troung

31 July, 2006
Hizbullah Uses Top ATGMs Against Israel

TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Israel has determined that Hizbullah deployed
advanced anti-tank weapons in the war in Lebanon.

Israeli military sources said many of the Hizbullah weapons were
Russian-origin anti-tank guided missiles believed to have been supplied
to Syria. They said the weapons were transferred to Hizbullah over the
last year.

The sources said Hizbullah used the advanced systems during the battle
of Bint Jbail, regarded as the movement's capital in southern Lebanon.
Israeli troops recovered shells or launchers of the Milan and Kornet
anti-tank systems.

The Hizbullah acquisition of the AT-14 Kornet was said to have alarmed
commanders in the Armored Corps. The Kornet, guided by a laser tracker,
has a range of five kilometers, greater than that of Israel's anti-tank
weapons.

__________________
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

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Israeli troops trapped inside Lebanese hospital by Hezbollah fighters: reports

Canadian Press
Published: Tuesday, August 01, 2006

BOURJ AL-MULOUK, Lebanon (AP) - Israel launched a major attack deep into Lebanon and Hezbollah said its guerrillas were fighting Israeli commando forces trapped inside a hospital in the eastern city Baalbek early Wednesday.

The Israeli army would not comment on the operation in the ancient city, which was once a Syrian army headquarters some 130 kilometres north of Israel. The website of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported "helicopters put down IDF (military) commandos near Baalbek," without adding details.
Hezbollah's chief spokesman, Hussein Rahal, said Israeli troops landed near Dar al-Hikma Hospital and fierce fighting continued to rage for more than one hour.

"A group of Israeli commandos was brought to the hospital by a helicopter. They entered the hospital and are trapped inside as our fighters opened fire on them and fierce fighting is still raging," Rahal said.

Rahal said Hezbollah guerrillas were using automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. He dismissed as "untrue" reports the Israelis managed to snatch some patients from the hospital and spirit them away in helicopters. He said Israel jets were attacking the surrounding guerrilla force with rockets.

Witnesses said the hospital was hit in an Israeli air strike and was burning. Repeated telephone calls to the hospital went unanswered.

The attack in Baalbek, the ferocity of other battles Tuesday, the determination of the Israelis to keep fighting and the minimal diplomatic progress toward an immediate ceasefire all indicated the war is more likely to escalate than end soon.

In announcing the expanded operation, Israeli officials said their soldiers were to go as far as the Litani, about 30 kilometres from the border. But the army later said it had distributed leaflets northeast of the river at villages where Hezbollah was active. The leaflets told people to leave, suggesting that the new offensive could take Israeli soldiers even deeper into Lebanon.

Late Tuesday, Lebanese security officials reported a major Israeli operation involving helicopters was underway near Baalbek in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, well north of the Litani.

The Israelis want to keep Hezbollah off the border so their patrols and civilians along the fence are not in danger of attack, such as the July 12 raid in which guerrillas killed three soldiers and seized two others. The army also hopes to push Hezbollah far enough north so that most of the guerrillas' rockets cannot reach the Jewish state.

Despite mounting civilian deaths, President George W. Bush held fast to support for Israel and was pressing for a UN resolution linking a ceasefire with a broader plan for peace in the Middle East. Staking out a different approach, European Union foreign ministers called for an "immediate cessation of hostilities" followed by efforts to agree on a sustainable ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said it was not in Israel's interest to agree to an immediate ceasefire because every day of fighting weakens the guerrillas.

"Every additional day is a day that drains the strength of this cruel enemy," he said.

"Every extra day is a day in which the (army) reduces their capability, contains their firing ability and their ability to hit in the future."

Until the arrival of an international force, Israel hopes to create a temporary buffer zone in a region that it occupied for 18 years until 2000. It is not yet clear that an international force will be formed, but the intention would be to bolster the Lebanese military's ability to control southern reaches of the country where Hezbollah has been launching its rocket attacks on Israel.

Israel resumed sporadic air strikes, hitting Hezbollah strongholds and supply lines from one end of Lebanon to the other, despite a pledge to suspend such attacks for another day in response to world outrage over the killing of 56 Lebanese in a weekend bombing.

Aid groups had hoped to take advantage of the supposed 48-hour lull in air strikes to get food and medicine to civilians trapped in the south. But Israel denied access to two UN convoys. Others who made the journey described air strikes close to their convoys, and bodies along the road.

Hezbollah fired just 10 rockets across the border Tuesday, well below an average of about 100 a day since the fighting began 21 days ago, Israel said.

But the ground battles were intense.

At nightfall Tuesday, Israeli troops were fighting Hezbollah at several points along the common border. Reporters and Arab television reported especially heavy fighting and Israeli artillery bombardment at the village of Aita al-Shaab.

The Israeli army said late Tuesday that three Israeli soldiers died and 25 were slightly wounded by small arms fire and anti-tank rockets in Aita al-Shaab.

