| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iranian weapons left behind by Hezbollah |
| 2006-08-16 |
| ADVANCED weapons supplied by Syria and Iran have been uncovered by Israeli forces in abandoned Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, helping account for how the guerilla force defied the might of the Israeli armed forces in the month-long war. London's Daily Telegraph reported yesterday the weapons were found outside the town of Ghandouriyeh, east of Tyre, after 24 Israeli soldiers were killed pushing Hezbollah fighters from the strategic hilltop town in one of the fiercest confrontations of the war. Outside one of the town's two mosques a van was found filled with green casings about 6ft long. The serial numbers identified them as AT-5 Spandrel anti-tank missiles, the report said. The wire-guided weapon was developed in Russia but Iran began making a copy in 2000. In the east of the village, the paper found evidence of Syrian-supplied hardware. In a garden lay eight Kornet anti-tank rockets, described by Brig Mickey Edelstein, the commander of the Nahal troops who took Ghandouriyeh, as "some of the best in the world". Written underneath a contract number on each casing were the words: "Customer: Ministry of Defence of Syria. Supplier: KBP, Tula, Russia," the paper said. Brigadier Edelstein told the Telegraph: "If they tell you that Syria knew nothing about this, just look. This is the evidence. Proof, not just talk." Sophisticated anti-tank weapons like those found by the Israeli troops accounted for the bulk of Israeli military casualties in Lebanon. The weapons were not just used against Israel's heavily armored Merkava tanks, disabling dozens, but against buildings in which Israeli troops had taken up positions, often bringing the structure down on them. The Kornet is laser-guided and can hit a target 5km away. Its double warhead is capable of penetrating the reactive armour on most of Israel's advanced tanks. Israeli officers told the paper that Hezbollah fighters had received thorough training in Iran in use of the weapons and had wielded them efficiently. The discovery of the origin of the weapons proved to the Israelis that their enemy was not a ragged and lightly armed militia but a semi-professional army equipped by Syria and Iran to take on Israel, the report said. The overall ceasefire between Israel and the Shia militia continued to hold yesterday despite four separate shooting incidents in south Lebanon in which seven Hezbollah fighters were killed and five Israeli soldiers wounded. Several mortar rounds were fired by Hezbollah without causing injuries. With the cessation of Hezbollah rocketing, thousands of Israelis who had taken shelter in the center of the country returned to their homes in northern Israel yesterday. In the town of Kiryat Shmona, the hardest hit Israeli community, 2000 families found their apartments damaged or destroyed. The northward flow of Israelis to the border area matched the southward flow of Lebanese to their villages, likewise severely damaged, as Israeli artillery also ceased firing. A senior Israeli foreign ministry official, reacting to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's declaration that he wound not disarm Hezbollah, even in south Lebanon, said that Nasrallah was obliged to honour the decision of the Security Council and the commitment of the Lebanese Government. "We will not tolerate the return of Hezbollah to the area," the official told Israel Radio, "and if it refuses to disarm we will have to take care of it." Israeli officials said that the tens of thousands of reservists mobilised for the campaign will begin to be demobilised this week, with 80 per cent out of uniform within a week. |
| Posted by:Oztralian |