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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Ferocity of Hezbollah comes as a surprise |
| 2006-07-25 |
| THE full extent of Hezbollah’s resistance to Israeli ground troops in Lebanon emerged yesterday as returning soldiers and senior commanders admitted they were taken by surprise by the Shia group’s ferocity. At the same time, a Hezbollah leader has made the startling admission that the group had underestimated Israel’s response to the kidnapping of its two soldiers. “The truth is we didn’t expect this response . . . that (Israel) would exploit this operation for this big war against us,” said Mahmoud Komati, the deputy chief of the Hezbollah politburo. As they munched watermelon yesterday, sweating Israeli soldiers were visibly shocked by the stiff opposition they had encountered, describing their Hezbollah opponents as a “guerrilla army” with landmines and anti-tank missiles capable of crippling a Merkavah battle tank. “It was really scary. Most of our armoured personnel carriers have holes,” a paramedic told The Times after recovering three wounded tank soldiers. “It’s a very hard situation. We were in Lebanon before but it wasn’t like this for a long time.” A tank commander said: “It’s a real war.” In the Galilee town of Safed, Brigadier-General Shuki Shachar, deputy commander of the northern forces, conceded that the foe was not an easy one. “Hezbollah is a fanatical organisation. It is highly motivated to fight. I don’t want to give grades to the enemy, but they are fighting. They are not escaping,” he said. He insisted, however, that Israel was “changing the balance” after a belated recognition that the Shia group was dug in deeper than expected. “After a few days we realised that Hezbollah prepared itself over the last six years with thousands of rockets, with hundreds of shelters, bunkers, with hundreds of rockets hid in houses of civilians inside south Lebanon,” he said. His forces had never intended to “conquer every square inch” of Bint Jbeil but had now achieved their objectives of taking the high ground. Wherever the Israel Defence Forces decided to act, the general said, “we have no problem to do so, no restrictions”. ISRAEL’S TALLY In 14 days: 4 villages captured by Israel 40,000 shells have been fired 2,750 rockets and mortar fired into Israel 17 civilians killed 24 soldiers killed 381 Lebanese killed 75 soldiers injured |
| Posted by:Nimble Spemble |
| #14 I would have thought Israel would have plenty of commandos etc. in the mix. If it's OK to say publicly, are they? Certainly they're not all sitting at home watching this on TV. Are they in Gaza or the West Bank? I can imagine a fair amount of green troops there, but not too many. |
| Posted by: gorb 2006-07-25 23:04 |
| #13 BS! Hizbollah prepared for encirclement-battles, similar to Soviet reaction to 1941 Nazi blitz. The IDF have technological means to discover tunnel-bunkered terrorists, that were not available to American troops during the Pacific War. So-called "fierce" resistance only occured before the IDF took the high ground. |
| Posted by: Griper Whegum8464 2006-07-25 22:23 |
| #12 Napolean said that the best battle plan lasted until you met the enemy. There are always surprises. Israel is not as prepared as it would have been if it had started this fight, but it has the ability to adapt and win. |
| Posted by: DoDo 2006-07-25 22:01 |
| #11 Fresh-scrubbed kids. First taste of combat is "Holy Shit!" The "really scary" thing. Lasts for a week or so. Funny thing is, missing sleep seems to start the process of taking it in stride. A month later, you barely register the things that scared you on day one. As someone noted, the kids telling the MSM this juicy stuff aren't the hardened vets who've been dealing with Gaza and the West Bank. They'd yawn and tell the reporter to move away from their position. |
| Posted by: Champ Angeger5024 2006-07-25 21:11 |
| #10 I started to notice that kind of thing when my oldest got to highschool. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-07-25 21:01 |
| #9 I've seen at least 10 of the Israeli troops who are in the ground push interviewed. What's most striking is that none of them looked to be even 20 yrs old. Most of them were working at the Golden Sheckel Pizza Parlor last week. |
| Posted by: cruiser 2006-07-25 20:56 |