Israeli Cabinet Minister Haim Ramon said the fighting to date had killed about 300 of Hezbollah's main force of 2,000 fighters, which does not include its less-well trained reserves. "That's a very hard blow," he said.
Hezbollah has said only 46 of its fighters were killed. Four were lost in battles with Israeli ground troops in Adaisse and Taibeh, near the Christian town of Marjayoun, about eight kilometres from the border with Israel, Hezbollah said.

To the east at Kfar Kila, reporters saw at least three air strikes, and the thud of artillery shells from Israeli ground troops was constant. About 20 shells landed in the hills around Kfar Kila in the course of one 45-minute period.

Israeli jet fighters also struck deep inside Lebanese territory, hitting Hermel, 120 kilometres north of the Israeli border in the Bekaa Valley. Warplanes fired at least five air-to-surface missiles on the edge of the town, targeting a road linking eastern Lebanon to western regions and the coastline.

Six hours later, warplanes returned to Hermel, hitting a pickup truck loaded with cooking gas tanks, security officials said. The canisters exploded, sending flames shooting up from the vehicle for nearly an hour. The driver was out of the truck and not hurt.

Fifty kilometres to the south, Israeli warplanes attacked at least five suspected Hezbollah positions near Baalbek late Tuesday.

In the west, Israeli warships fired artillery into the villages of Mansouri, Shamaa and Teir Harfan around the port city of Tyre. No casualties were reported.

Another strike at an area near the Syrian border, about 10 kilometres north of Hermel, targeted the Qaa-Homs road, one of four official crossing points between Lebanon and Syria. Two of the four border crossings are now closed because of damage, and repeated air strikes have made the main Beirut-Damascus highway impassable.

Polls in Israel show wall-to-wall support for Israel's fight against Hezbollah, even with Israeli civilians enduring a barrage of rocket fire and the army poised for a sweeping ground offensive that is sure to lead to more casualties.

But the deaths of 56 Lebanese in the devastating weekend strike in Qana focused attention on civilian casualties.

Three more civilians were killed and three seriously wounded when Israeli warplanes hit a house in the southern Lebanese town of Lweizeh, Lebanese security officials said Tuesday.

Also, the Lebanese Red Cross said the bodies of 12 civilians were retrieved from the rubble of buildings destroyed in air strikes on four villages in southern Lebanon and many more were believed still buried. It was not clear when the victims were killed.

At least 532 Lebanese have been killed, including 461 civilians and 25 Lebanese soldiers and at least 46 Hezbollah guerrillas. The health minister says the toll could be as high as 750, including those still buried in rubble or missing. Fifty-four Israelis have died; 36 soldiers as well as 18 civilians killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks.

But human lives are not the only casualties of this war. The United Nations warned Tuesday that the longer a spill of 110,000 barrels of oil is not cleaned up from Lebanon's coast, the more severe the environmental impact will be. The oil spilled two weeks ago after Israeli warplanes hit a coastal power plant.

© The Canadian Press 2006

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Baalbek operation completed successfully

IDF commando units return safely to Israel after nightly raid in Lebanese territory. Several Hizbullah gunmen, killed, at least three terrorists captured in operation. Lebanese officials say 10 civilians killed in IDF air strike

Roee Nahmias

Israeli commando units returned safely to Israel Wednesday morning, after a nightly raid on a Hizbullah stronghold in the town of Baalbek, located close to the Syrian border, and exchanges of fire with terrorists.

Lebanese officials reported that 10 civilians were killed during the action.


"The combatants hurt several terrorists and captured others," the IDF Spokesperson Unit said in a statement. Security officials in Lebanon said that at least three Hizbullah gunmen were apprehended in the operation: Hussein Nasrallah, Hussein al-Bourji, and Ahmed al-Gutah. According to the sources, none of the three is a senior organization member.

Meanwhile, exchanges of fire are currently taking place between IDF forces and Hizbullah gunmen in the villages of al-Habib and Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, in the same area where two soldiers and an officer were killed on Tuesday.


The operation, which was launched after midnight, was aimed – according to foreign sources – at kidnapping Sheikh Muhammad Yazbek, a member of Hizbullah's High Council and one of the group's top 12 senior members.

According to the report, IDF soldiers engaged in fierce battles with Hizbullah gunmen, as IAF helicopter provided troops with air cover.

Other sources in Lebanon reported that 10 Lebanese civilians – five of which were members of the same family – were killed in an IDF air strike in the course of the fighting.


The town of Baalbek is considered to be Hizbullah's "strategic home front," and is home to some of the group's leadership members. Hizbullah civil and military institutes are also located in the place.


According to reports, the operation kicked off with six air strikes carried out by the air force in the area, followed by IDF helicopters that landed troops in the western part of town. Simultaneously a Lebanese army post was attacked near the town of Shleife, west of Baalbek.

Efrat Weiss contributed to the report

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...285005,00.html

troung

provide background to my last post

Major IDF op underway in Bekaa Valley
By JPOST.COM STAFF

Lebanese army and security officials said Tuesday night that a major IDF operation was underway against suspected Hizbullah positions near Baalbeek in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, with one officer saying the IAF presence in the air above the ancient city was "unprecedented."

