Word: guerrillas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...after the war began, Israeli forces crossed the border south of Aitta Shaab, determined to capture and hold this normally scruffy village of tobacco farmers which is known for its strong support for Hizballah. But instead of encountering simple farmers, the Israeli troops came across some of the toughest guerrilla combatants in the Middle East. Armed with advanced anti-armor missiles and religious conviction, the small squads of Hizballah fighters holed up in Aitta Shaab thwarted the Israeli advance, destroying Merkava tanks and firing missiles into houses sheltering Israeli soldiers, killing or wounding those inside...
...enthusiastic support for Palestinian attacks, including suicide bombings, against Israelis. After he became Hizballah's leader at age 32, he calculated that hit-and-run attacks would eventually force the vastly mightier Israel Defense Forces to quit Lebanon, which they had first occupied in 1978. Following Hizballah's merciless guerrilla campaign, Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, making Nasrallah the first Arab commander in chief who could claim a victory over Israel. It came at a personal price: in 1997 his eldest son was killed by Israeli shellfire in southern Lebanon after Nasrallah encouraged him to go there and fight...
...Hizballah's tenacity and its guerrilla tactics have allowed it to inflict substantial casualties on the Israeli forces - upward of 70 soldiers since the campaign began, and 15 on Wednesday alone - and to continue fighting despite Israel's huge technological advantages. That makes Israeli control of the areas in which they've deployed partial, at best. For example, the Israeli military first announced that they had captured the village stronghold of Bint Jbeil two weeks ago, yet they have lost more than 20 men in ongoing fighting there since that date. And the decentralized and mobile nature of the Hizballah...
...Hizballah's calculations, of course, are different: It sees the U.S.-French proposal as handing Israel a victory it has not won on the battlefield. Israeli commanders have certainly been shocked by the resilience of Hizballah: Almost a month after the fighting began, the small guerrilla force has not only continued to fight doggedly - and remarkably effectively - to hold its positions in southern Lebanon, it also remains able to rain down scores of rockets every day on Israel's civilian population centers despite Israel's control of Lebanon's skies. Hizballah defined victory simply as survival as a military force...
...thousands of Lebanese villagers - Hizballah rockets fired from beyond the Litani River could still reach north and central Israel. And war planners have not forgotten that the last time Israeli forces dug in north of the border, their bases and supply lines were easy prey for Hizballah's guerrilla units...