attack helicopters and drones in both the United States and Israel.

Here they are loaded onto a U.S. Super Cobra

Here is a Reaper drone being outfitted with the exact same kind of Hellfire missile:

Here’s one of Obama’s toys in action:

There are a lot of countries with access to these missiles. The “F” series isn’t altogether new so it could have been sitting on someone’s shelf for quite sometime. But how are “Jihadists” supposed to have successfully fired an air-to-surface missile at a target without any form of tracking or guidance equipment?

Here’s an interesting story that dates back to 2004. You should read it.

A small, pilotless plane circling above the home of Sheikh Yassin – unseen in the pre-dawn gloom and almost silent – was the only advance warning that anyone on the ground might have had.

Far away, the Israeli military studied the night-sight images from the plane on a TV screen, waiting for the Hamas leader to leave his house on a short, fateful journey to the mosque.

The few minutes that he spent praying were enough time to call up an Apache helicopter armed with Hellfire missiles.

As he left the mosque, the drone overhead shone its laser beam on to the target, guided by the distant Israeli operator at the TV screen.

Recognising the laser beam by its coded pulses, the helicopter’s missile headed straight for the target.

Although the Israelis are not saying exactly how they hit Sheikh Yassin, a combined operation using a drone and a helicopter is the most probable scenario, according to Doug Richardson, editor of Jane’s Missiles and Rockets.

“My guess is that it would be Hellfire,” he said. The Guardian, March 2004

story confirmed

Would it be in Israel’s interests to destabilize the Sinai to create a pretext to occupy it and expand their reach across the Middle East?

It should also be noted that Israel is an exporter of drones themselves. They make several armed models. You might find this interesting:

Another UAV with Israeli DNA was the Shadow 200. This was a 159 kg (350 pound) UAV that carries day and night cameras and laser designators but usually no weapons. Shadow is being replaced by the much larger MQ-1C. This “improved Predator” weighs 1.5 tons, carries 135.4 kg (300 pounds) of sensors internally, and up to 227.3 kg (500 pounds) of sensors or weapons externally. It has an endurance of up to 36 hours and a top speed of 270 kilometers an hour. MQ-1C has a wingspan of 18 meters (56 feet) and is 9 meters (28 feet) long. The MQ-1C can carry four Hellfire missiles (compared to two on the Predator) Strategy Page

This is the  MQ-1C armed with 4 Hellfire missiles:

It should also be noted that an Israeli drone crashed near the Egyptian border on July 15th of this year. Well after the coup and right around the time all the trouble was stirring up in Sinai.

“An Israeli unmanned aircraft (UAV) crashed on Sunday near the Israel-Egypt border. It is believed that a malfunction caused the crash; terrorism is not suspected” sUAS News

Would it be in the interests of the United States to create a false flag event there to help the Egyptian dictator justify putting a U.S. base there? We already sent troops into the area and Obama promised Israel we would station troops there last year. Do we want a permanent base on the Sinai?

The point is, there are a lot of players involved in this game so aside from resorting to the childishly simplistic “the Jihadists did it” cliche, you have to take a lot of factors into consideration before jumping to a conclusion.

Chances are the “jihadists” don’t have the capability to guide a missile like this once it launches and that is IF they could even launch it.  It’s not like a SAM or an RPG… you don’t just point and pull the trigger.

The AGM-114F is an older model of the Hellfire. I’m not sure but I figure it can probably be tracked due to the fact that it’s identifying plate is still in perfect condition. Shouldn’t be hard for Egypt to figure out who launched it at their military outpost. It’s also possible the missile was sold to none other than Egypt themselves and this is just a false flag attack perpetrated by the new dictator.

That’s probably why most news outlets don’t tell you what kind of missile it was or show you the images from the interior ministry’s Facebook page. They don’t want to confuse the public with tedious facts.

But the fact is, the “Jihadists” don’t have the capability to fire that missile with any kind of accuracy.  At least, not to my knowledge.

So who did?

(edit: It’s possible Egypt just took some old scraps from one of their own Hellfire missiles and tossed them around a room and the whole thing is a fabrication. It’s been done before.)