Hezbollah UAV Severely Damages Israeli Warship

A surprise attack by the militant group utilizes a new weapon in their arsenal. A UAV was loaded with explosives and hit one of Israel's warships enforcing a naval blockade of the nation's coastline. The IDF confirmed there was severe damage to the ship, but there are no reports on casualty figures.



It is now quite apparent that this group has a stronger ability to defending themselves and inflicting damage on IDF forces. I wonder what other tricks Hezbollah is carrying up their sleeves. These people are obviously not going to get run over with little resistance the way the unfortunate Palestinians have had to endure.

Related News Links:
abclocal.go.com
www.cnn.com
abcnews.go.com
www.cbsnews.com

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Hezbollah Seize Israel Soldiers
Israel Ever Increasing Conflicts

but only the latest development in what seems to be the new war. The leader of the group announce one hour after the headquarters was bombed by the israelis, that 'open war' would be what was coming. By the time it was broadcasting the ship had just been attacked. He said in short, its time for war. He said the surprises he promise would come to be a reality now.

In other words, *feces* hit the fan.




(Mod edit: Let's not circumvent the censors. --Majic)

[edit on 7/14/2006 by Majic]

I heard on the news not long ago that four sailers are missing from the damaged ship. I hope they didn't have to swim to shore.

wupy

While I can't say I am particularly sympathetic to either the Israelis or Hezbollah, I have to say I am pretty impressed that Hezbollah was able to pull this off. So far the Israelis seem to be killing a lot more innocent Lebanese bystanders than Hezbollah guerillas, and frankly I have no sympathy for them whatsoever. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Last report I heard said the ship was still burning and being towed back to Israel, with at least four crew reported missing.

Originally posted by xmotex


Last report I heard said the ship was still burning and being towed back to Israel, with at least four crew reported missing.

I have read a little about this but have not found any pics yet. A pic would help us see how much dammage there is. If any of you come across a pic could you post it hear.

Though the film is less than clear, this site claims to have video and a photo of the burning ship.

It will be interesting to see what other "surprises" Hezbullah has in store for the IDF. Part of me wonders if there has been secret materiel "buildup" on the Hezbulla side and whether the recent raid was the one of the first volleys in an effort to demonstrate these new capabilities to the IDF and Israeli people. Hezbullah has already stated that they are prepared for "total war."

This whole thing may begin to warrant it's own sub-forum. Escalations seem to be coming by the hour.

I can't get the video to play, except for the Ynet logo animation.

The ship was a Saar 5, Israel's most advanced warship, a very heavily armed US-built stealth corvette equipped with the Barak point defense SAM system. This makes the attack a much more impressive feat in my eyes, I had assumed it one of the Israeli's smaller gunboats that was hit.

Chaorrain
thanks for the link to the vid, but to me it looks like its just of a ship fireing its guns. Does not seem to be the damaged one in any way.
Maby those pics will come later on the same site, I hope.

hear is an immage off the page with the vid of the ship fireing its guns
I dont know how reliable it is.

www.debi.com...

if the first link does not work maby this one will.

[edit on 14-7-2006 by RedGolem]

Here is some more info about the attack on the ship:

Meanwhile Israel says four soldiers are missing after a naval ship was damaged by a Hezbollah explosive drone.

It is thought to be the first time Hezbollah has used such a weapon.

The ship has now been towed back to Haifa and a search is continuing for the missing men.

In his address on Hezbollah's TV channel in Lebanon, Sheikh Nasrallah referred to an Israeli warship he said had launched attacks from of the coast of Lebanon, saying: "Look at the warship that has attacked Beirut, while it burns and sinks before your very eyes."

Israel later confirmed that one of its warships had been "lightly" damaged by rockets fired from the shore.

But later unnamed military officials were reported as saying that the ship's steering had been damaged, that its helicopter deck had been hit and that it was still on fire hours after the attack.

Source - BBC

Welcome to asymetrical warfare I guess.

To my knowledge asymetrical warfare has brought both the World's superpowers to their knees in the past. How will Israel cope with total war using asymetrical tactics? Israel may have the edge technologically but how long will that last? They only have a finite amount of equipment and I dont think the US Treasury will be willing to increase the already exorbitant amount of direct aid given to Israel.

If total war using asymetrical warfare is the strategy Hezbollah intend to use I would estimate Israel wont outlast them. Israel's options are to indescrimately employ a scorched earth policy which would also evapourate the international support she currently enjoys.

