How high-tech is Hezbollah?

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Aug. 14, 2006 issue - Hizbullah's fighters were as elusive last week as they were deadly. Thousands of them were dug in around southern Lebanon, and yet encounters with the hundreds of journalists also in the area were rare, and furtive. Like Hussein, as he chose to call himself, who popped out of the rubble in the blasted town of Bint Jbeil, site of what Hizbullah is calling its Great Victory, to crow a little. He was in civvies, the only way the Hizbullah fighters appear in public, but the walkie-talkie under his loose shirt was a giveaway. The hillside nearby glittered with metal in the bright sun. Here and there lay shell casings, mortar tubes, mangled shrapnel from artillery and bombs. Thousands of cartridges, the gold ones from Israeli M-16s, the duller brown from Hizbullah's AK-47s, all mixed together. This was asymmetrical warfare with a fearful symmetry. Hussein picked up a handful of empty brass. "Very close-range fighting," he said, jingling them in his palm. "You can imagine what weapons we have and what weapons they have."

Hizbullah is proving to be something altogether new, an Arab guerrilla army with sophisticated weaponry and remarkable discipline. Its soldiers have the jihadist rhetoric of fighting to the death, but wear body armor and use satcoms to coordinate their attacks. Their tactics may be from Che, but their arms are from Iran, and not just AK-47s and RPGs. They've reportedly destroyed three of Israel's advanced Merkava tanks with wire-guided missiles and powerful mines, crippled an Israeli warship with a surface-to-sea missile, sent up drones on reconnaissance missions, implanted listening devices along the border and set up their ambushes using night-vision goggles.

NEWSWEEK has learned from a source briefed in recent weeks by Israel's top leaders and military brass that Hizbullah even managed to eavesdrop successfully on Israel's military communications as its Lebanese incursion began. When Lt. Eli Kahn, commander of an elite Israeli parachutists outfit, turned a corner in the southern Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras early in the month-old war, he came face to face with this new enemy. "He had sophisticated equipment like mine and looked more like a commando," he recalled. Lieutenant Kahn ducked back around the corner and reached for a grenade, but before he could pull the pin, the Hizbullah fighter had tossed one around the corner himself. The Israeli picked it up and threw it back, just in time. "They didn't retreat," says Danny Yatom, a former director of the Mossad. "They continued to fight until the death."

I thought maybe people here can post up info about Hezbollah's training, tactics, methods, and weapons. Since people here are putting up information like about the attack on the Israeli warship to the attack on Israel's most powerful Merkava main battle tanks, I am hoping maybe people could put some information about Hezbollah's fighting capabilities.

SHort answer: Look how advanced the weapons of Iran and Syria are. The attack on the Sa'ar 5 class corvette was carried out with an advanced missile acquired from the Iranians.

Jensy

I think the question you meant to ask is how high-tech is Iran.

I think its time that the world attacks Iran & Syria. Its a proven fact that Hezbollah is being supplied by the Iranians, and in Iraq some of the violence is iranian terrorist that are blowing themselves up there in hopes that the US will pull out. I think its time that we attack Iran & syria...not with boot on the ground, but with the Airforce and Navy...Iran wouldn't stand a chance.

The main concern is NOT how high tech they are but how many troops do they have and how many rockets they have. The Katyusha rocket numbers fluctuate between 5000 to 12000!!
And only 1500-2000 have been fired till now...
surprises like the C-802 may also pop-up from time to time. I'm expecting a SA-6 or SA-3 now..

They even have UAVs

On November 7, 2004, Hizbollah, an Islamic militant organization with close ties to Iran, flew the Mohajer-4 over northern Israel for approximately 5 minutes. The UAV entered Israeli airspace at more than 100 knots and an altitude of about 1,000 feet. After briefly flying over the seaside city of Nahariya, the UAV fell into the sea as it returned to Lebanon. An embarassment for the Israeli government, the overflight proved to be a symbolic success for Hizbollah, which claimed the flight to be an appropriate response to Israeli incursions over Lebanon.
www.globalsecurity.org...


There are a number of similar articles floating around

Originally posted by Murcielago
I think the question you meant to ask is how high-tech is Iran.

i would have said, how much high-tech stuff is missing from iraq ...

with all due respect but since the borders of or iran and syria don't exatcly come to contact with one another, why risk passing "thru" iraq when you can get "truck loads" of us made gear either thru sader, or anyone human enough to be greedy over there.

just a idea ...



thank you.

[edit on 9-8-2006 by JPdm]

just curious dont they use m-16s?
since in most vids or images they have us made weapons not aks like most miltia out there

Originally posted by jensy
SHort answer: Look how advanced the weapons of Iran and Syria are. The attack on the Sa'ar 5 class corvette was carried out with an advanced missile acquired from the Iranians.

