Many casualties in heavy clashes around Bint Jbail

[Scurrilous]

Troops engaged in close-quarter fighting with Hezbollah in town

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743027.html

<snip>

"A large number of Israel Defense Forces soldiers were wounded Wednesday in fierce gun battles with Hezbollah in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbail.

The IDF was involved in efforts Wednesday to retrieve the casualties, even as the heavy clashes continued.

The troops became involved in close-quarter fighting with Hezbollah guerillas in the early hours of Wednesday, despite taking control of the town a day earlier. The fighting has been going on since."

<snip>

"There is fighting from every direction, including from the air. We are hitting terrorists, we have also taken several prisoners in this fighting. The enemy has more than a few casualties, and overall we are now stabilizing the situation to completely take over the village," Lieutenant Colonel Itzik Ronen, a deputy brigade commander of a unit operating in the area, told Army Radio.

Eight IDF soldiers were lightly wounded in fighting in the area early Tuesday and seven of them were evacuated to hospitals in Israel. Fifteen soldiers remain hospitalized in Nahariya from earlier battles with Hezbollah."

[izzie]

1. Sounds like guerrilla war to me. Take a few homes at a time.

I bet that Hezballah will just 'go away' in a week or so. To come back another day for sure. What is the saying? Like herding cats?

[bemildred]

5. Yep, the repeated "taking" of the same place is a dead giveaway. nt

[4dsc]

2. I'm confused here

Who's the terrorist's?? We have the Israeli terrorist forces fighting the Hezbollah terrorist's forces??

[Scurrilous]

3. It is confusing...

...one paragraph states that Israel is fighting 'guerillas,' while another uses the term 'terrorists.'

Ynet News is more consistent. They most always label Hezbollah as 'terrorists.'

[izzie]

6. I think they are not the same.

Guerrillas seem to fight with the local pop. for a set thing. Terrorist seem to kill for a point of fear. I would think we seem to have all types of these working in the Middle East right now. It, I think, will be the wars of this age as having an army like ours is to powerful to fight in a standard way and Nukes would be really stupid as you would end up with nothing even if you had the last one.

[cool user name]

10. Sounds about right. n/t

[Scurrilous]

4. Report: 12 Israeli troops die in fighting

<snip>

"Hezbollah inflicted heavy casualties on Israeli troops as they battled for a key hilltop town in southern Lebanon for a fourth day Wednesday, with at least 12 soldiers reported killed. Israel has faced fiercer resistance than expected as it advances across the border in its campaign against the Islamic militant group."

<snip>

"Al-Arabiya, a Dubai-based satellite TV channel said at least 12 Israeli soldiers had been killed in the fighting for control of Bint Jbail, a town that has symbolic importance to the Shiite Islamic militant group as one of the centers of resistance to the 1982-2000 Israeli occupation.

In Jerusalem, the Israeli military would only say that several soldiers had been wounded in heavy fighting at Bint Jbail. If confirmed, it would be the largest death toll suffered by the Israeli military in a single attack since the offensive began two weeks ago."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060726/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_israel

[Igel]

7. It should cease to exist. n/t

[newyorican]

8. Odd choice of language...

...very odd. A town, a region, a country...only difference appears to be one of scale.

[Scurrilous]

9. Welcome back..

...:thumbsup:

[newyorican]

11. I have been traveling a great deal...

...and will continue to do so, but I'll be in and out periodically.

[MrPrax]

12. Fisk is saying the same thing...

"...In Bint Jbeil, meanwhile, another bloodbath was taking place. Claiming to "control" this southern Lebanese town, the Israelis chose to walk into a Hizbollah trap. The moment they reached the deserted marketplace, they were ambushed from three sides, their soldiers falling to the ground under sustained rifle fire. The remaining Israeli troops - surrounded by the "terrorists" they were supposed to liquidate - desperately appealed for help, but an Israeli Merkava tank and other vehicles sent to help them were also attacked and set on fire. Up to 17 Israeli soldiers may have died so far in this disastrous operation. During their occupation of Lebanon in 1983 more than 50 Israeli soldiers were killed in just one suicide attack.

The battle for southern Lebanon is on an epic scale but, from the heights above Khiam, the Israelis appear to be in deep trouble. Their F-16s turn in the high bright sun - small, silver fish whose whispers gain in volume as they dive - and their bombs burst over the old prison, where the Hizbollah are still holding out; beyond the frontier, I can see livid fires burning across the Israeli hillsides and the Jewish settlement of Metullah billowing smoke.

....

In Marjayoun, next to Qlaya, once the SLA's headquarters, Lebanese troops are trying to prevent Hizbollah guerrillas using the streets of the Greek Catholic town to fire yet more missiles at Israel. Seven-man Lebanese army patrols are moving through the darkened roads of both towns at night in case the Hizbollah brings yet more Israeli bombs down on our heads.

In Beirut, one observes the folly of Western nations with amusement as well as horror, but, sitting in these hill villages and listening to how the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, plans to reshape Lebanon is clearly a lesson in human self-delusion. According to US correspondents accompanying Ms Rice on her visit to the Middle East, she is proposing the intervention of a Nato-led force along the Lebanese-Israeli border for between 60 and 90 days to assure that a ceasefire exists, the deployment of an enlarged Nato force throughout Lebanon to disarm Hizbollah and then the retraining of the Lebanese army before its own deployment to the border.

ICH
Independent article is still subscribed or I would have posted that link instead