Posted on 08/04/2006 7:02:46 PM PDT by blam
Missiles neutralizing Israeli tanks
By BENJAMIN HARVEY, Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM - Hezbollah's sophisticated anti-tank missiles are perhaps the guerrilla group's deadliest weapon in Lebanon fighting, with their ability to pierce Israel's most advanced tanks.
Experts say this is further evidence that Israel is facing a well-equipped army in this war, not a ragtag militia.
Hezbollah has fired Russian-made Metis-M anti-tank missiles and owns European-made Milan missiles, the army confirmed on Friday.
In the last two days alone, these missiles have killed seven soldiers and damaged three Israeli-made Merkava tanks — mountains of steel that are vaunted as symbols of Israel's military might, the army said. Israeli media say most of the 44 soldiers killed in four weeks of fighting were hit by anti-tank missiles.
"They (Hezbollah guerrillas) have some of the most advanced anti-tank missiles in the world," said Yossi Kuperwasser, a senior military intelligence officer who retired earlier this summer.
"This is not a militia, it's an infantry brigade with all the support units," Kuperwasser said.
Israel contends that Hezbollah gets almost all of its weaponry from Syria and by extension Iran, including its anti-tank missiles.
That's why cutting off the supply chain is essential — and why fighting Hezbollah after it has spent six years building up its arsenal is proving so painful to Israel, officials say.
Israel's Merkava tanks boast massive amounts of armor and lumber and resemble fortresses on tracks. They are built for crew survival, according to Globalsecurity.org, a Washington-based military think tank.
Hezbollah celebrates when it destroys one.
"A Zionist armored force tried to advance toward the village of Chihine. The holy warriors confronted it and destroyed two Merkava tanks," the group proclaimed on television Thursday.
The Israeli army confirmed two attacks on Merkava tanks that day — one that killed three soldiers and the other killing one. The three soldiers who were killed on Friday were also killed by anti-tank missiles, the army said.
It would not say whether the missiles disabled the tanks.
"To the best of my understanding, they (Hezbollah) are as well-equipped as any standing unit in the Syrian or Iranian armies," said Eran Lerman, a retired army colonel and now director of the Israel/Middle East office of the American Jewish Committee. "This is not a rat-pack guerrilla, this is an organized militia."
Besides the anti-tank missiles, Hezbollah is also known to have a powerful rocket-propelled grenade known as the RPG29. These weapons are also smuggled through Syria, an Israeli security official said, and were previously used by Palestinian militants in Gaza to damage tanks.
On Friday, Jane's Defense Weekly, a defense industry magazine, reported that Hezbollah asked Iran for "a constant supply of weapons" to support its operations against Israel.
The report cited Western diplomatic sources as saying that Iranian authorities promised Hezbollah a steady supply of weapons "for the next stage of the confrontation."
Top Israeli intelligence officials say they have seen Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers on the ground with Hezbollah troops. They say that permission to fire Hezbollah's longer-range missiles, such as those could reach Tel Aviv, would likely require Iranian go-ahead.
Soon Syria would start to smell like Port Au Prince in Haiti..
As disgusting an ordor as you can imagine..
Considering how well the IDF is crushing these insects, this is good information to know in case the war expands to bring those powers in.
You have a better chance seeing a Democrat pledge allegiance to our Flag than realizing your proposal.
Iran and Syria are fighting a proxy war here.... If they are getting to the Merkavas that is bad news... those are some of the toughtest tanks in the world.
To neutralize: to counteract the activity or effect of; make ineffective.
When the IAF killed everything the Syrians sent into the air, some 86 MIGs, IIRC, over the Becka valley, that neutralized the Syrian air force. Killing or damaging the occasional tank means you have a weapon that works if you live long enough to use it. But since at a minimum Israel has several hundred tanks in the fight, killing five to ten of them is not neutralizing that tank force.
Excellent question. With the setbacks in Iraq, it will be later than sooner.
And I am convinced that Iran was W's ultimate goal. W name Iran as part of the Axis of Evil, and we now have have Iran mostly surrounded.
Did I miss the memo?
Well?, Aren't they (the Liberals / MSM) Terrorists' most loyal followers? ...they're stupid enough.
could be.......
That's so true....Its' very easy to spout "mean words" and / or "rattle the swords" when you think, your foe can't reach you.
Just what I was thinking, didn't the UN see anything in all the years they've been there ? Didn't their commanders require reports ?
It would be great if the IDF captured some Iranians & Syrians to show off.
Deploy the fuel/air munitions.Hard to launch an anti-tank weapon when you have no oxygen to breath.
hezbollah somehow got american made TOW missiles....the IDF released video of weapons siezed in soutb leb..and the found some TOWS...
Break out the napalm. Bring the troops home and burn a swatch twenty miles wide clear across the bottom of Lebanon. Step in and occupy that zone and declare it Israeli territory. If the war doesn't stop take out another five miles and occupy that.
When all of Lebanon is Israeli territory, and that doesn't solve the problem, start moving east. Chop off Syria ten miles at a time until the Musies get get picture.
If they don't burn the whole friggen nation to the ground.
At some point, the Muslims are going to get knowledge, or those who value their land will pick up arms and butcher those who continually wage war against Israel. One way or the other, hopefully with the least amount of scorched earth, this has got to end.
It's time for Israel to go postal.
Hexbollah's hurt, but crushed, not yet, and if the Euros and Russia have their way not ever as the push for a cease fire grows.
One serious problem for the IDF is sustainability.Can a militia army of a small nation sustain a war over a long period of time. This is perhaps the first time since they shoved Hussein's Jordanians out of the West Bank that the IDF has faced a well trained and motivated opponent. Hussein's bedouins fought by the rules as soldiers, it will be far more difficult to root out Hezbollah who see a civilian as a shield.
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