The operation began with at least five rapid air strikes.

"The extreme, unprecedented number of aircraft indicates the possibility that the Israelis are planning to land troops, but we cannot yet confirm that," said one security official.

Flares held aloft by parachutes lighted the night sky to a daytime brilliance, the official said.

Hizbullah's al-Manar television said IAF helicopters were taking heavy guerrilla fire but had not landed any commandos.

Israeli helicopters also attacked a target 15 kilometers west of Baalbek, starting a huge fire, witnesses said.

Earlier Tuesday, the IAF struck three Hizbullah bunkers in the western zone of southern Lebanon.

Warplanes also hit Hizbullah fighters battling with soldiers near the border as the guerrillas fired mortars into Israel.


Israeli jet fighters struck deep inside Lebanese territory, hitting Hermel, some 120 kilometers north of the Israeli border in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon.

Warplanes fired at least five air-to-surface missiles on the edge of the town, targeting a road linking eastern Lebanon to western regions and the coastline.

About six hours later, warplanes returned to attack Hermel again, hitting a pickup truck loaded with cooking gas tanks, security officials said. The canisters exploded, sending flames shooting up from the vehicle for nearly an hour. The driver had pulled over and exited the vehicle before the attack, and was not hurt, they said.


In the west, Israeli warships offshore in the Mediterranean sent artillery into the villages of Mansouri, Shamaa and Teir Harfan around the port city of Tyre. No casualties were reported.

Another strike at an area near the Syrian border, about 10 kilometers north of Hermel, targeted the Qaa-Homs road, one of four official crossing points between Lebanon and Syria.

Lebanon's official news agency reported Israeli jets also hit early Tuesday near the Masnaa crossing into Syria, which was attacked several times in the last three days.

Tuesday's airstrikes meant that two of the four border crossings are now closed because of damage. Repeated airstrikes have made the main Beirut-Damascus highway impassable.

Meanwhile, during a welcoming ceremony for French tourists at Ben Gurion International Airport on Tuesday, Tourism Minister, Isaac Herzog praised the IDF for its operations in Lebanon and estimated that the army would continue bombarding Hizbullah infrastructure in the upcoming days.

Herzog added that, so far, during Operation Changing Direction, some 400 Hizbullah guerrillas had been killed by the IDF.

The tourism minister also said that the IDF had destroyed an array of long-range missiles as well as several Hizbullah headquarters and communications rooms.

Earlier, the Security Cabinet approved widening the ground offensive, a participant said, and rejected a cease-fire until an international force is in place in southern Lebanon.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz said that Israel was not interested in waging war on Syria but would continue to target convoys smuggling weapons across the border into Lebanon.

On Monday, Syria's army went on high alert in response to the situation.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...cle%2FShowFull

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Halutz: Capturing guerillas was not initial goal

By JPOST.COM STAFF


"The operation harmed those that had threatened us," IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz commented on Tuesday night's Baalbek raid.

Halutz spoke of the raid that lasted several hours and involved both air and ground operations.

"The final outcome of the operation is not yet quite clear because we collected materials that must be analyzed," the general said on Wednesday afternoon.

"I have no doubt that more advantages from this operation will be discovered," the general continued, "this was part of the larger-scale operation, and we will continue such actions if necessary. Capturing people was not our initial objective."

The IDF captured five Hizbullah guerrillas and killed at least 10 in a commando raid in Lebanon, Halutz said. He confirmed that the five were being questioned.

Asked in an Associated Press interview who was captured in the raid, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said "tasty fishes" were among those seized.
Hizbullah denied those captured belonged to the guerrilla group. "Those who were taken prisoner are citizens. It will not be long before the (Israeli) enemy will discover that they are ordinary citizens," Hizbullah said in a statement broadcast on its Al-Manar television.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...cle%2FShowFull

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Deep Strike- IDF Air Assault Commando Raid on Baalbek

Israel Reaches Into Heart of Hizballistan Capital While 10,000 Troops Cross Into Southern Lebanon

By Steve Schippert

In the past 48 hours, messages from Israel have been delivered to both Damascus and Tehran through the public release of intelligence claims. On Tuesday, however, the message had Hizballah addresses, namely being intended for Hassan Nasrallah and Imad Mugniyeh. While the messages to Iran and Syria were clearly for them to stay home, the message to Hizballah was “We can go where we want and strike where we want.”

For on Tuesday, there was no other way to interpret the IDF air assault on Baalbek, referred to as the ‘capital’ of Hizballah, situated near the Syrian border in the northern reaches of the Bekaa Valley. From the outset, it appeared to be an operation that was planned around specific actionable intelligence as a hospital in northern Baalbek appeared to be the primary target, with IDF Special Forces commandos checking the ID’s of all in the hospital according to early reports. The primary target appears to have been Mohammed Yazbek, who heads Hizballah’s Shura Council (or ‘consultation council’).

