Never before seen footage of a defining moment of the 2006 Lebanon War fought between Israel and Hezbollah has just been released upon the 13th anniversary marking the close of the month-long war, which left parts of Lebanon decimated and over 1300 people dead.
Hezbollah and its supporters see the 2006 war as a victory, given that Israel halted its advanced while failing to root out Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, a stated goal of Tel Aviv.
Among the key celebrated moments among Lebanese, Syrians and Iranians remains Hezbollah scoring a direct hit on an Israeli warship, which international media at the time said killed four Israeli personnel – in what was an unprecedented demonstration of the paramilitary group’s growing capability and reach.
The clip is part of a war-related documentary recently broadcast by the Lebanese-Hezbollah network Al Manar TV, and reveals purported details of Hezbollah’s planning the attack on the Israeli Saar 5-class corvette.
The full documentary also reportedly presents testimony from an Israeli soldier on board the Israeli ship when it was struck by the Hezbollah missile.
At the time it was alleged that elite Iranian IRGC operatives had helped Hezbollah carry out some of their most daring attacks, which included use of advanced Iran-manufactured rockets – as was believed the case in the Saar 5 warship attack. Initial reports had said a drone was involved, but it was later confirmed a land-based missile.
CBS News had described the aftermath of the 2006 attack as follows:
The Israeli warship, which had been carrying several dozen sailors, was towed to Haifa after suffering heavy damage. The fire was put out after several hours. The military confirmed news reports that four sailors were missing and said a search for them was under way.
The released video comes amid a growing war of words between Israeli and Hezbollah leadership, with the Lebanese group’s secretary general Hassan Nasrallah recently claiming that “all of Israeli is within range” of its missiles.
Nasrallah had also threatened last month that Israel would be on “the verge of vanishing, and it knows this” in any new confrontation like the 2006 war.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2L3drNp Tyler Durden