The curious Neptune Thunder joint artillery drill conducted by UNFIL forces and the Lebanese Regular Army was reported in the previous post with speculation about what it meant.

I did mention that the big guns fired their live rounds seaward.

I did not mention that Lebanese mainstream news said, “The targets were located at sea in order to limit noise to any inhabited area,” because that was so obviously not the real reason.

I also did not mention that Lebanese Navy ships and the UNIFIL Maritime Task Force were around the target site, ostensibly to keep other boats from being hit by the long-range shells. I did not mention this because I simply did not get the real significance of it

Now there is surprising new information that may shed some light. (more…)