IDF using bunker busters
An IDF officer estimated tonight that about 25 percent of Hizbullah's capabilities have been destroyed, but the group's chain of command is still functioning. He estimated that Hezbullah would not be annihilated when the dust settles, only severely damaged. Too bad.The officer predicted that the operation would end sometime during the middle of next week.
The Jerusalem Post is reporting that the IDF mobilized a reserve infantry division in preparation for a possible ground incursion into south Lebanon today. The goal would be to push Katyusha rocket launching cells away from the Israel-Lebanon border.
The division was setting up command posts along the northern border, while tanks and armored personnel carriers were being transported northward.
A senior IAF officer revealed to the Post on Sunday afternoon that the IDF is using bunker-buster bombs to strike at senior Hizbullah officials in hiding throughout Beirut and Lebanon. According to the officer, several of the bunker hideouts were hidden under civilian parking lots.
The officer also said that the air force had encountered some resistance, and that anti-aircraft shells have been fired at IAF aircraft.
Since the Lebanon operation began, the IAF has launched close to 2,000 sorties over Lebanon. According to the officer, the strikes were conducted under the assumption that the Hizbullah had and would use shoulder-mounted surface-to-air missiles.
Overnight strikes in northern Lebanon near Tyre on Saturday night killed several senior Hizbullah officials. The Post is also reporting that the IDF destroyed five long-range rocket launchers in southern Lebanon on Sunday, some of which were used to fire rockets at northern Israel over the past few days, including at Haifa.
Here's more from the JPost, with comments:
Meanwhile, Al-Arabiya television reported that the Syrian military was mobilizing its own reserve divisions.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz insisted on Sunday afternoon that the IDF was not going to invade south Lebanon as yet.
While Katyusha rockets continued to rain down on northern Israel, the IDF pounded Lebanon on Sunday for the fifth straight day.
On Sunday afternoon, the army called on the residents of south Lebanon to leave. Shortly thereafter, the IAF succeeded in hitting arms warehouses in southern Lebanon, as well as 20 mobile Katyusha launching crews in the area. Since Sunday morning, dozens of launchers have been targeted.
The IDF noted that it was largely focusing on destroying the rocket-launching crews, in order to prevent further bombardments of Israel's northern residents.
Meanwhile, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, a pro-Syrian close ally of Hizbullah [who sounds awfully scared. CiJ], said that Israel's bloody assault could push desperate Lebanese citizens to sacrifice their lives to defend their country - and even commit acts of terrorism.
He added, however, that the Lebanese "will not surrender," and pleaded for the UN Security Council to "stop violence and arrange a cease-fire" so discussions could take place. [Let's hope the UN is not stupid enough to let them save face. CiJ]
Lahoud also accused the Security Council of delaying intervention to stop Israel's military operation, thereby giving them extra time to make Lebanon surrender to its conditions.
Lebanon's Cabinet issued a statement Sunday saying the country faces "real annihilation" by Israel. [I hope they'll remember this when it's over and really make the effort to control Hezbullah's activities in South Lebanon. CiJ]
"We are facing a real annihilation carried out by Israel," Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said after an emergency cabinet meeting.
So far, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed 130 people. [And they call that 'annihilation'? They're lucky they have a humane enemy. CiJ]
Earlier in the day, the IAF bombed the building in Beirut from which the Hizbullah-run television station, Al-Manar, is broadcast.
The station went off the air for a short while after the airstrike but then resumed broadcasting about six minutes later. The station is Hizbullah's main communications link, and most of the information the world has received from the group about recent fighting has been issued by Al-Manar.
It was the fourth time in recent days that the IDF has targeted the building. [Why don't they try a bunker buster on it? CiJ]
Before the Al-Manar strike, an IDF attack on Hizbullah's main headquarters in southern Beirut destroyed the compound and sprouted new rumors that Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah was wounded in the strike.
Hizbullah promptly denied any such rumor.
Two major explosions echoed from the Haret Hreik neighborhood and reverberated across Beirut after the strike. IAF planes returned about 20 minutes later and struck the southern suburbs again. Witnesses said it was the same neighborhood that houses Hizbullah headquarters, and which has been hit several times over the past three days.
Al-Manar said that a bridge linking the al-Hazmiyah district to the road that leads to the airport, south of the capital, was also targeted in what were the heaviest raids since Israel launched its offensive on Wednesday.
On Saturday evening, Israel destroyed all the radar stations along the Lebanese coast, the IDF said.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:52 PM
2 Comments:
time is ripe, shoot anything that has a rifle in it's vermon-like hands...
bust up and punish the hezbollah in every way shape and form, destroy any and all vehicles and trucks that are parked...
there MUST be a penalty for shooting at jews...
Your gathering of timely and critical information is excellent, Carl. Thank you much.
-Jeremayakovka
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