Posted on 07/24/2006 1:24:39 PM PDT by kddid
HAIFA, Israel -- The rockets Hezbollah is raining down on Haifa and much of northern Israel are distinctly different from the Soviet-built katyushas of earlier wars, Israeli officials say.
Instead of standard military fragmentation warheads – deadly enough – Hezbollah's rockets are packed with thousands of tiny ball-bearings, which burst out from the warhead in every direction like so many bullets.
"This kind of rocket gives no one a chance," Haifa police chief, Commander Nir Meriash, told NewsMax today.
Haifa is Israel's third-largest city, and since the rocket attacks began on July 12, nearly half its roughly 270,000 population has fled for safety to Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel.
More than 1,200 rockets have hit northern Israel over the past thirteen days, killing 17 civilians and wounding another 410, according to the Israeli police.
Another 609 people have been treated for shock and minor injuries and released, said regional police commander, Maj. Gen. Ronen Dan.
At least 60 of the Hezbollah rockets have slammed into Haifa over the past two weeks. Most of them have been 220 mm Katyusha-type rockets, made in Syria. Each rocket carries 40,000 deadly ball bearings, packed into a warhead with 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of high explosives.
In addition, around a half-dozen of the larger FAJR-3 rockets have hit the Haifa area, including a deadly strike on July 16 that killed eight railway workers in a train maintenance depot.
The FAJR rockets, made in Iran, carry a 110 pound warhead. But what made the July 16 strike so deadly were the tiny ball bearings packed inside.
"Haifa has never been attacked like this," Meriash said. "These attacks are meant to kill civilians."
Even as Haifa police tried to attend to the wounded and clear the scene of any unexploded ordnance, three more rockets struck elsewhere in the city.
Although the rockets are relatively small, they have smashed through the tile roofs and the soft cinderblock walls of apartment houses and other dwellings, killing and wounding people on several floors.
When they explode out in the open, anyone within a fifty meter radius will be seriously wounded.
"I found a woman lying in the street with one of her legs beside her, detached from her body," Meriash said. That attack occurred last Friday, July 21.
In attacks here just yesterday, one man was killed while driving to work. Another was struck by the deadly ball-bearings while running to reach a shelter after the air raid siren went off. He also died.
Most of these rockets are highly inaccurate, wandering off their aim point by anywhere from two to seven percent over distances up to 75 kilometers (45 miles).
That can mean missing their target by half a mile or more.
But Haifa is an enormous target-rich environment, with a sprawling city center that climbs up a mountain directly across from Hezbollah positions in Lebanon.
Vast industrial areas in low-lying areas along the port contain sprawling chemical plants and a refinery. The police have taken special measures to protect those sites, they said.
North of here, closer to the Lebanese border, Hezbollah is using extended-range katyushas known as "Raed" rockets. These also are packed with the deadly ball bearings, and have killed and maimed civilians in dozens of Israeli towns and agricultural settlements along the Mediterranean and in the Galilee.
The Chinese-made Raed rockets were supplied to Hezbollah by Iran.
"You won't see this kind of weapon in the arsenal of any civilized country," the deputy head of the police bomb disposal unit told Newsmax. "Certainly not with Israel or the United States."
British-born Michael Cardash said his bomb disposal teams had physically handled debris from 444 of those attacks, but has rarely been called upon to disable live munitions.
"These weapons were all made in factories. So they work," he said.
His teams have gathered pieces of the different rockets and put them on display at police headquarters, near the port of Haifa.
They include:
122mm Grad rockets. These are the classic, Soviet-built katyusha rockets used in 1982 by the PLO against Israel. They carry a standard fragmentation warhead, with 6.33 kilograms of high explosives. Range: 20.4 km range.
122mm improved rockets, also known as "Raed." These Chinese-built rockets carry the same 6.33 kg explosive charge, but are packed with hundreds of ball bearings. Range: 30-35 km.
220 mm rockets, made in Syria. These are the rockets that have been used mostly against Haifa. A large, 40 kilogram explosive charge shoots out an estimated 40,000 tiny ball bearings. Range: 65-70 km range.
240 mm rocket, Katyusha family. 10.5 km range. 18 kg HE.
FAJR 3. This is an Iranian-made 240mm rocket that carries a large, 50 kg (110 pound) warhead, packed with tens of thousands of ball bearings. Range: 43 km range.
Hezbollah is also known to have two longer-range weapons, which they have yet to use successfully: the Iranian-made FAJR 5, a 75-km range rocket carrying a 90 kilogram warhead; and the Zelzal-1 missile, which can reach targets over 200 kilometers away with a 400 kilogram warhead – several times larger than the SCUD missiles Saddam Hussein launched against Israel in 1991.
The regional police commander, Maj. Gen. Dan, confirmed reports that Israel has deployed Patriot missiles in northern Israel, but said they were not effective against the rockets now being fired against the city.
"We have deployed these missiles for a more serious type of war than we have at the moment," he said.
Israeli military sources said he was referring to the Zelzal missiles, which Hezbollah has not fired since Israeli jets struck a Zelzal launcher last week.
The Israeli air strike made the missile misfire and hit Beirut. The explosion was so big that Hezbollah initially claimed it had downed an Israeli fighter jet.
Israeli intelligence sources have said that several Iranian military advisors have been killed in the recent fighting alongside Hezbollah missile units, but their bodies have been sent to Syria in civilian convoys and repatriated to Iran.
Israeli military intelligence believes Hezbollah will run out of missiles and rockets to fire at Israel within a month, unless it gets resupplied through Syria.
"That is why we have cut all the roads from Syria to Lebanon," a senior Israeli military official, Brig. Gen. Ido Nekushan, said here today.
Nothing to see here, move along.
bttt
No, no, no. The Isrealis are targeting civilians. I just saw this on NBC Nightly News last night. The Arabs are peaceful olive growers who just want their land back. Get with the program.
I find it ironic that the Soviet Union voted for the partition of Palestine and the creation of Israel, then supported the Palestinians.
Hezbollah - Targeting Israeli civilian areas to kill civilians.
Hezbollah - Hiding amongst Lebonese civilians to have Israeli air strikes kill civilians as well.
It's so plainly obvious, and the rest of the world is either hopelessly naive or morally negligent in not calling this out.
Another was struck by the deadly ball-bearings while running to reach a shelter after the air raid siren went off. He also died.If one finds oneself in the open and sees or hears one of these things about to hit, falling prone, away from the blast site, will cut down on the surface area for the ball bearings to hit.
Look for Amnesty International to go suddenly silent, and the United Nations to encourage Hizbolla to kill even more civilians.
War crimes are what we (and our friends) do to others. Our enemies cannot commit war crimes. By definition, they are fighting the good fight, so their choice of tactics is justifiable. Or so they say.
War crimes. Other than that, the MSM couldn't care less.
Yep, poor man's cluster bomb - really ugly.
And THAT is the biggest problem we face. While our men and women take the battle to the enemy in the sandbox, WE have to STAND UP for decency and innocent human beings! I get so damned mad!
Future UN resolution:
Israel's illegal seizure of WMD which are verified as joint property between Saddam Hussein and Hezbollah, is hereby condemned by the UN. Israel must return these WMD to either Hamas or Hezbollah, or face international sanctions.
Hezbollah will KILL anyone including you. Learn WHO the BAD GUYS ARE!
(Go Israel, Go! Slap 'Em Down Hezbullies.)
Not too funny.
"It would be a good thing."
As Martha Stewart says.
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