Tactics that have kept the Middle East's most powerful

[spindrifter]

army at bay

From Nicholas Blanford in Tyre, Daniel McGrory in Beirut and Stephen Farrell in Haifa

FOR four weeks Hezbollah’s fighters have defied the might of the Israeli military.

A guerrilla force that was supposed to be crushed in days has prevented Israeli troops capturing more than a handful of villages in southern Lebanon, killed more than 100 Israeli soldiers and civilians and is still raining missiles on northern Israel. In the eyes of Arabs and Muslims Hezbollah has already “won” the month-long war simply because it has not been defeated by the Middle East’s most powerful army.

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Israeli soldiers have been shaken by the fighters’ skill and commitment, describing them as an army, not a rabble. “Even I have been surprised at the tenacity of these groups fighting in the villages,” Timur Goksel, who served with UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon from 1979 to 2003, said. “They have fought far beyond my expectations and they haven’t even committed all their fully experienced troops yet.”

Here are the keys to Hezbollah’s success:

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2306510,00.html