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 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 10 soldiers wounded | At least 1 killed 7 killed (IDF claim) |
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| 4 civilians killed 1 Lebanon army soldier killed | |||||||
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The Tyre raid was a night mission by the Israel Defense Forces naval commando unit, Shayetet 13, in Tyre, South Lebanon, on August 5, 2006. The alleged target was an apartment building, housing a Hezbollah cell responsible for the rocket attack on Hadera a day earlier.
[edit] 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.[1] The Israelis apparently failed to achieve its target, the killing of a senior Hezbollah figure.[2]
When withdrawing from the building exchanges of fire between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah gunmen erupted, with Israeli Air Force helicopter gunships providing the soldiers on the ground with fire-support. The clashes were described by Hezbollah spokesman as an "ambush".[3] Some three hours later, at around 4:00 a.m., the soldiers withdrew from the area. Two severely wounded soldiers, as well as the other casualties, were airlifted to the Rambam Hospital in Haifa, Israel.
At least one Hezbollah fighter was killed in the raid. The apartment building was bombed into rubble by an Israeli jet later in the afternoon. Hezbollah resumed rocket launching from the site within hours of the raid.[4]
Additionally one Lebanese army soldier and at least four civilians were killed in the raid.[5] According to the IDF "at least six"[6], seven[1] or ten[7] Hezbollah fighters were killed in the clashes while 10 IDF soldiers were wounded, two of them seriously.
[edit] Sources
- ^ a b Efrat Weiss (08.05.06). "10 soldiers hurt in raid on Tyre". Yedioth Ahronoth. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3286507,00.html. Retrieved Jan 18 2012.
- ^ Amos Harel (01.06.2010). "Elite Shayetet unit often carries army's heaviest, most secretive burdens". http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/elite-shayetet-unit-often-carries-army-s-heaviest-most-secretive-burdens-1.293406. Retrieved Jan 23 2012.
- ^ Agence France Presse (AFP) (August 05, 2006). "Hezbollah says it foiled Israel commando raid on Tyre". Daily Star. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/Aug/05/Hezbollah-says-it-foiled-Israel-commando-raid-on-Tyre.ashx#ixzz1k6C048Wu. Retrieved Jan 18 2012.
- ^ Blanford (2011), pp. 393-94
- ^ "Israeli commandos stage Tyre raid". BBC. 5 August 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5247670.stm. Retrieved Jan 18 2012.
- ^ Amos Harel (06.08.2006). "Commando raid in Tyre kills senior Hezbollah operatives". Haaretz. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/commando-raid-in-tyre-kills-senior-hezbollah-operatives-1.194492. Retrieved Jan 23 2012.
- ^ Efrat Weiss (08.05.2006). "Tyre raid ‘heroic operation’". Yedioth Ahronoth. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3286565,00.html. Retrieved Jan 18 2012.
- Blanford, Nicholas (2011). Warriors of God, Inside Hezbollah’s thirty-year struggle against Israel. New York: Random House.
