Hez has killer antitank missiles
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060804/aponremiea/ mideastfightinghezbollahsmissiles
Missiles neutralizing Israeli tanks By BENJAMIN HARVEY, Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM - Hezbollah’s sophisticated anti-tank missiles are perhaps
the guerrilla group’s deadliest weapon in Lebanon fighting, with
their ability to pierce Israel’s most advanced tanks.
Experts say this is further evidence that Israel is facing a well- equipped army in this war, not a ragtag militia.
Hezbollah has fired Russian-made Metis-M anti-tank missiles and owns
European-made Milan missiles, the army confirmed on Friday.
In the last two days alone, these missiles have killed seven soldiers
and damaged three Israeli-made Merkava tanks - mountains of steel
that are vaunted as symbols of Israel’s military might, the army
said. Israeli media say most of the 44 soldiers killed in four weeks
of fighting were hit by anti-tank missiles.
“They (Hezbollah guerrillas) have some of the most advanced anti-tank
missiles in the world,” said Yossi Kuperwasser, a senior military
intelligence officer who retired earlier this summer.
“This is not a militia, it’s an infantry brigade with all the support
units,” Kuperwasser said.
Israel contends that Hezbollah gets almost all of its weaponry from
Syria and by extension Iran, including its anti-tank missiles.
That’s why cutting off the supply chain is essential - and why
fighting Hezbollah after it has spent six years building up its
arsenal is proving so painful to Israel, officials say.
Israel’s Merkava tanks boast massive amounts of armor and lumber and
resemble fortresses on tracks. They are built for crew survival,
according to Globalsecurity.org, a Washington-based military think tank.
Hezbollah celebrates when it destroys one.
“A Zionist armored force tried to advance toward the village of
Chihine. The holy warriors confronted it and destroyed two Merkava
tanks,” the group proclaimed on television Thursday.
The Israeli army confirmed two attacks on Merkava tanks that day -
one that killed three soldiers and the other killing one. The three
soldiers who were killed on Friday were also killed by anti-tank
missiles, the army said.
It would not say whether the missiles disabled the tanks.
“To the best of my understanding, they (Hezbollah) are as well-
equipped as any standing unit in the Syrian or Iranian armies,” said
Eran Lerman, a retired army colonel and now director of the Israel/
Middle East office of the American Jewish Committee. “This is not a
rat-pack guerrilla, this is an organized militia.”
Besides the anti-tank missiles, Hezbollah is also known to have a
powerful rocket-propelled grenade known as the RPG29. These weapons
are also smuggled through Syria, an Israeli security official said,
and were previously used by Palestinian militants in Gaza to damage
tanks.
On Friday, Jane’s Defense Weekly, a defense industry magazine,
reported that Hezbollah asked Iran for “a constant supply of weapons”
to support its operations against Israel.
The report cited Western diplomatic sources as saying that Iranian
authorities promised Hezbollah a steady supply of weapons “for the
next stage of the confrontation.”