While Yazbek was not there, who Israel believed was being treated in the target hospital, three lower level Hizballah operatives were reportedly among the captured in the operation: Hussein Nasrallah, Hussein al-Burji and Ahmed al-Ghotah. Early reports were dominated by information from Hizballah - as the IDF remained very tight-lipped during the ongoing operation – and included claims from fierce fighting and Israeli troops trapped inside the hospital to many helicopters but no troops on the ground. Hizballah also claimed that the hospital had been evacuated days before the raid.

The picture that is coming into focus after the operation appears to show that the hospital was at least not entirely evacuated and that whatever fierce fighting occurred resulted in no IDF casualties, according to the Israeli military. The significance of the operation is clear, both in tactical terms and the psychological impact on Hizballah. The IDF inserted force where they wanted, operated as they wanted and performed a successful massive air assault deep in the heart of Hizballistan.

For Hizballah, increasingly cut off from Syrian and Iranian re-supply and largely left to stores on hand, they must now actively consider defenses beyond their southern front. That none of the IDF helicopters at low altitude over the heart of Hizballistan were shot down should not go unnoticed.

While Hizballah was surprised in the north, the northern operation was followed today with Israel sending 10,000 troops across the border on Hizballah’s southern front on a day in which the terrorist organization has launched over 160 rockets into Israeli cities so far in the day. At least one of them reached near Jenin in the West Bank, the deepest strike thus far by Hizballah. The rocket activity into Israel from Tyre in the west to various points on the eastern stretch of the border has been higher today than at any point in the conflict thus far.

For Hizballah, there is no rest as operations begin to accelerate in Hizballah-controlled southern Lebanon in what looks to be the beginning stages of the broad IDF clearing operations in their push northward to the Litani River.

While the talk is of inserting a multi-national force - headed by France under a UN flag - Israel’s Defense Minister Amir Peretz makes a clear distinction between a ‘Peacekeeper Force’ and a ‘Peacemaker Force.’ Israel’s forces are ensuring that the multinational forces will serve as more than an expanded UNIFIL, doubting that any UN-flagged troops will actually engage Hizballah militarily. Said Peretz, “We are preparing the conditions for the multinational force, so whenever it is deployed, it would be able to enforce the new situation.”

As Peretz no doubt understands, there must first be a peace to keep.

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Soldier killed, soldier severely hurt in Lebanon

Harsh battles take place all day Wednesday in southern Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab; soldier killed, seven troops injured, one sustaining serious wounds. IAF strikes 120 targets Wednesday. On Thursday, IDF set to complete its deployment of 'security zone,' 5-6 kilometers inside Lebanese territory between Metula, Rosh Hanikra
Efrat Weiss

Day 23 of war in Lebanon: Cleared for publication: An Israel Defense Forces soldier was killed Wednesday in a harsh battle in the village of Aita al-Shaab in the western region of southern Lebanon.
Another soldier was seriously injured and six troops were lightly wounded in two incidents. The rescue operation lasted for hours.
After three weeks of fighting, the Israel Defense Forces is expected to complete its deployment a "security zone", 5-6 kilometers (3.1-3.7 miles) inside the Lebanese territory. A Lebanese or multinational force is expected to later enter this zone.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...285587,00.html

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Lt. Ilan Gabai killed a week after his best friend

After losing his best friend Lt. Yiftach Shrier in Maroun al-Ras last week, Lt. Ilan Gabai was killed Tuesday in battles in Aita al-Shaab. ‘In their lives and in their deaths they never separated,' Shrier's brother says

Sharon Roffe-Ofir

Just one week after Lieutenant Yiftach Shrier was killed in a battle near the Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras, the parents of his good friend Lieutenant Ilan Gabai received word that their son was killed in Tuesday’s fighting in the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab.

The commander of Yiftach and Ilan’s battalion, the 101st, was the one who informed both families of their losses.

“Last Saturday Ilan consoled Yiftach’s parents,” said Lieutenant Colonel Itzik Bar, commander of the Paratroopers Brigade training base.

Ilan served as a platoon commander in 101st Battalion’s reconnaissance company. Friends who arrived at the Gabai family home in Tivon on Tuesday said Ilan had a hard time coming to terms with Yiftach’s death. Ilan’s parents visited the Shrier home in Haifa last week, and Ilan himself paid a visit to Yiftach’s parents last Saturday while on leave.

In his childhood Ilan suffered from severe asthma. Despite his health problems, he excelled in basketball and later, when he joined the Paratroopers Brigade he overcame the medical obstacle and was chosen to attend an Officers’ Course.

In a booklet print at the end of his company’s basic training, his friends wrote to him: “You are a commander who constitutes an exemplary model for your soldiers. You taught us things that will remain with us always. You taught us how to stick with our mission and strive for victory. You were the most devoted platoon commander ever.”

Ilan was survived by his three siblings Alon, Ella and Eyal, and his parents Batya and Aharon. Ilan will be laid to rest at the Kiryat Tivon Cemetery Wednesday.


