Failed Russian Missile Test Spotted Across The Middle East

UPDATE 4 - MSNBC's Cosmic Log noted this about the spiral pattern

At the time, NBC News space analyst James Oberg said he had indications that the Topol's "third-stage spin is a 'feature,' not a malfunction, and may be associated with guidance, or decoy deploy, or enhancing hardness against U.S. boost-phase antimissile weapons."

UPDATE 3 - The Russian's have declared the launch a great success

The Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation have conducted another successful test of the “Topol” Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, this time from the firing ground at "Kapustin Yar" in Astrakhan in Southern Russia.

The exercise saw the missile accurately hit its target on the firing range "Sary-Shagan" in Kazakhstan.

The test was conducted to confirm the stability of the basic performance characteristics of this class of missile reported the Ministry of Defense.

The ministry representatives added that all of the objectives of the test launch were met in full. In particular, it was possible to obtain information that will be used in the future to develop the means to overcome missile defense systems.

UPDATE 2 - It seems like the path of the missile started in southwest Russia, and headed southwest towards Israel and Jodran, with reports of it being spotted in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Israel and Jordan.  It seems likely it would have been spotted in northern Iraq as  well, but no reports of that as yet.  It was reported in January that Russia would be testing "70 new missile systems" in 2012 at the Kapustin Yar Missile Test Range in southwest Russia. 

UPDATE - Ynet has reported the following

Russia's Defense Ministry says the Russian army successfully test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The Topol missile was fired at 9:39 Moscow time, according to a statement published by the Novosti news agency. (Ynet) 

Around 7pm BST reports started to come in from Syria that helicopters had started spraying white smoke/chemicals across cities in Syria, with activists posting videos from across Syria:

 

Then to add to the confusion Israelis began to call in UFO sightings

Hundreds of Israelis nationwide flooded police hotlines Thursday evening with reports about seeing an unidentified flying object in the nation's skies.

A prominent Israeli astronomer said the object flew above Lebanese territory and is not a meteor. The UFO was also clearly visible in Palestinian territories. A similar sighting in Norway three years ago turned out to be a failed missile test.

This video shows the above mentioned sighting over Norway

This video of tonight's event also shows a spiraling pattern at around 24 seconds in

So it seems like it could be a missile test.  It's also interesting to note it's been reported as being spotted far and wide, with this video apparently from Azerbaijan:

And the same spiral pattern filmed in Armenia:

And another from Armenia

If you've spotted any other videos from countries around that region let me know on Twitter @brown_moses