TEL AVIV — The Israel Air Force has used attack unmanned aerial
vehicles in combat missions in Lebanon.
Israeli sources said a UAV struck a military position along the
Lebanese-Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley on July 31. They said the UAV
exploded and destroyed the Masna checkpoint and a truck suspected of being
laden with Syrian weapons and headed for Hizbullah.
It was the first time the military has acknowledged the use of UAVs in
the war against Hizbullah in Lebanon. The military did not identify the UAV.
But the sources said the unmanned platform was probably the Harpy attack
UAV, produced by the state-owned Israel Aircraft Industries. The UAV, with a
range of 500 kilometers, was designed to detect and destroy enemy radar and
could be
launched from a ground vehicle or surface vessel.
Harpy, which weighs 135 kilograms, contains a high explosive warhead set
to detonate just above the target to maximize damage. The platform, sold to
China in 1995, was designed to loiter a target until given orders to attack.
Israel has been targeting Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, believed to contain a
large presence of Hizbullah as well as Iranian and Syrian advisers. On late
Tuesday, Israeli special operations troops, backed by fighter-jets, abducted
five Hizbullah soldiers and killed at least 10 others in Baalbek, about 100
kilometers from Israel.
The target of the four-hour operation was believed to have been Mohammed
Yazbek, a member of Hizbullah's consultative council. Lebanese sources said
the Israeli force raided a Hizbullah hospital in a search for two Israeli
soldiers abducted by the Shi'ite militia on July 12.
"During the night, IDF forces operated in the town of Baalbek, in
northern Lebanon," an Israeli military statement said on Wednesday. "During
the operation, IDF forces identified hitting a number of terrorists and
arrested several more. All forces returned home safely and the operation is
considered a success."