‘In their lives and in their deaths they never separated’

The Shrier family of Haifa, whose son Yiftach was killed last week, were shocked and pained to receive news of Ilan’s death. Their son Yiftah and Ilan went through the military together and became best friends.

Lt. Yiftach’s twin brother, Yarden, found it difficult to express his feelings upon hearing the news, and just said, “In their lives and in their deaths they never separated. The were together for the whole track, starting from basic training until the Officers’ Course and they served in the same battalion. Ilan was here Saturday night to console us. He was here, sat here in our house and mourned with us over Yiftah’s death.”

The mother, Yafa, said that when Ilan came to their home while the battles were still raging, he told her that he regretted more than anything not being able to attend Yiftach’s funeral. “He invited me to spend time with him after this war was over,” she said, her eyes brimming with tears.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...284954,00.html

troung

3 tank brigade soldiers killed in Lebanon


IDF’s nightmare in south Lebanon – Hizbullah’s anti-tank weapons – assault 74th Battalion: During operations in village of Rajmin 4 km into Lebanon, Merkava tank absorbs deadly strike. Two soldiers killed, two air-lifted with severe burns to hospital, where one later dies of his wounds. Thirteen Hizbullah members killed in fighting

Efrat Weiss

Three IDF soldiers were killed and another was severely wounded when Hizbullah operatives fired an anti-tank missile at their Merkava tank.

The event occurred in the village of Rajmin in southwest Lebanon , about four kilometers into Lebanese territory. The soldiers were from the 74th Battalion, Tank Brigade 188, which at the time of the operation was under the command of Reserves Brigade 609, which joined the fighting Wednesday.

The casualties were occupants of a Merkava tank that was hit by an anti-tank missile during operations in the area. Two soldiers died in the strike, while the two wounded troops, who suffered severe burns, were air-lifted to Rambam Hospital in Haifa; one of them later died of his wounds.

Thirteen Hizbullah members were killed Thursday by reserve units in the south Lebanon’s western district. IDF sources said forces discovered missiles, mortars and maps in a Hizbullah structure.

Hizbullah’s anti-tank weapons are one of the most complex problems facing IDF troops in south Lebanon. In the past few years, Hizbullah has equipped itself with missile systems and other means against Israeli tanks, which are among the most advanced in the world. The terror group possesses “Fagot” and “Cornet” missiles with tandem warheads that can neutralize tank shields and destroy even the IDF’s advanced tanks.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...285821,00.html

RambozoTheClown

Israeli jets pounded Lebanon and troops battled Hezbollah guerrillas yesterday while world powers struggled for a plan to end a war which Beirut said has killed 900 people and wounded 3,000.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said a third of the casualties in the 23-day-old conflict were children under 12. He said a million Lebanese, a quarter of the population, had been displaced and the country's infrastructure devastated.

His remarks were in a video message to a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Malaysia. His death toll was higher than the estimated toll of at least 683.

Fifty-six Israelis, including 37 soldiers, have been killed in the conflict, and Al-Arabiya television said two more Israeli soldiers died in fighting yesterday. A Lebanese security source said that 80 Hezbollah fighters had been killed so far well below the Israeli estimate of 300-400.

The United States, France and Britain hope for a UN Security Council resolution within a week that would call for a truce and maybe strengthen existing UN peacekeepers until a more robust force can be formed, UN officials said.

"I'm now hopeful we will have such a resolution down very shortly and agreed within the next few days," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in London. "The purpose of that will be to bring about an immediate ceasefire and then put in place the conditions for the international force to come in."

But splits between the United States and France, a possible leader of the new force, over the timing of a ceasefire have complicated diplomatic efforts to end the fighting.

Israeli aircraft launched strikes on 70 targets in southern Lebanon and Beirut overnight, an Israeli army spokeswoman said.

Hezbollah, showing it can still fight after 23 days of Israeli bombardment, fired 70 rockets into Israel yesterday, after showering the Jewish state with a record 231 missiles the previous day in salvoes that killed one person and wounded 124.

No casualties were reported in the latest rocket strikes.

The Lebanon war, launched after Hezbollah snatched two Israeli soldiers in a raid across the border on July 12, has coincided with an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip to recover another captured soldier and halt Palestinian rocket fire.

Israeli forces killed five Palestinian gunmen and three civilians, including a 10-year-old boy, in the Gaza Strip yesterday, witnesses said. Israel's offensive in the Strip it quit last year has cost at least 161 Palestinian lives.

Israeli jets bombed Hezbollah-dominated suburbs of Beirut for the first time in days and hit a bridge in the northern Akkar region, as well as targets in the eastern Bekaa Valley and roads near the Syrian border, a Lebanese security source said.

Planes repeatedly bombed targets around the southern town of Nabatiyeh and shelling cut a road in the southern Bekaa Valley. Heavy Israeli air strikes and shelling also hit the area around the southern village of Blat, north of Marjayoun.