Jensy

That attack was only successfull because the ship's PHALANX systems were turned off to avoid hitting nearby friendly aircraft.

And UAV's arent as hard to build as they seem, if you have about $50,000 you can build your own "uav". Hezb'Allah's UAV's are inefficient, small in numbers, and can't carry a weapon payload of any subsequent value.

Hezb'Allah is well armed, but they are really just cowards.

Hezbollah are cowards?
Tell that to the two infantry comppanies of the Golani Brigade that got their ass kicked in Bint Jbeil..

This hightech Hezbollah is:

According to the sources, Tehran will supply Hizbullah with Russian-produced SAMs, including the Strela-2/2M (SA-7 'Grail'), Strela-3 (SA-14 'Gremlin') and Igla-1E (SA-16 'Gimlet') man-portable SAM systems.

Iran is also understood to have agreed to deliver its own version of the Chinese QW-1 man-portable low- to very-low-altitude SAM system - the Mithaq-1- developed by the Iranian Defence Ministry's Shahid Kazemi Industrial Complex in Tehran.

Source is Jane's Information Group, Janes Defence Weekly

Originally posted by Night

That attack was only successfull because the ship's PHALANX systems were turned off to avoid hitting nearby friendly aircraft.

that has been proven to be rubbish

the ships phalanx system failed to actually engage the missile - as phalanx has done before .

its not as good as the makers want you to believe - why do you think the USN is replacing them wholesale with RAM??

Originally posted by bodrul
just curious dont they use m-16s?
since in most vids or images they have us made weapons not aks like most miltia out there

I doubt they are all authentic M-16’s, most are probably just fakes which are locally produced by individuals in the ME, especially in Pakistan. They look like the real thing but they aren’t.

Originally posted by Harlequin
that has been proven to be rubbish

Care to show us where that was proven to be "rubbish"? You do know that personal opinions don’t prove a damn thing don’t you?

[edit on 10-8-2006 by WestPoint23]

well Katushas are Russian World War 2 rockets often fired from trucks back then multibarrelled. Always scary, always inaccurate.

Note the place of impact on the lower back part of the ship, and the location of the Phalanx CIWS on the front part of the ship.


Even if their defences were up and running would it have plotted it's path and destroyed t that low on the surface and that far back ?

i went thru a couple of pages and i could not find any information, relative to my question.

the most information i got was out of this one Phalanx CIWS info.

as for wether or not hezb allah has authentic m-16 or not, we can safely assume that they do ... i mean with the international arms trade and all .. but still poked thru some sites and found a couple of pictures to dispell any miss-believes ... but again ... explaint to me why would someone bother to ship arms from the other side of the world when the us/lebanese government can get it to your door step ??? (no pun intended)

The assistance received from Syria, the USA, and other friendly countries has played a basic role in bridging the gap between needs and available means.

lebanese army website

Shiite 6th brigade Lebanes army troops loyal to Amal taking positions on Corniche Masraa near the Green Line, formerly Sunni Moslem Mourabitoun territory, 1984.

cederland

Other equipment was "obtained" from the Lebanese army or bought on the black market.

lebanese forces

A1 and A2 mods, maybe even xm-117 or m203 combos ...

Keep in mind the arms trades is one of the most lucrative businesses in that part of the world ... more so if the "client" was state sponsored and infiltrated within a "host" governement.

[edit on 10-8-2006 by JPdm]

I Think M-16 should not be considered as a meter of high tech weapons, since it offers very little when compared to AK-47s and G3s that are certainly in Hezbollah hands.

news.yahoo.com...

Wow it looks like 2 Merkava tanks damaged or nearly destroyed. Can't see the right side of the far front tank so I don't know how severe it looks, and don't know the casualties too, as the report mentions. But it shows how advanced Hezbollah is in fighting a guerilla warfare with advanced weaponry.

Looks a lot like shaped charge bottom mine...
Just a tought

Originally posted by northwolf
Looks a lot like shaped charge bottom mine...
Just a tought

Report says that the tanks were under attack. And not to mention a mine right there doesn't look suitable, prefer to have mines on the dirt roads, not in the middle of the fields.

Originally posted by WestPoint23

Care to show us where that was proven to be "rubbish"? You do know that personal opinions don’t prove a damn thing don’t you?

[edit on 10-8-2006 by WestPoint23]

I trust then, that you shall remember this in future, when you spout off your opinions and ill-informed views as fact?

Originally posted by Daystar
I trust then, that you shall remember this in future, when you spout off your opinions and ill-informed views as fact?

Huh… Do you even know what we’re talking about? Do you even care, or is there a chip I don’t know about?

deltaboy
The fires below the tank just look a lot like a SC bottom mine...
And that field may be an obvious route, can't tell from that photo