TENSION RISE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AS USA AND ISRAEL TEST FIRE MISSILES.
News of the secret drill came this morning when the Russian defence ministry reporting that a radar system had detected the launch of two 'ballistic objects'.
There were no reports of missiles hitting Syria, prompting confusion over the origins and consequences of the apparent launch.
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Later today, Israel's defence ministry revealed that it had conducted a test of missile designed to be used as a target in an anti-missile system funded by the U.S.
A Russian official said that the launch was detected at 6.16am GMT by an early warning station near the Black Sea, designed to detect missiles fired from Europe and Iran.
The Israeli test took place just one minute earlier, at 6.15am GMT, suggesting that the two events were in fact the same.
Markets immediately fell upon news of the rockets being detected, with the FTSE 100 index tumbling nearly one per cent in just a few minutes.
Stock markets in Germany and France saw similar losses as traders reacted to fears of renewed global instability.
Defiant: Bashar Assad has warned that if the West attacks Syria, it could ignite a regional conflict
A spokesman for the U.S. Navy said that American forces did not fire any missiles, but did not confirm whether or not the U.S. was involved with the Israeli operation.
'No missiles were fired from U.S. ships in the Mediterranean,' he said.
'The trajectory of these objects goes from the central part of the Mediterranean Sea toward the eastern part of the Mediterranean coast,' the Russian ministry said.
Officials within Syria said there were no signs of any missile attacks in Damascus.
Russia and the West have been locked in a war of words over the possibility of intervention in the Syrian civil war.
Five U.S. destroyers and an amphibious ship are in the Mediterranean, poised for possible strikes against Syria with cruise missiles.
'The pressure being applied by the United States causes particular concern,' Russian defence ministry official Oleg Dogayev said.
'The dispatch of ships armed with cruise missiles toward Syria's shores has a negative effect on the situation in the region.'
Barack Obama has called for punitive strikes on the country in retribution for the Assad regime's apparent use of chemical weapons to attack civilians in a Damascus suburb.
However, Assad has refused to back down, telling a French newspaper that the West could ignite a regional conflict if it launches even limited strikes on Syria.
Obama is set to seek a congressional vote on the decision to attack the country after David Cameron lost a vote of British MPs over whether or not to launch strikes.
Extract from; www.dailymail.co.uk
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