Hezbollah Primed and Ready for War - Intel Analysis
Hezbollah Primed and Ready for War - Intel Analysis
Thursday, 12 July 2007
Debka Says
Hezbollah Primed & Ready Again For War
Hezbollah Has 50% More Rockets Than 1 Yr Ago
Debka.com reports that Hezbollah is in better military shape today than it was a year ago. Last year, estimates put the Hezbollah rocket stockpile at 12,000 and this year the estimate ranges to 18,000 rockets. This time though, Hezbollah has a fleet of all-terrain vehicles and motorbikes with which to move around the smaller rockets in rough terrain making it more difficult for Israeli warplanes and artillery to spot and bomb such moving targets.
The latest intelligence assessment by Debka indicates that Hezbollah's newer rockets have much longer ranges and bigger explosive capabilities with the ability to reach most of Israel from launching points in Northern Lebanon. Such larger rockets are being kept in caches on the Syrian side of the Lebanese border and therefore out of the prying eyes of UN inspectors and off limits to Israeli warplane bombing runs in the event last year's war resumes and Syria remains neutral. Debka believes the larger rockets will remain in Syria until just before they are moved into Lebanon for firing.
Meanwhile the shorter rockets are stationed near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre with its command center in the small town of Maarub. These shorter range rockets are poised for strikes on northern Israeli towns and cities of Haifa, Kiryat Shemona, Tiberias, Safed, Acre and Nehanya. Their presence is well hidden and the Hezbollah forces in charge of the rockets are keeping an extremely 'low profile.' As a result, the Lebanese government and the cowardly Israeli Prime Minister Olmert conveniently choose to ignore the situation and instead claim that things are now much better and deny the rocket threat's existence. In fact, Olmert's inner circle is in public denial that Hezbollah has fully re-entrenched itself into new and better defensive positions in southern Lebanon.
It appears that Prime Minister Olmert is doing a personal rendition of the three famous monkeys - "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" and hiding their heads in the sand in the hopes that a bad situation will just go away.
Debka also reports that Hezbollah has tripled its inventory of anti-ship cruise missiles - the C-802 Silkworm Cruise Missiles. One such missile heavily damaged an Israeli warship in last summer's conflict. Now Hezbollah has three times the inventory of such missiles to somewhere between 25 to 30 with dozens more stored on the Syrian side of the Lebanese border. Each missile is capable of knocking out any sized naval warship that might be operating within 20 to 30 miles off the coast of Lebanon.
Another key difference between Hezbollah's capabilities this year and last involves air defense capabilities. Last year, Hezbollah had precious little air defense capabilities, relying primarily on small arms fire. This year, Hezbollah has sophisticated, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles including the Strela-7 and also the mobile system known as the Rapier 2s.
As for ground forces: Last year, Hezbollah boasted an elite unit of 1,600 well-trained commandos of which 750 were killed during the conflict. They have been replaced by an additional force of 1,200 well-trained replacements giving Hezbollah more than 2,000 commandoes which is the backbone of Hezbollah's defensive strength although its overall force size is thought to number as much as 10,000 tp 20,000.
In addition to all of this, Hezbollah has deployed a separate, special forces unit to Gaza to assist Hamas in any future military operations against Israel. All told, Hezbollah is ready to renew its war with Israel. For the full Dekba intelligence report on Hezbollah and its war readiness factors, LINK here.
Thursday, 12 July 2007
Debka Says
Hezbollah Primed & Ready Again For War
Hezbollah Has 50% More Rockets Than 1 Yr Ago
Debka.com reports that Hezbollah is in better military shape today than it was a year ago. Last year, estimates put the Hezbollah rocket stockpile at 12,000 and this year the estimate ranges to 18,000 rockets. This time though, Hezbollah has a fleet of all-terrain vehicles and motorbikes with which to move around the smaller rockets in rough terrain making it more difficult for Israeli warplanes and artillery to spot and bomb such moving targets.
The latest intelligence assessment by Debka indicates that Hezbollah's newer rockets have much longer ranges and bigger explosive capabilities with the ability to reach most of Israel from launching points in Northern Lebanon. Such larger rockets are being kept in caches on the Syrian side of the Lebanese border and therefore out of the prying eyes of UN inspectors and off limits to Israeli warplane bombing runs in the event last year's war resumes and Syria remains neutral. Debka believes the larger rockets will remain in Syria until just before they are moved into Lebanon for firing.
Meanwhile the shorter rockets are stationed near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre with its command center in the small town of Maarub. These shorter range rockets are poised for strikes on northern Israeli towns and cities of Haifa, Kiryat Shemona, Tiberias, Safed, Acre and Nehanya. Their presence is well hidden and the Hezbollah forces in charge of the rockets are keeping an extremely 'low profile.' As a result, the Lebanese government and the cowardly Israeli Prime Minister Olmert conveniently choose to ignore the situation and instead claim that things are now much better and deny the rocket threat's existence. In fact, Olmert's inner circle is in public denial that Hezbollah has fully re-entrenched itself into new and better defensive positions in southern Lebanon.
It appears that Prime Minister Olmert is doing a personal rendition of the three famous monkeys - "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" and hiding their heads in the sand in the hopes that a bad situation will just go away.
Debka also reports that Hezbollah has tripled its inventory of anti-ship cruise missiles - the C-802 Silkworm Cruise Missiles. One such missile heavily damaged an Israeli warship in last summer's conflict. Now Hezbollah has three times the inventory of such missiles to somewhere between 25 to 30 with dozens more stored on the Syrian side of the Lebanese border. Each missile is capable of knocking out any sized naval warship that might be operating within 20 to 30 miles off the coast of Lebanon.
Another key difference between Hezbollah's capabilities this year and last involves air defense capabilities. Last year, Hezbollah had precious little air defense capabilities, relying primarily on small arms fire. This year, Hezbollah has sophisticated, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles including the Strela-7 and also the mobile system known as the Rapier 2s.
As for ground forces: Last year, Hezbollah boasted an elite unit of 1,600 well-trained commandos of which 750 were killed during the conflict. They have been replaced by an additional force of 1,200 well-trained replacements giving Hezbollah more than 2,000 commandoes which is the backbone of Hezbollah's defensive strength although its overall force size is thought to number as much as 10,000 tp 20,000.
In addition to all of this, Hezbollah has deployed a separate, special forces unit to Gaza to assist Hamas in any future military operations against Israel. All told, Hezbollah is ready to renew its war with Israel. For the full Dekba intelligence report on Hezbollah and its war readiness factors, LINK here.
posted by shummer60 at Saturday, July 14, 2007
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