|
Hizbullah was said to have used the tunnels to conceal rockets and
fighters during the 2006 war. The bunkers and tunnels were secretly
constructed in wake of the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, Middle East Newsline reported.
Entry to the Hizbullah tunnel near Rshaf was through a bunker that
contained a seven-meter shaft. The shaft widened into a passage reinforced
with steel plates and girders, painted black to prevent reflection from the
sun.
After 10 meters, the passage led to a room with electricity and water.
The complex, with steel blast-proof doors every 10 meters, contained a
toilet, kitchen, sewage system and ventilation shafts some 30 to 50 meters
underground, "deep enough to withstand almost anything in Israel's arsenal,"
Blanford said.
"As far as I know, this is the largest and most elaborate bunker
discovered so far," Blanford wrote in the Christian Science
Monitor.
During the 2006 war, Israeli aircraft and ground troops failed to find
Hizbullah bunkers or tunnels. A Hizbullah tunnel that penetrated Israel was
found in 2007.
"The greatest failure as a result of the war is that Israel's deterrent
capability has been severely harmed," Israeli opposition leader Binyamin
Netanyahu said.
Timor Goksel, a former senior adviser to the United Nations Interim
Force in Lebanon, said Hizbullah appears to have abandoned its tunnel
network. Goksel said Israel's failure to find the network marked a
"monumental failure" by military intelligence.
"The Israelis only found these bunkers by stepping on them," Goksel
said.
|