| #8 "This is starting to bug me. It wasn't unknown to the Israelis or the world that Hezbollah had imported thousands of rockets and was getting material support from Syria and Iran. Wouldn't it be obvious that Hezbollah would be digging in?" Everyone wants to cover up their own failures. So it was only a surprise...for journalist ignorants. |
| Posted by: Clerert Uneamp2772 2006-07-25 20:45 |
| #7 Times: In the Galilee town of Safed, Brigadier-General Shuki Shachar, deputy commander of the northern forces, conceded that the foe was not an easy one. “Hezbollah is a fanatical organisation. It is highly motivated to fight. I don’t want to give grades to the enemy, but they are fighting. They are not escaping,” he said. He insisted, however, that Israel was “changing the balance” after a belated recognition that the Shia group was dug in deeper than expected. I think the Times is being disingenuous. Hezbollah's strategy is lousy. Against a superior force (weaponry, numbers, take your pick), the guerrilla's best approach is to melt into the woodwork. Standing and fighting works to the Israeli miltary's advantage. The Israelis can annihilate any artillery Hezbollah can gin up, thanks to the miracle of precision bombing, so the guerrillas will be fighting primarily with rifles and RPG's. How is that a good way to fight? |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2006-07-25 20:25 |
| #6 Yet another Iwo Jima comparison. Well, the Marines were willing to oblige the Japanese, so we can only hope that the Israelis will accommodate the Hezbollah. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-07-25 19:49 |
| #5 At the same time, a Hezbollah leader has made the startling admission that the group had underestimated Israel’s response to the kidnapping of its two soldiers. “The truth is we didn’t expect this response . . . that (Israel) would exploit this operation for this big war against us,” said Mahmoud Komati, the deputy chief of the Hezbollah politburo. Well, if it's just a little "mischief" and only a couple of soldiers, then why not just give them back then? The soldiers are as symbolic to terrorist as that particular act of kidnapping is indicative of the terrorist mindset to westerners. [Read it a couple of times and it will make sense, I hope!] This is why the soldiers won't be let go, this is why the Israelis rightly attacked, and will continue to so so, with the world's blessing, until they see evidence of a change of heart. Even the above quote shows us that nothing has changed. Perhaps they wish they hadn't done it now, but I'm sure they would do it again if they thought they could get away with it. Stomp 'em flat, Israel! Anything less and they will claim victory, and nothing will change. When they die, much of that area of the world can come out of hiding, and much of the world will be a better place. |
| Posted by: gorb 2006-07-25 19:24 |
| #4 When will the MSM stop carrying water for terrorists? Hizballah was not surprised by anything. This is exactly what they signed up for. And repeating Hizballah's propoganda just feeds into the "disproportionate" idiocy being echoed by the world's leftocracy. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2006-07-25 19:09 |
| #3 The UN never *answers* questions, they merely ask them. Similarly, the UN never *solves* problems, they merely pontificate endlessly about how all of the problems in the world are the directly to blame upon the US and Israel. |
| Posted by: Crusader 2006-07-25 19:07 |
| #2 It is not a guerrilla army it's an IRG trained religiously motavated army. Not your run of the mill 'milita' The UN let this IRG proxy group build up these fortifacations under their noses. The UN has some questions to answer having created this 'humanitarian disaster' through it's inactions. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2006-07-25 18:57 |
| #1 “After a few days we realised that Hezbollah prepared itself over the last six years with thousands of rockets, with hundreds of shelters, bunkers, with hundreds of rockets hid in houses of civilians inside south Lebanon." This is starting to bug me. It wasn't unknown to the Israelis or the world that Hezbollah had imported thousands of rockets and was getting material support from Syria and Iran. Wouldn't it be obvious that Hezbollah would be digging in? |
| Posted by: Danking70 2006-07-25 18:55 |