Israel is expanding the ground war in southern Lebanon, where seven brigades, or up to 10,000 troops, were fighting Hezbollah yesterday, Israeli army radio said. The UN force in southern Lebanon said Israeli troops were on the ground in five main areas in the south.

http://english.people.com.cn/200608/...04_289848.html

RambozoTheClown

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Hezbollah's Tactics and Capabilities in Southern Lebanon

By Andrew McGregor


With its attack on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Israel is fighting on terrain that has been prepared by the Shiite movement for six years since the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000. Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers have described finding a network of concrete bunkers with modern communications equipment as deep as 40 meters along the border (Ynet News, July 23). The terrain is already well-suited for ambushes and hidden troop movements, consisting of mountains and woods in the east and scrub-covered hills to the west, all intersected by deep wadis (dry river beds). Broken rocks and numerous caves provide ample cover. Motorized infantry and armor can only cross the region with difficulty. Use of the few winding and unpaved roads invites mines and ambushes by Hezbollah's adaptable force of several thousand guerrillas (The Times [London], July 21).

Hezbollah emerged in 1985 with more enthusiasm than tactical sense, relying on wasteful frontal assaults and more effective suicide attacks on Israeli troops. With training provided by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah's highly-motivated military wing developed into a highly effective guerrilla force. Iran continues to provide specialized training, funds and weapons to Hezbollah through the Revolutionary Guards organization. Various reports suggest Iranian volunteers are being recruited and sent to Lebanon to assist Hezbollah, but these reports remain unconfirmed (Alborz News Agency, July 18; Mehr News Agency, July 17).

Hezbollah's military leadership has rethought much of the strategic and tactical doctrine that led to the repeated defeat of Arab regular forces by the IDF. The top-down command structure that inhibited initiative in junior ranks has been reversed. Hezbollah operates with a decentralized command structure that allows for rapid response to any situation by encouraging initiative and avoiding the need to consult with leaders in Beirut. The military wing nevertheless answers directly to Hezbollah's central council of clerics for direction.

The fighters are armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, typically assembling in small teams to avoid concentrations that would draw Israeli attention. The preparation of well-disguised explosive devices has become a specialty of Hezbollah. The uncertainty created by such weapons takes a heavy psychological toll on patrolling soldiers.

Hezbollah has improved its night-vision capabilities, although they do not compare with Israel's state-of-the-art equipment, which includes UAVs, helicopters and jet-fighters equipped for night warfare. Hezbollah fighters are well-trained in the use of complex weapons systems. Air defense units use SA-7 missiles and ZU-23 anti-aircraft guns on flatbed trucks.

The guerrillas rigorously examine the success or failure of each operation after completion. Tactics change constantly and new uses are sought for existing weapons. The use of mortars (81mm and 120mm) has been honed to near perfection. Hezbollah fighters have developed efficient assault tactics for use against armor, with their main anti-tank weapons being AT-3 Saggers and AT-4 Spigot missiles. Four tanks were destroyed in two weeks in 1997 using U.S.-made TOW anti-tank missiles (these missiles traveled from Israel to Iran as part of the Iran-Contra affair before being supplied to Hezbollah).

Hezbollah leaders believe that their fighters have a perspective on conflict losses that gives them an inherent advantage; according to Naim Kassem, deputy leader of Hezbollah, "[The Israeli] perspective is preservation of life, while our point of departure is preservation of principle and sacrifice. What is the value of a life of humiliation?" (Haaretz, December 15, 1996). With no hope of overwhelming Israel's well-supplied military, Hezbollah fighters concentrate on inflicting Israeli casualties, believing that an inability or unwillingness to absorb steady losses is Israel's strategic weakness.

Hezbollah has also mastered the field of information warfare, videotaping attacks on Israeli troops that are then shown in Israel and around the world, damaging public morale and degrading the myth of IDF invincibility.

Hezbollah is believed to have as many as 10,000, unguided 122mm Katyusha rockets (range 22 km) (Arutz Sheva, August 1). The Second World War-style Katyushas are easily obtained on the international arms market and inflict greater economic and psychological damage than physical damage. Their chief advantage is their portability; launchers can be easily mounted on a truck that can dash into position, fire its rockets and take off to a prepared refuge before a retaliatory strike can be launched. Sometimes automatic timers are used on the launchers, allowing the crew to escape well in advance.

The weapon used in an attack against an Israeli warship that killed four commandos was identified by the Israeli military as an Iranian-made C802 Noor radar-guided land-to-sea missile (range 95 km). Most other missiles used by Hezbollah are Iranian-made, including the Raad 2 and 3 models (used against Haifa), the Fajr-3 and 5 and, allegedly, the Zelzal-2, with a range of 200 km.

Hezbollah is unlikely to have used the most potent weapons in its arsenal. Hanging on to them provides both strategic and psychological advantage. It is typical Hezbollah strategy to view war as a progression, rather than to use everything it has in the early stages of a conflict. While Israel may have a timetable of several weeks for this campaign, Hezbollah is prepared for several years of fighting. Disengagement may prove more difficult for Israel than it assumes. At some point, however, Hezbollah may become short of weapons and supplies. Normal supply lines from Syria have already been cut and Hezbollah has no facilities capable of producing arms or ammunition.

