VIDEO - It was released for publication Tuesday that the IDF suffered a number of casualties during battles in Aita al-Shaab in south Lebanon.
Paratroopers have been operating in the village since pre-dawn Tuesday, with air force and tank brigade backup. At least six Hizbullah
terrorists were killed in the fighting.
Brigadier-General Alon Friedman, head of the IDF’s Northern Command headquarters, said “the ground forces are operating with the back-up of artillery fire to clear the area of terrorists and weapons caches; some 20 terrorists have been hit since the fighting began this morning.”
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| Fighting in Aita al-Shaab (Video: Al-Jazeera) |
A military official described the difficult battles: “At every moment, a terrorist pops up. The shooting here doesn’t let up for a minute. Terrorists are operating from within posts, within houses and between them.”
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Shortly after the political-security cabinet approved
the widening of the ground offensive in south Lebanon, forces began deploying to numerous sites along the border. Overnight Tuesday, paratrooper brigades began operating in the village with backup from tank brigades and the Air Force.
The village Aita al-Shaab is located roughly one kilometer from the Israeli
border, although the IDF clarified that the army would operate anywhere in south Lebanon which housed terror infrastructure.
Troops would be deployed to varying degrees, according to necessity, anywhere in the south, army officials said. Currently, forces were fighting up
to six kilometers (3.7 miles) into Lebanese territory.
Simultaneous to the activities of the larger forces, smaller operations were also being carried out across southern Lebanon based on intelligence information.
During the fighting, a number of anti-tank missiles were fired at paratroopers operating in the village. Troops entered the village under cover of night aiming to strike Hizbullah infrastructure. According to assessments, a number of terror cells are located at the site.
Tuesday afternoon Arab media sources reported renewed Air Force attacks after a two-day suspension of air bombardments following
the strike in the Lebanese village of Qana, which resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians. Massive explosions shook Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border.
Five full brigades are now operating in south Lebanon, after two tank brigades joined Nahal, the Golani 13th Battalion, and a Paratrooper brigade. This is the largest number of soldiers fighting on the field since the beginning of the current conflict. Reserve troops called up over
the past week are also slated to join the fighting soon.
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