Largely Empty, Stronghold of Militia Is Still Perilous By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. Published: August 14, 2006
BINT JBAIL, Lebanon, Aug. 12 Not long ago, this town was known as "the capital of the resistance," the most important Hezbollah stronghold in the southern reaches of Lebanon. Now Bint Jbail appears largely deserted. Most of the homes are damaged, some pockmarked by bullets or shrapnel and others reduced to piles of stone and concrete by Israeli artillery that continues to pound the village. But while Israeli troops have pushed farther north, Bint Jbail remains a very dangerous place for Israeli soldiers and a fitting illustration for why the war has become so frustrating for troops who had come to expect a swift and deep push into Lebanon. Late on Wednesday night, Israeli soldiers from the elite Golani Brigade hiked five miles through darkness over tall hills carrying full packs, rifles and heavy jugs of water, arriving here a few hours before dawn. Accompanied by a reporter, they holed up in the second story of an unfinished house. Hezbollah attacked a few hours later, at 8 a.m., firing a powerful missile into a Merkava tank in front of the house, wounding two crewmen. Two hours later, a second antitank missile slammed into the top of the three-story house with a thunderous crack, shattering some of the few remaining windowpanes and shaking the home violently. No soldiers had been on the top floor, and no one was hurt. But after two close calls, commanders herded a dozen enlisted men into the room thought to offer the most protection from missiles, an unfinished bathroom on the first floor. A few other members of the 20-man unit lay down outside the room, in an area between thick concrete walls. The unit that had taken shelter in this house, part of the Golani Brigade's 51st Battalion, spent the next 36 hours sitting cramped-legged on bathroom tiles, dozing while leaning on one another, their rifles and their buddies' legs on top of them. Hezbollah missiles continued to occasionally explode nearby. It was not the battalion's first mission here. On July 26, eight battalion soldiers were killed in close-quarters fighting with Hezbollah militiamen, including a deputy commander who threw himself on a live grenade to save the men around him. Instead of that sort of fighting, the Israeli troops in Bint Jbail now dread the Hezbollah missiles that have forced the Israelis to alter much of its battle plan, as troops in Lebanon tailor their moves in fear of the militia's modern and accurate weapons. After first pushing into Lebanon in heavy armor, the Israeli forces are doing much more on foot and also walking at night to avoid giving the Hezbollah missile units an easy target, commanders here said. Even in areas well behind the front lines, the soldiers' days are spent hiding away from windows in reinforced, interior rooms to avoid the danger demonstrated by Thursday morning's near misses. This battle resembles Russia's fight against Chechen rebels, said Vladi, one of the Israeli soldiers who took shelter in the house here. An émigré who fought in the Russian Army, Vladi, who declined to give his last name, said Israel now faced a more robust foe than the Chechens. "Hezbollah is tougher," he said. On the ridge where the 51st Battalion hunkered down, many homes were of sturdy, expensive construction. The partly built home where the 20-member unit of the Golani Battalion had taken shelter appeared to be intended for a wealthy family, with thick concrete walls and ceilings, elaborate crown moldings, and stylish tiling. Now it was strewn with shards of glass, heaps of dust, wood splinters and trash. After Thursday's missile strikes, Col. Omri Bar-David peered through pieces of glass still hanging in a window frame and pointed to a ridge about two miles away being bombed by Israeli jets. That, he said, is where the missiles were launched. Both missiles that struck Thursday were Russian-made Kornets, with a range up to about three miles, said Colonel Bar-David, a reserve commander of another battalion, and a corporate lawyer in civilian life, who had made the trip with the Golani soldiers. "At first we sent the armor in, but the Hezbollah had missiles," he said. "So we decided to use the old method on two legs." Hezbollah fighters, he added, are skilled and resilient. "From the point of view of the individual soldier, they are better than the Arab armies that surround us," he said, referring to other Middle Eastern nations. The missile attacks on Thursday morning were dangerous, but nothing like earlier battles in Bint Jbail and nearby villages. In one attack, Hezbollah militiamen struck a house of Israeli soldiers with three missiles, killing two men and wounding 30 everybody in the house, said Joel Abel, a sergeant and medic for a unit of paratroopers that had been engaged in fierce fighting in Bint Jbail, Aita al Shaab and Marun al Ras. Interviewed in northern Israel as he waited for his unit to return to Lebanon, Sergeant Abel described how missile attacks and cramped quarters had taken their toll on some younger soldiers in his unit who had been holed up in houses attacked by Hezbollah. "They were quite hysterical," he said. "They sat on the side and didn't know what to do. It was the first time they'd ever seen that kind of fighting," he said, fighting "you don't see from the Palestinians." At one point, Sergeant Abel said, a soldier preparing to fire at a Hezbollah position dived into a small room with five other soldiers to avoid another incoming missile. He said the Israeli soldier accidentally fired his weapon, severing the leg of another soldier who screamed, "My leg is boiling. Save me!" During a moment of relative quiet at the house in Bint Jbail, a few younger troops listened as the most experienced soldier in the house, Col. Shlomo Parente, 48, who first fought in Lebanon during Israel's occupation more than two decades ago, tried to put this war into some perspective. "In the first war we got to the Litani after four or five days," he said, referring to the river. "This is different. Hezbollah doesn't run, they know how to fight, and they are fanatics." In an interview later, Colonel Parente also blamed Israeli leaders, saying their indecisiveness was responsible for the lack of progress. "This time it's like fighting through chewing gum, or glue," he said. Nor does he have faith in the Lebanese Army, which under the United Nations cease-fire plan would patrol southern Lebanon with an international peacekeeping force. While the cease-fire is supposed to go into effect on Monday morning, it was not clear how soon the actual fighting would stop. "They are no good," he said of the Lebanese soldiers. "They are afraid of Hezbollah." The Golani soldiers got along well despite the cramped quarters. They slept with their heads on one another's shoulders as they occasionally fidgeted to get more comfortable, or emerged from the bathroom to take a turn standing guard. "It's been ugly," said Dudi Levisohn, an enlisted man, as he stood guard. "But it's our job." Speaking matter-of-factly, without sarcasm, he added, "We suffer so the people in Tel Aviv can enjoy themselves." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/14/world/middleeast/14troops.html?ei=5094&en=a64850e09017dffd&hp=&ex=1155614400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! 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