Israel has never been able to get the upper hand in the intelligence war with Hezbollah. Hezbollah's military wing is not easily penetrated by outsiders, but has had great success in intelligence operations against Israel. Nearly the entire Shiite population of south Lebanon acts as eyes and ears for the fighters, so it is little surprise that Israel initially concentrated on eliminating regional communications systems and forcing the local population from their homes in the border region.

Israel's air strikes have revealed the limitations of conventional air power in coping with mobile forces with little in the way of fixed installations or strategic targets. The 18-year war against the Israeli occupation (1982-2000) has, on the other hand, given Hezbollah an intimate knowledge of Israeli tactics. While some 3,000-4,000 Israeli Air Force air-raids in the last few weeks have killed hundreds of civilians, Hezbollah admits to only a few dozen of its own fighters killed (although Israel claims it has killed 300 Hezbollah fighters).

According to Ali Fayyad, a member of Hezbollah's Central Council, the movement's strategy is "not to reveal all its cards, to impose its own pace in fighting the war and to prepare for a long war" (Bloomberg, July 27).

http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/...icleid=2370089

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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...613_hez03.html


3 weeks in, Hezbollah surprises with its might
By The Associated Press and The Washington Post


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CAIRO, Egypt — Hezbollah has fired rockets as far as the West Bank, knocked out Israeli tanks and damaged a warship — and had plenty of time to booby-trap all of southern Lebanon. It is hardly a typical guerrilla group, equipped only with bravado and AK-47 assault rifles.

Three weeks into its war with Israel, Hezbollah has retained its presence in southern Lebanon, and its ability to keep firing rockets has been a source of surprise and dismay to Israeli commanders, officials and the public.

In addition, Hezbollah's use of relatively advanced weapons and the variety of its armaments have surprised U.S. military experts, according to current and former officials involved in Middle East policy.

The group has gained attributes more often associated with a national military — fixed training bases, rocket-launching facilities, well-trained artillerymen — than with a guerrilla or terrorist group, they said.

"The analysis around here is they have more expertise than the Lebanese military," said one senior U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The militant group has proved elusive to Israeli commanders. Communication is by walkie-talkies, always in code, and sometimes messages are delivered by motorcycle. Weapons are in place across a terrain fighters say they know intimately.

"On the ground, face to face, we're better fighters than the Israelis," said Hajj Abu Mohammed, 44, a bearded Hezbollah militiaman in the village of Srifa, whose walkie-talkie crackled and cellphone rang with a Hezbollah anthem.

Key developments in Mideast conflict



Hezbollah fired more than 230 rockets into Israel Wednesday, killing one Israeli and wounding 123.

Two of those rockets fell in the West Bank about 42 miles south of the Lebanese frontier, the deepest such strike to date.

Israel pursued Hezbollah guerrillas into Lebanon with 8,000 soldiers on the ground and with heavy bombing.

The United Nations said it would again postpone a meeting of nations that could contribute troops to help stabilize south Lebanon, saying it was premature to talk about deploying peacekeepers before imposing a plan for peace between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanon's acting foreign minister, Tarek Mitri, said he doubted his government would agree to invite in a European-led force, citing fierce opposition from Hezbollah and its key foreign backers, Syria and Iran.

The U.N. World Food Program said Israel had agreed to permit two oil tankers to sail into Lebanese ports to ease a growing fuel crisis.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel will fight until international force reaches south Lebanon.

Israel renewed airstrikes against Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut's outskirts today. Witnesses said at least four explosions reverberated after missiles hit Dahieh, a Shiite Muslim suburb.

Reuters, The Washington Post and The Associated Press
Israel has claimed to have destroyed Hezbollah's infrastructure in a campaign that has driven hundreds of thousands from their homes in Lebanon and wrecked village after village along valleys sometimes charred by fires.

Hezbollah admits having suffered losses, but so far, it has demonstrated the fruits of its detailed planning since the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000.

The group has had six years to ready its defenses, set deadly traps and store munitions in tunnels and bunkers hewn into the rocky, mountainous terrain of southern Lebanon.

It also had time to get "some good tough training" and fill its ranks with fighters who are "not just hoods picked up off the streets of Gaza City," said Robin Hughes of Jane's Defence Weekly.

Hezbollah fighters appear to exercise a great deal of autonomy, a flexibility evident along the region's back roads: ammunition loaded in cars, trucks in camouflage, rocket launchers tucked in banana plantations.

Fighters and supporters suggest time is their friend in a war many suspect won't have a conclusive end.

"We are waiting," said Jamal Nasser, a Hezbollah fighter in the southern Lebanese village of Juwaya. "We are here, and we're not going anywhere."

