MrWanted
08-10-2006, 08:00 PM
Hezbollah missiles rain down on tanks
From Stephen Farrell in Metulla and Ian MacKinnon in Haifa
http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,329281,00.jpg
FROM a hill overlooking the Lebanese El Marj valley yesterday we watched Israeli tanks, above, crawling across a battlefield that they have yet to secure four weeks into this bitter war.
Hezbollah anti-tank missiles screamed in from the hazy hills and smashed into a Merkava tank, leaving it crippled. The crew could be seen sprinting to a second tank beneath clouds of smoke as artillery and missile fire thundered overhead. Another incoming missile sent a cloud of sparks billowing skywards just a few feet from a third tank. Later we saw a fourth crippled tank being towed to safety.
All this was happening just a few hundred yards across the border, within sight of Israel’s red-roofed kibbutzim. Small numbers of Hezbollah fighters with Sagger and sophisticated TOW anti-tank missiles were tying down entire units of Israeli armour and infantry as they sought to advance to the villages of Khiam, Marjayoun, Taibeh and Kafr Kila.
Israel’s response to Hezbollah’s fierce resistance is a significant increase in its ground offensive.
But as the death toll mounts and Hezbollah continues to rain rockets on northern Israel — yesterday it killed a woman and her three-year-old son — Israelis are starting to show concern that their country is being sucked back into the flames of Lebanon, from which it retreated in May 2000 after previous illfated ventures.
In a front-page article in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper Nahum Barnea urged the Israeli Prime Minister: “With American support, Israel still has a chance of getting out of this war with decent accomplishments. Take what they’re offering you, Ehud Olmert.”
The liberal daily Haaretz reported an angry exchange between Amir Peretz, the Defence Minister, and his predecessor, Shaul Mofaz, who criticised the planned new offensive. Mr Peretz retorted: “Where were you when Hezbollah built up this array ?”
Concern was also expressed by Israeli soldiers, who told The Times how Hezbollah fighters were ambushing them in tanks or waiting for ground forces to enter “deserted” villages, then opening up.
Across the border from Aita al-Shaab, one soldier said: “There are a lot more missiles than we expected and a lot more Hezbollah left. They are shooting from everywhere.”
In Rambam hospital in Haifa, Captain Hanoch Daubi told how rocket-propelled grenades had slammed into his tank near Bint Jbeil on Tuesday, wounding him and the driver as they tried to rescue two fatally injured comrades.
“When we got down in the town there was a firestorm of shooting,” said the 26-year-old company commander, his face badly burnt and leg swathed in bandages.
“These guys fight just the way guerrillas would. They use civilian houses for cover and pop up firing from the windows. They don’t wear uniforms but they are well organised and fight in small groups with determination.”
That same afternoon in the village of Atira, north of Bint Jbeil, Captain Ari Dagan, a 26-year-old paratrooper, was hit in the leg in an ambush. “Hezbollah waited for us to walk into the town. It was deserted. But as soon as we got inside they attacked. It’s extremely difficult for us to distinguish between civilians and the fighters,” he said.
Despite everything, the Israeli troops remain confident. “The fighting is very hard but the soldiers on the ground feel that we are winning,” said Omri Shachar, a 22-year-old paratroop officer recovering from a leg wound in Ziv hospital in Safed.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2307810,00.html
From Stephen Farrell in Metulla and Ian MacKinnon in Haifa
http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,329281,00.jpg
FROM a hill overlooking the Lebanese El Marj valley yesterday we watched Israeli tanks, above, crawling across a battlefield that they have yet to secure four weeks into this bitter war.
Hezbollah anti-tank missiles screamed in from the hazy hills and smashed into a Merkava tank, leaving it crippled. The crew could be seen sprinting to a second tank beneath clouds of smoke as artillery and missile fire thundered overhead. Another incoming missile sent a cloud of sparks billowing skywards just a few feet from a third tank. Later we saw a fourth crippled tank being towed to safety.
All this was happening just a few hundred yards across the border, within sight of Israel’s red-roofed kibbutzim. Small numbers of Hezbollah fighters with Sagger and sophisticated TOW anti-tank missiles were tying down entire units of Israeli armour and infantry as they sought to advance to the villages of Khiam, Marjayoun, Taibeh and Kafr Kila.
Israel’s response to Hezbollah’s fierce resistance is a significant increase in its ground offensive.
But as the death toll mounts and Hezbollah continues to rain rockets on northern Israel — yesterday it killed a woman and her three-year-old son — Israelis are starting to show concern that their country is being sucked back into the flames of Lebanon, from which it retreated in May 2000 after previous illfated ventures.
In a front-page article in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper Nahum Barnea urged the Israeli Prime Minister: “With American support, Israel still has a chance of getting out of this war with decent accomplishments. Take what they’re offering you, Ehud Olmert.”
The liberal daily Haaretz reported an angry exchange between Amir Peretz, the Defence Minister, and his predecessor, Shaul Mofaz, who criticised the planned new offensive. Mr Peretz retorted: “Where were you when Hezbollah built up this array ?”
Concern was also expressed by Israeli soldiers, who told The Times how Hezbollah fighters were ambushing them in tanks or waiting for ground forces to enter “deserted” villages, then opening up.
Across the border from Aita al-Shaab, one soldier said: “There are a lot more missiles than we expected and a lot more Hezbollah left. They are shooting from everywhere.”
In Rambam hospital in Haifa, Captain Hanoch Daubi told how rocket-propelled grenades had slammed into his tank near Bint Jbeil on Tuesday, wounding him and the driver as they tried to rescue two fatally injured comrades.
“When we got down in the town there was a firestorm of shooting,” said the 26-year-old company commander, his face badly burnt and leg swathed in bandages.
“These guys fight just the way guerrillas would. They use civilian houses for cover and pop up firing from the windows. They don’t wear uniforms but they are well organised and fight in small groups with determination.”
That same afternoon in the village of Atira, north of Bint Jbeil, Captain Ari Dagan, a 26-year-old paratrooper, was hit in the leg in an ambush. “Hezbollah waited for us to walk into the town. It was deserted. But as soon as we got inside they attacked. It’s extremely difficult for us to distinguish between civilians and the fighters,” he said.
Despite everything, the Israeli troops remain confident. “The fighting is very hard but the soldiers on the ground feel that we are winning,” said Omri Shachar, a 22-year-old paratroop officer recovering from a leg wound in Ziv hospital in Safed.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2307810,00.html