A Katyusha rocket being launched.
Photograph by : Associated Press archive
Posted on 08/11/2006 4:51:59 PM PDT by GMMAC
Hezbollah rockets more deadly today
Michelle Stirling-Anosh, For The Calgary Herald
Published: Friday, August 11, 2006
Topography. Trajectory. Range. Power. Accuracy. These are the main reasons that Israel is trying to clean Hezbollah out of south Lebanon. The threat of Hezbollah is all based on how accurate and destructive their missiles can be.
And since most of Hezbollah's artillery are Katyushas -- a kind of giant, metal-tipped firecracker, the further away they are, the less damage they can inflict.
A Katyusha rocket being launched.
Photograph by : Associated Press archive
The territory along the south Lebanese side of the Israeli border is made up of high peaks and steep valleys, covered in thick brush.
Years ago, when Israel had a taken a "security zone" inside south Lebanon, Hezbollah was forced to fire Katyushas from far away or down in the valleys, and mostly at night.
That meant the rockets were fired into the dark, almost straight up in the air at a nominal angle, fighting gravity all the way. They didn't get very far, didn't have much power, and certainly weren't very accurate. The security zone worked then.
Although Hezbollah fired about 4,000 Katyushas into northern Israel from 1985-2000, only seven Israeli citizens died due to these rocket attacks.
The attacks were rarely even mentioned in the western media.
Israelis got used to them. I did. When I lived and worked in Israel for a decade, I often did video editing shifts through the night while hearing shells dropping on the high cliffs above Kiryat Shmona.
But once the Israeli army pulled out of Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah took those same rockets and put them on top of those mountain ranges. Suddenly, you have a different story.
Now, the trajectory is almost flat out; all the rocket power is directed to a distant point inside Israel and the full power of the shot remains with this giant bullet throughout its short trip.
The rocket is more accurate and much more destructive on impact.
Since the pullout, Hezbollah amassed about 12,000 rockets along Israel's northern border, though they did not fire them until the recent conflict. Now we see how much more accurate they are. If Israelis were not so well equipped with protected rooms and neighbourhood bomb shelters, the death toll in Israel would probably match that of Lebanon.
This is why Israel is pressing Hezbollah north again, hopefully north of the Litani River where a 275 metre-deep gorge creates an excellent natural obstacle to infiltration by heavy equipment, and where the distance renders all but the longer-range missiles ineffective. However, these long-range missiles are not like the semi-portable Katyushas. They are big, cumbersome and noticeable.
Individual Katyushas can be man-handled into place by a couple of guys and fired by unskilled terrorists; the larger, multi-stage units of 40 or more neatly fit into the back of a truck.
But the truck is obvious and can't be driven just anywhere without someone noticing. The real damaging long-range missiles need skilled military men, space and advanced equipment. This is partly why various roads were bombed by the Israelis going in.
The UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) has been a failure at keeping Hezbollah away from the border. It even helped Hezbollah in at least on e border raid against Israel.
It should have been the ones to stop this Hezbollah border raid in the first place -- but it hardly seemed to know it had happened.
The only way to keep Hezbollah at bay is for Israel to force it to keep its distance.
But Israel doesn't want to be back in Lebanon. The security zone was a success in terms of protecting citizens inside Israel; yet it was a painful wound for Israeli forces.
In the 15 years Israel held the security zone in south Lebanon, 256 soldiers died in combat; another 840 were injured.
For those who say Israel's presence in south Lebanon today is another attempt by Israel to occupy or take territory -- it's not.
It's an attempt to restore sanity and security to a sovereign, democratic nation that has been attacked by Hezbollah terrorists for two decades, a Hezbollah which is now an elected party in the Lebanese government. Michelle Stirling-Anosh is a Canadian who lived and worked in Israel for the last decade.
Statistics referenced from http://www.meforum.org/article/70
© The Calgary Herald 2006
PING!
Debka-file speculates on new hezyballah persian rockets hitting Dimona in the Negev. Deeply burried, the damage would be little but the image great for bizness-jihad-style.
Hizballah snuck in 12,000 rockets while the UN peacekeepers sat in their towers and picked their noses and played with themselves, While the Lebanese Army stood by and watched, and in violation of UN security measures.
and now Kofi wants Israel to accept another peace keeping force so that they too can sit on their asses and pickle their noses while Hezballah re-arms.
Doesn't look like any Katyusha I'm familiar with.
That looks awfully big to be a katyusha and is launched vertically, unlike katyushas. Who knows what stock photo the AP reporter used to go with his story. Anything with the AP or al-Rueters byline, I usually discount.
that's cause it's isn't one...
Zec 12:6 In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
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High Volume During IDF offensive operations!
MikeFromFR ~
There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had
spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:45)
Letter To The President In Support Of Israel ~
'Final Solution,' Phase 2 ~
Warnings ~
"The West has given more significance to the myth of the genocide of the Jews, even more significant than God, religion, and the prophets...."—Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Holocaust Chronicle ~
" ... It's time we recognized the nature of the conflict. It's total war and we are all involved. Nobody on our side is exempted because of age, gender, or handicap. The Islamofacists have stolen childhood from the world."—FReeper Retief
"Palestine is the wrong name for their State. It should be called Anarchy."—FReeper sgtbono2002
"Then let's wait and see what the Arabs do after they take Gaza. There's nothing like Arab reality to break up a Jewish fantasy."—FReeper Noachian
A student told his professor he was going to "Palestine" to "fight for freedom, peace and justice,"—Orwellian leftist code words that mean "murder Jews."
The Nature Of Bruce ~
So 1.4 soldiers per month was too steep a price for Israel to pay to prevent these rockets from being fired in the first place ? The U.S. is losing that many per day keeping the 'peace' in Iraq.
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