Israel probes poor performance by troops near Lebanon border
Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Thursday, March 1, 2001
TEL AVIV — An Israeli military investigation has pointed to several
mishaps connected to a Hizbullah attack along the northern border earlier
this month.
Military sources said the findings point to deficient capabilities among
Israeli troops and air power amid the growing confrontation with Lebanon.
The investigation concerned a Hizbullah rocket attack earlier this month in
which an Israeli soldier was killed and three others were wounded in the
disputed Shebaa plateau.
The investigation said Hizbullah targeted an Israeli command car that
drove along an isolated road prohibited by military commanders. After the
Hizbullah attack on Feb. 9, the sources said, Israel responded in a
haphazard fashion.
For example, the sources said, Israeli helicopters and artillery fired
toward Lebanon in what was termed an ineffective manner. Attack helicopters
failed to strike any Hizbullah targets in southern Lebanon, the sources
said.
Israeli artillery fared even worse, the sources said. Gunners did not
have proper shells and mistakenly fired toward the Israeli border city of
Metullah in what the investigation determined was a hurried response to the
Hizbullah attack. Nobody was hurt in the Israeli shelling.
Military sources said senior commanders have been dismayed by the poor
performance of Israeli troops deployed along the northern border with
Lebanon. The sources acknowledged that many lessons from previous mishaps
have not been implemented in the field.
Meanwhile, the military brass has been drafting lessons and revising
doctrine amid the five-month-old mini-war with the Palestinian Authority in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The effort comes amid another escalation of
violence in the Palestinian territories and assertions by Israeli officers
that loyalists of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat have extorted
money from Palestinians to stop shooting from their neighborhoods toward
Israeli positions and thus avoiding a counterattack.
Thursday, March 1, 2001
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