Hezbollah Proves a Formidable Foe

[bemildred]

JERUSALEM, July 26 -- After weeks of aerial bombardment and artillery fire, Israel's army finds itself in a bruising ground war just across its border against an opponent employing the classic tactics of guerrilla warfare. And so far, say soldiers, commanders and military analysts, Hezbollah has proved a more formidable force by orders of magnitude than the armed Palestinian groups in the territories.

Hezbollah gunmen killed nine Israeli soldiers and wounded 27 others Wednesday in clashes in a pair of towns two miles into southern Lebanon, the highest daily death toll for Israel's army in the 15-day war. The Hezbollah ambush inside Bint Jbeil, a town Israeli military officials said the previous day that they had seized, was at times so intense that Israeli soldiers were pinned down and could not return fire.

But Israeli military officials say they have not been surprised by Hezbollah's prowess in the cramped towns and hilly, forested terrain that the Shiite Muslim militia has controlled since Israel left southern Lebanon six years ago. Instead, many of them say, losses such as these expose the limits of a modern national army pitted against a well-schooled guerrilla force fighting amid a civilian population that largely supports its goals.

"When it comes to this kind of urban warfare, it has been like this throughout history," said Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, a member of Israel's general staff. "It is the most difficult kind of warfare ever."

WaPo

[AlamoDemoc]

1. Hezbollah will never go away no matter how many peace troops deployed

..used, or how many bombs used against them. That is the reality.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bemildred]

3. As the shells fall around them, Hizbullah men await the Israelis

"Patience is our main virtue, we can wait for days, weeks, months before we attack. The Israelis are always impatient in battle and in strategy," says the cleric, Sayed Ali, who claims to be a descendant of the prophet. "I know them very well."

As if to make his point, the sound of Israeli shells blasting the surrounding hills shakes the door and shutters every few minutes. Ali does know the Israelis. He started fighting them at the age of 17 when they invaded Lebanon in 1982. Three years later he was arrested with two of his comrades and spent a few months in an Israeli prison. Within weeks of his release he was fighting them again.That's what he did for the next six years.

For the last five years he has been finishing his theology studies in Tehran. A month ago, he was asked by Hizbullah to return to southern Lebanon. He arrived a week before the fighting began.

Standing at the window, he points to the banana plantations between us and the blue Mediterranean. "I have fought for years in these groves. We used to sit and wait for them to make a move and then we would hit. They always moved too quickly, too soon."

Guardian UK

[blonndee]

4. Islam is NOT a "death cult."

I suggest you take your bigotry elsewhere.