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The War's Surprises

[Ha'aretz] Ze'ev Schiff - In its second Lebanon war, Israel was surprised by Hizballah's anti-tank weapons and the way they used them. We knew Hizballah had advanced anti-tank rockets; however, we failed to understand the significance of the mass deployment of these weapons. The result: nearly all the armored corps' casualties and many from the infantry were caused by anti-tank weapons. More infantry soldiers were killed by anti-tank weapons than in hand-to-hand combat. Many of the infantry soldiers had entered houses in the villages, and the rockets penetrated the walls, killing them. Hizballah used seven different types of rockets in the war - four of them the most advanced available and all produced by Russia and sold to Syria. Four Israeli tanks hit large landmines. Three of the tanks, which lacked underbelly protective armor, lost all 12 crew members. The fourth had underbelly protective armor; of its six crew members, only one died. Anti-tank missiles hit 46 tanks and 14 other armored vehicles, with 20 soldiers killed, 15 of them tank crew members. In Wadi Salouki, Hizballah carried out a successful anti-tank ambush, hitting 11 tanks. Missiles penetrated the armor of three tanks, killing seven crewmen.
2006-08-18 01:00:00
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