Saturday, July 22, 2006

Hezbollah forced out of Maroun el Ras with heavy losses..Israel begins major advance. Syrian forces mobilized and in full readiness

After heavy resistance, Israel finally broke through the Hezbollah stronghold and has won the key battle in this war.Ground forces commander Major-General Benny Gantz said Israeli soldiers took the hilltop village of Maroun el Ras, where six Israeli commandos have been killed this week, inflicting dozens of casualties on Hezbollah.

Around Tyre, a major rocket launching site, Israel is likewise flushing Hezbollah out of its ratholes. Israeli navy gunships opposite Tyre port also had a hand in the fighting...and unlike Maroun el ras, this is flatlands..ideal for the IDF's tanks.

Another battle is apparently taking place at Jabal Amel, a 22,000-foot range, between Yater and Zabqin villages just a few miles away from the Israeli border. Yesterday, Hezbollah set up a major rocket launching site to aim Katyusha rockets against Haifa and Nahariya on the coast. Israeli paratroops were dropped on the peak to do the pest exterminating.

I have an unconfirmed report that the Israelis captured several Iranian Revolutionary guards in the fighting. If that's true, just like the Soviets Israel captured in 1967 and onwards, it will probably be kept very quiet while they are interrogated and debriefed at length. Certainly Iran is not going to admit their presence!

In the town of Marjayoun, about five miles from the border, cars packed with people waving white flags fled north and like others in the area are taking Israeli leaflets warning them to evacuate to a line north of the Listani River seriously. I've heard several reports of the Hezbollah scum forcing people to stay parked on the roads as human shields or even transport them while they retreated.

Israel has built up its forces at the border and called up 3,000 reserves...look for Israel at the least to `sanitize Southern Lebanon up to the Listani.

Israel also took out Lebanese cell sites and comunication towers, cutting mobile phone services in northern Lebanon.Israel also hit a Hezbollah radio and TV transmitter and an antenna used by Hizbollah's al-Manar television. They were out for a wile and then came back on the air after the strikes.

Syria's armed forces are in a state of fulll mobilization, and Iran is coordinating with both Syria nad Hezbollah. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards commander Brig.-Gen Yahya Rahim Safavi is in charge of these efforts. He is also overseeing an Iranian weapons airlift which began landing Wednesday, July 19, at the Abu Ad Duhur military airfield north of Homs. The deliveries include large quantities of new missiles, including the long-range Zelzal and Fajr 3 and Fajr 5 missiles, Katyusha rockets, anti-tank and anti-air missiles sent out from RG HQ in Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf.

The Syrians have mobiled on the assumption that Israel may decide to block the passage of Iranian hardware to Hezbollah and stop the inflow by going after Iranian military operations in Damascus and Abu Ad Duhur.

The Israelis have had major success in cutting off the Iranian and Syrian attempts to rearm Hezbollah..but they havent been totally successful and the rocket fire against Israel's civilians is far from over.

Speaking of which, there were over 160 rockets fired from Lebanon at the Eastern and Northern Galilee today.

So far, both the US and Israel are still resisting growing calls for a cease-fire, and the United States stressed the need to tackle what it sees as the root cause of the conflict -- Hizbollah's armed presence on Israel's border and the role of its owners and trainers, Syria and Iran.

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