Israel Braces For ISIS Attack On Southern Border 'Within 6 Months', N Korea's Nuclear Test

Israeli military expects Islamic State attack on its southern border 'within six months'

Israel is bracing for an Islamic State (Isil) terror attack along its southern border with Egypt within the next six months, a senior Israeli military officer has warned.

Wilayat Sinai, the jihadist group’s affiliate in the Sinai desert, has been stealing armored vehicles and anti-tank missiles from Egypt’s military and Israeli expects the weapons will soon be turned against its forces on the Egyptian border. 

The Israeli officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Telegraph that Wilayat Sinai had stolen at least one Egyptian M60 battle tank and had amassed a supply of Russian-made Kornet missiles, which can strike targets more than three miles away. 

“It could happen today, tomorrow, in a month but within the next six months we will come into an engagement with Wilayat Sinai,” the officer said. “In the next six months they will try to carry out an attack and try to do something against Israel.” 

Israel believes that the group is significantly better equipped now than it was four years ago. 

Zack Gold, non-resident fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Hariri Centre, said the “worst case scenario” for Israel was a cross-border raid in which Wilayat Sinai was able to capture Israelis and bring them back over the border.  

Such an operation would force Israel to launch retaliatory or rescue missions into the Sinai, either with Egypt’s permission or without it. 

Egypt’s military responded with a series of operations that have limited the group’s operating space but it remains active in the eastern Sinai. Israel and Egypt work closely together on counter-terror operations in the the Sinai.

North Korea's Kim Jong Un taunts Obama with nuclear test

• 5.3-magnitude quake was detected near a North Korean nuclear test site
• North Korea has since confirmed it carried out a successful nuclear test
• Second test this year took place just hours after Obama wrapped up tour  
• The massive quake is believed to have been caused by 10 kilotonne blast
• 15 kilotonne bomb dropped on Hiroshima killed around 100,000 people 

North Korea carried out its second nuclear test this year just hours after President Obama wrapped up his tour of Asia.

Pyongyang confirmed it conducted a successful explosion which triggered a 5.3-magnitude 'artificial' earthquake in the country's north east.  

The reclusive country boasted about its growing nuclear arsenal on state-controlled TV and said the test was in response to the strict international sanctions imposed against it. 

North Korea said it would continue to strengthen 'the quantity and quality' of its nuclear weapons.

It came just one day after Obama, speaking in Vientiane, Laos, said he will strive to reduce North Korea's nuclear threat in his final months as president.

Obama called for a further tightening of sanctions against Kim Jong Un after the dictatorial leader fired three long range ballistic missiles this week.

'We are deeply disturbed by what's happened,' he said before calling on the country's sole ally China to work with the US to eliminate the threat it poses.