Thursday, July 20, 2006

Hezbollah's military capability

Reuters Factbox, 17/7/06...

.....Following is an assessment of Hezbollah's military capability before Israel's offensive, according to Nicholas Blanford, a Beirut-based analyst for Jane's Defense Weekly, as well as Lebanese and Israeli security sources:

GUERRILLAS
-- 600 full-time fighters and another 3,000-4,500 veterans available for mobilization. Hezbollah guerrillas undergo training sponsored by Iran, use a range of infantry small arms, and carry out roadside and suicide bomb attacks.
-- 15,000-30,000 reservists in volunteer militias.

ROCKETS/MISSILES
-- 13,000 Katyusha rockets. The 107mm variant has a range of 11 km (7 miles), the 122mm variant a range of 20 km (12 miles).
-- Iranian-made Fajr-3 rockets, with a range of 45 km (27 miles), and the Fajr-5 variant with a range of around 70 km (46 miles). Footage broadcast by Hezbollah suggests it manufactured its own version of the latter, renaming it Raad-1. Israel puts the number of these at around 100.
-- Israel said Hezbollah fired a Syrian-supplied 220mm rocket, with a 90 kg (200 lb) warhead at its port city of Haifa on Sunday that killed eight people. Hezbollah said it had fired a salvo of Raad-2 and Raad-3 rockets, but did not immediately provide further details.
-- Foreign analysts believe Iran has secretly deployed Zelzal-2 ballistic missiles with Hezbollah. Believed capable of carrying a 600 kg (1,320 lb) warhead, possibly with chemical or biological agents, to a maximum range of 200 km (125 miles). That would put all major Israeli cities in range.
-- Hezbollah fired an Iranian-supplied C-802 missile at an Israeli navy vessel off Beirut last week, killing four sailors.

COMMAND STRUCTURE
-- Hezbollah has headquarters in the Shi'ite districts of Beirut and southern Lebanon, training camps in the Bekaa Valley, and liaison offices in Syria and Iran.

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