TEL AVIV — Hizbullah has begun firing salvos of its longest-range
rocket, the Fajr-5.
Israeli military sources said Hizbullah has been firing the Fajr-5 deep
into Israel. The Fajr-5, produced by Iran, was said to have a range of up to
200 kilometers, Middle East Newsline reporte.
"Hizbullah is beginning to make good on its promise to fire long-range
rockets," a military source said.
On Wednesday, Hizbullah fired at least 210 rockets into Israel, the
worst pounding since the start of the war that began on July 12. One Israeli
was reported killed and another 160 were injured.
On July 30, Hizbullah fired 157 rockets into Israel. The
Iranian-sponsored militia resumed rocket fire on Thursday.
More than a dozen of the rockets were identified as the Fajr-5, regarded
as the longest-range weapon in the Hizbullah arsenal. Hizbullah has
identified the Fajr-5 as the Khaibar-1.
Several of the Fajr-5s, packed with ball bearings and shrapnel, landed
70 kilometers south of the Israeli-Lebanese border and struck the West Bank.
They included a landing near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
The sources said the Fajr-5s were believed to have been aimed at such
Israeli cities as Hadera and Netanya. They said the Fajr-5s were fired from
Tyre, meaning that the rockets traveled more than 100 kilometers.
On July 31, the government said Israel eliminated about 80 percent of
Hizbullah's medium- and long-range rocket capability. Officials said
military intelligence assessed that Israeli air strikes destroyed more than
half of Hizbullah's arsenal of 400 220 mm Syrian-origin Grad rockets.
On Thursday, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported military confirmation of
a Hizbullah C-802 cruise missile launching toward a navy Saar-4.5 missile
boat on Aug. 1. The military said the Chinese-origin missiles missed the
surface vessel. Hizbullah had claimed that the naval boat was struck.