Already, Hezbollah has proved more formidable than Hamas, the Palestinian militant group. In eight days of fighting in the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbail, Israel lost 18 soldiers, its heaviest casualties since the conflict began in Lebanon. Israel withdrew, saying it never intended to capture it. "The engagement with Hezbollah will be different than the type of stuff the Israelis have met with Hamas; it's a different type of animal," Hughes said by telephone from London.

Other experts cited the importance of the fighters' will; even Lebanese critics remark on the devotion of the Hezbollah fighters.

"The most important element about this war is its moral dimension. Hezbollah has prepared itself for this war, its fighters have been indoctrinated to fight until victory," said Nizar Abdel Kader, a military analyst and retired Lebanese army general.

"This type of indoctrination creates a mood of competition among fighters: competition over bravery, over performance and over who is going to be a martyr first," he said. "This is a key element to combat performance."

In addition to fighting skills, Hezbollah has a system for resupplying fighters at the front, missiles to hit targets in Israel, tanks in Lebanon and communications sophisticated enough to monitor some Israeli military communications, Hughes and others said.

It also benefits from the fact the fighting, so far, has been the type where "guerrillas have the advantage," said Bruce Hoffman, a counterinsurgency expert at Washington's RAND Corp.

"They know the area, they've had the opportunity to lay traps and ambushes," he said. "There's no way [for Israel] to do it except to root forces out on the ground. And it certainly can be done, but there's going to be a lot of bloodshed."

Israeli forces were doing that Wednesday: going from village to village clearing them of guerrillas. Hezbollah was putting up resistance, but Israeli officials said they were confident they would reach positions four miles into Lebanon by today.

In response, Hezbollah fired a record number of more than 230 rockets into Israel, pushing its total to more than 2,000. Two of those missiles hit Beit Shean and the nearby West Bank, about 42 miles from the Lebanon border, in the deepest strike so far.

"Our missile capacity is still untouched," Mahmoud Qamati, deputy head of Hezbollah's political bureau, said Wednesday in Beirut. "It is sufficient at two levels, in quantity for the missiles they know of, and in quality for those they still don't know about — the type or the range." He added, "We have enough missiles for months."

Hezbollah is believed to have 500 to 600 highly trained fighters, with about five times that many available in reserve, said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a Washington think tank. Like any guerrilla army, it can also draw fighters from the civilian population.

The group doesn't have much in terms of heavy weapons such as artillery, but it does have a significant rocket arsenal. Also, before the war, it was believed to have a 12,000 to 13,000 missile stockpile, Pike said, though there is debate about how many are left.

Yet Hezbollah's most important hardware could be a variety of anti-tank weapons, potentially crucial if Israel uses previously successful strategies of encircling pockets of resistance with armor before wiping them out, Hughes said.

Hezbollah also has the Russian-designed RPG-29 anti-tank grenade launcher, which can fire a projectile capable of penetrating the newest and most sophisticated Israeli armor, he said. Most of Hezbollah's equipment is believed to have been supplied by Syria and Iran, with Iran also providing training through its Revolutionary Guards, Hughes and others said. Iran denies providing either.

Israel can probably defeat Hezbollah, many analysts said. But it may have to be flexible, something past battles have shown it does well.

"If there's one military in the world that's especially adept at learning and adapting and adjusting to the situation as it presents itself, it's the Israeli Defense Force," Hoffman said.

He pointed to the large-scale operation it conducted in the West Bank towns of Jenin and Nablus in 2002.

"Initially the Israelis experienced frustrations there as well, but they adapted and adjusted and used very innovative small-unit approaches," he said.

Material from the Los Angeles Times is included in this report.

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http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/stor...22&p=y9yx7x4z8

Israeli forces fight with Hezbollah guerrillas
03/08/2006 - 18:53:34

Hezbollah rocket strikes killed seven people in northern Israel today, while the guerrillas killed three Israeli soldiers and claimed they knocked out two tanks in fierce fighting in southern Lebanon.

Israel said troops killed four Hezbollah fighters in ground battles, as Israeli war planes renewed attacks on Beirut and killed three in a missile attack on a border village.

Meanwhile, in a report on the devastating Israeli attack on Sunday on the village of Qana, New York-based Human Rights Watch said its re-examination of showed 28 people had died, half the number initially reported by Lebanese organisations. Thirteen were still missing.

Officials in the Lebanese Red Cross and Civil Defence Corps reached the same conclusion – that only 28 people died. George Kitane, head of Lebanese Red Cross paramedics, said 19 children were among the dead.

Three weeks into the conflict, six Israeli brigades – or roughly 10,000 troops - were in south Lebanon locked in fighting with hundreds of Hezbollah guerrillas, and the battle looked likely to be bitter and long.

Although diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting have thus far faltered, diplomats said the United States and France were working on two UN resolutions to overcome the impasse.

The first resolution would call for an immediate cease-fire and lay out political principles for a long-term settlement of the dispute, while the second would deal with deploying an international force to secure the border between Lebanon and Israel and other long-term issues.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II, a key