IDF troops simulate Hezbollah warfare
Camouflage, Kalashnikov rifles, and planting bombs were all a part of the Nahal Brigade's recent drill simulating warfare against Hezbollah. The drill took place in the Galilee region, with Nahal soldiers acting as Hezbollah fighters.
As part of the Nahal's training, which has been taking place over the past several months, some of the brigade's companies were converted to replicate those of the Lebanese-Shiite terror organization, with the rest of the forces fighting against them.
The Nahal's "Hezbollah Companies" wear camouflage uniforms (as opposed to the IDF's olive-green uniform), use weapons that were actually captured from Hezbollah such as AK-47 rifles and RPG launchers, and employ Hezbollah tactics, such as placing bombs on the IDF's expected path.
In addition, these companies have been provided command and control centers modeled on intelligence information relating to the originals, which would be used by Hezbollah in case of a third armed conflict in Lebanon. These centers have deliberately been placed by Hezbollah in the midst of civilian areas, and thus so have the simulated command hubs of the IDF "Hezbollah Companies."
The "Hezbollah Companies" operated in the Druze village of Samia in the Galilee, with regular Nahal troops being assigned the task of taking and clearing their positions, following a 30 kilometer march. Both sides fired blanks at each other during the drills and used pyrotechnics to simulate the battle scenarios they would likely encounte in a Southern Lebanon clash with Hezbollah's real fighters.
"Enemy simulation is a profession for us, and we check the commanders and fighters in enemy simulations as a legitimate way of gauging how they would act in the face of the IDF if they were Hezbollah's people?," a senior Nahal officer said, "They are tested on where the correct place to lay their Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) is on the outskirts of the village in the face of IDF forces. A 'Hezbollah Company' needs to cleverly place lookouts, whose goal is to identify battalion soldiers approaching."
"When the enemy simulation company identified (the regular Nahal troops) first, we 'destroyed' the force that was identified and the battalion continued without it," the officer continued. "This all happens in a Galilee village, with barking dogs, surrounded by building structures in town outskirts with large vegetation. (It smells like ) the scents of the village. Construction is low, there are fences around houses, and (we evem simulate) the same way of parking on the sides of narrow streets. It's the closest (we can get) to the expected reality in Southern Lebanon."
