Tyre raid
2006 Tyre raid | |||||||
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Part of 2006 Lebanon War | |||||||
![]() An IDF Shayetet 13 filmed during the operation in Tyre. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Israel | Hezbollah | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Shayetet 13 | Armed wing | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
10 soldiers wounded 1 soldier killed (Hezbollah claim)[1] |
1–2 killed[2][3] (Lebanese claim) 6–10 killed (IDF claim) | ||||||
1 Lebanese soldier and 4 civilians killed (Lebanese claim) |
The Tyre raid was a night mission by the
The raid
Lebanese sources reported that the IDF commando forces arrived in helicopters around 1:00 a.m. and landed in an orange grove near the city's northern environs. The troops cut through a fence and opened fire on a second floor apartment of an apartment building, which was the apparent target of the raid. The apartment was hit by fire, and eyewitnesses reported its occupants were wounded.[5]
When withdrawing from the building exchanges of fire between Israeli soldiers and
IDF claimed to have shot “two or three Hezbollah commanders” thereby “taking out” a key guerrilla unit involved in firing long-range rockets into Israel. Hezbollah claimed it had successfully repulsed the attack.[6] [3]
According to the IDF "at least six",[7] seven[5] or ten[8] Hezbollah fighters were killed in the clashes while 10 IDF soldiers were wounded, two of them seriously. According to Lebanese sources one[2] or two[3] Hezbollah fighters, a Lebanese army soldier and at least four civilians were killed in the raid.[9]
IDF later admitted that the Hezbollah squad holed up in the apartment refused to surrender and that the Hezbollah commanders managed to escape.[10][11] Hezbollah resumed rocket launching from the site within hours of the raid.[2]
Sources
- ^ a b Agence France Presse (AFP) (August 5, 2006). "Hezbollah says it foiled Israel commando raid on Tyre". Daily Star. Archived from the original on August 5, 2012. Retrieved Jan 18, 2012.
- ^ a b c d Blanford (2011), pp. 393-94
- ^ a b c "Israeli claim of 11 Hezbollah fighters killed in battle". AP. 5 August 2006. Archived from the original on 7 August 2006. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
- ^ Yaakov Katz (26 June 2012). "Naval Commandos Raid Tyre". JPost.
- ^ a b Efrat Weiss (August 5, 2006). "10 soldiers hurt in raid on Tyre". Yedioth Ahronoth. Retrieved Jan 18, 2012.
- ^ "Deadly Fighting In South Lebanon". CBS. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
- ^ Amos Harel (6 August 2006). "Commando raid in Tyre kills senior Hezbollah operatives". Haaretz. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
- ^ Efrat Weiss (8 May 2006). "Tyre raid 'heroic operation'". Yedioth Ahronoth. Retrieved 18 January 2012.
- ^ "Israeli commandos stage Tyre raid". BBC. 5 August 2006. Retrieved 18 January 2012.
- ^ Pedahzur, Ami, The Israeli Secret Services and the Struggle Against Terrorism, Columbia University Press, 2010, p. 132
- ^ Amos Harel (1 June 2010). "Elite Shayetet unit often carries army's heaviest, most secretive burdens". Retrieved 23 January 2012.
- Blanford, Nicholas (2011). Warriors of God, Inside Hezbollah's thirty-year struggle against Israel. New York: Random House.