Israel is at a crossroads here. I think the time of demonstrating its might are over, asymetry trumps conventional firepower every time (Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Afghanistan again). Will Israel drop its militaristic traditions and capitalize on the differences of today compared to 1967? Afterall Israel has diplomatic relations with Egypt and Jordan now. Saudi-Arabia has verbally blasted Hezbollah for its "misguided adventures" and prior to the Israeli all-out-offensive Hamas was willing to sign an agreement for a two-state solution.

Will Israel choose war over diplomacy? I hope they choose diplomacy because nothing short of wholesale slaughter of civilians by Israel will halt Hezbollah and their strategies. But the consequence of that is Israel will be viewed as the pariah it really is.

Wait a second, they said on CNN and FOX that the ship was barely damaged. No people are missing and no one was injured.

What was interesting was the head of Hezbollah saying that we were going to see ships buring, and then ten minutes later they hit the ship with the remote controlled airplane.

Love 'em or hate 'em, but remote controlled air planes are a hell of a resourcefull UAV to use.

Things are getting C R A Z Y over there. I hope this doesn't escalate too much further.

Just read on yahoo that the ship in question had a crew of twelve. I know more about how an army works, but the number of crew leads me to believe it's a smaller ship. So were not talking about for comparison a USS Cole type ship that lost 17 ( i think) out of a much larger crew. I havn't seen a picture of this ship but i'd think it'd be double the size of the riverboats in Apocalypse Now. Now that i know that this is a smaller ship this is in ways even more impressive use of weaponry than if it were a larger ship in targeting. Exactly what kind of drone was used and where it was made would be very interesting to know.

Originally posted by The Big O
Wait a second, they said on CNN and FOX that the ship was barely damaged. No people are missing and no one was injured.
.

Can you honestly say your surprised at that?

CNN and FOX reporting that nothing happened, go about your business, nothing to see here.......

Originally posted by stumason
Can you honestly say your surprised at that?

CNN and FOX reporting that nothing happened, go about your business, nothing to see here.......

You're right, I must be a moron. It's impossible that they might be correct (well, maybe FOX just lucked out).

NPR also mentioned the same thing, and being that they are one of the few news outlets (including the Christian Science Monirot) who actually has people all over the world (and not spur of the moment contract "reporters"), is it possible that THEY might be correct? Or is it "nothing to see here" with them as well.

-O

Originally posted by The Big O
You're right, I must be a moron. It's impossible that they might be correct (well, maybe FOX just lucked out).

NPR also mentioned the same thing, and being that they are one of the few news outlets (including the Christian Science Monirot) who actually has people all over the world (and not spur of the moment contract "reporters"), is it possible that THEY might be correct? Or is it "nothing to see here" with them as well.

-O

Well, seeing as the Israelis are saying exactly what has been reported on the BBC, look too my link above, I am inclined to believe them over CNN, FOX or any Christian news outlet.

The ship is on fire and being towed back to port. It was attacked by a drone and 4 sailors are missing. That is what both the IDF and other major outlets ARE saying.

You got a clip of anyone from Isreal saying anything? And, the Christian Science Monitor is NOT a Christian newspaper...I'm not going to explain it since it's mildy complicated, but the name is misleading.

At any rate....since the initial reports on the ship being hit, I haven't seen much more on it. I haven't heard anything else from AP or Reuters on 4 missing soldiers. Do you have links to anything other than the BBC article, since it's stating relatively dated material?

-O

In tandem from the CNN story:

Minutes later, the Israeli warship was struck by what the Israel Defense Forces said was an unmanned aircraft packed with explosives, setting the ship ablaze and damaging it's steering capability.

The IDF reported there were no casualties. Hours later, the IDF said the ship was still on fire and was being towed back to Israel.

Nothing about missing crew, does mention the tow thing though.

-O

Unfortunately, there is no Video as the IDF sources insisted on remaining anon due to reporting restrictions, but the news is all over the place if you look.

Are you actually surprised that FOX and CNN are NOT reporting this? Everyone else is if you bother too look.

But, to help you along, I shall post some links for you (I am just posting the first hits I get, personally, I never use any of these as sources usually, I go with the BBC):

Source 1
Source 2
Source 3

That is by no means a definative list, as I said, they were the first 3 hits I got when using the Google News search function. Search for yourself if you don't believe me

Well, I did a search and it looks like everyone is getting the missing crew member thing from Al-Jazeera. They all basically say the same thing "Al-Jazeera says crew members are missing, yada yada yada."

So, looks like everyone is getting that line from Al, but I haven't seen a second source...not that my limited search is definitive by any means.

Regardless...using a remote controlled plan as a UAV is quite resourceful. I just hope it doesn't lead to banning such planes here in the states.

-O