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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Israel briefly sends ground forces into Lebanon |
| 2006-07-17 |
| Israeli ground troops entered southern Lebanon to attack Hezbollah bases on the border, a government spokesman said Monday, but rapidly returned to Israel after conducting their military operations. Israel's six-day-old offensive against Hezbollah following the capture of two Israeli soldiers has been primarily an aerial campaign, but government spokesman, Asaf Shariv, said the Israeli army chief of staff confirmed that ground troops had gone into Lebanon, if only briefly. A military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said that a small group of Israeli troops had crossed into Lebanon overnight to attack a Hezbollah position, but then returned to Israel. "There was a small operation in a very limited area overnight," the source said. "That is over." Israel has been reluctant to send ground troops into southern Lebanon, an area that officials say has been heavily mined by Hezbollah and could lead to many Israeli casualties. Israel would also want to quickly withdraw from the area, rather than get involved in a prolonged conflict like its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in May 2000. The bloody nature of the fighting at the that time and the high number of casualties finally forced the government to cave into public pressure to withdraw from southern Lebanon and end the contentious occupation. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #18 Israel MUST invade on the ground, and stay there until they kill every last Hezzie. Barring that, we'll see them back, same Bat Time, same Bat Channel. |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2006-07-17 22:06 |
| #17 I've received a Stratfor freebie about this, won't post it here, given the high esteem Stratfor is held in by regulars, but here is the money quote final paragraph : Therefore, it follows that the most likely explanation for the delay in a ground assault is that the Israelis are going to take some more time in deploying their forces at the border, allow the air campaign to continue for another day or two, accept the civilian casualties from Hezbollah's rockets and strike back some time this week. But with those rockets coming in, they don't have that many days to wait. Israel's government is not fractious. There is no sense of unease about the situation. Therefore, we have to stay with the view that a broader ground attack is likely early this week. Not a very hard to make analysis, I'd venture. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-07-17 14:48 |
| #16 At least it was, 6, until those dastardly Jooooos shelled the area, lol! I fully expect the links on the side of this page to be to "Nice relaxing vacation in Beirut" by the end of the day, lol. |
| Posted by: BA 2006-07-17 14:45 |
| #15 Bet you're correct 2x4. Nice rolling countryside. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-07-17 12:50 |
| #14 I bet that Syrian border with Lebanon, say about 30 miles up north, is not mined. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2006-07-17 11:35 |
| #13 Major LOLs, LotR and wxj! Thanks. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2006-07-17 11:07 |
| #12 Laurence, I like your thinking. Minefields are perfect for prisoner transfers. We can start the ball rolling with a few Gitmo volunteers. Gunny Highway says ' Ya gotta ask yourself, Is Allan with me today ? Do I feel lucky ? Well, do ya, punk ? |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-07-17 10:42 |
| #11 Lotp, I think right now the airforce is the best approach. I think after a couple of weeks of ponding from the air we may also see some very limited surgical ground action (I even guess some Commando actions have been done before and are occuring right now- but these are of the Shu-Shu type). The Only chance for massive ground action I see is if substantial syrian or iranian forces cross the border into lebanon, or if the amount and type of new weapons smuggled to the Hizzbies exceeds a critical amount. Its better for everyone that the lebanese army soldiers will die pushing the shiites out of the south, rather than our own soldiers. |
| Posted by: Elder of Zion 2006-07-17 09:22 |
| #10 Sometimes the simplest solutions work the best, LotR. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-07-17 09:14 |
| #9 Mines? Well Hiz. wants all their terrorist buddies released from Israeli jails. Seems like a good chance to do so. Line'em up and march 'em north to clear the mines. |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2006-07-17 09:11 |
| #8 First reccon and probe. "Heavily mined" and so were approaches in Kuwait and Iraq. Only a miiltary problem if they have covering fire to suppress the breaching. |
| Posted by: Thomoque Glaque5388 2006-07-17 09:11 |
| #7 lotp- "The area is heavily mined" Yeah, that's what I meant when I wished for a back-door approach. |
| Posted by: glenmore 2006-07-17 08:45 |
| #6 I wouldn't be surprised to see Israel run feints like this for several days to test Hiz reactions and wear them out. I still doubt Israel goes in. It's what Hiz wants. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-07-17 08:44 |
| #5 Ahh shoot. The breaking headline made it sound like the start of something big. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-07-17 08:33 |
| #4 What I'd like to see is a ground attack similar to Sherman's march across Georgia. The area is heavily mined - one reason Israel would prefer to avoid a ground assault if possible. As I recall, they took heavy casualties entering Lebanon last time around, many from mines. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-07-17 08:32 |
| #3 What I'd like to see is a ground attack similar to Sherman's march across Georgia. Holding territory is not productive; just blast through and destroy anything of value to the enemy. I'm thinking Hezballah has anticipated an Israeli ground invasion for years, and seems to have lit this match in order to CAUSE such an invasion, so thinks they are prepared to make it very costly to Israel (and they may be right.) If Israel has any kind of amphibious landing capability perhaps they will try an Inchon move near Sidon to allow them to do their Sherman march at the back side of the Hezballah border defenders. |
| Posted by: glenmore 2006-07-17 08:07 |
| #2 Fox News reports IDF denies ground assault. |
| Posted by: Charles 2006-07-17 07:43 |
| #1 Sssh! It's a surprise |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-07-17 07:40 |