Middle East War Report for Friday, August 4

Updated January 29, 2008:

12 Israelis were killed and 145 more were wounded in the Middle East War today. 70 Israelis, 44 servicemen and 26 Israeli civilians, have been killed so far.

8 IDF soldiers were killed and 8 more were wounded, all in fighting in Lebanon.

4 Israeli civilians were killed and 137 more were wounded in a 220-rocket barrage on northern Israel.

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3 IDF soldiers were killed and 4 more were wounded in anti-tank missile attacks inside Lebanon in Taibe and Rajmin. It looks like at least one Merkava tank was destroyed in Rajmin. 3 of the 4-man crew in a tank in Rajmin was hit by a missile and the other crewmember was seriously wounded. These casualties apparently occurred very early on Friday morning.

Rajmin could not be located on any map but it is reportedly in the far southwest of Lebanon near the Israeli border and the coast, just north of Nahariyah. Taibe is about 4 miles west of Metulla and is the scene of very heavy fighting in the past 2 days.
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3 more IDF soldiers were killed by anti-tank fire in Merkabe in heavy fighting before dawn. Merkabe is 3 1/2 miles west of Kiryat Shemona and 1 mile west of the border. The IDF forces were attacked with a barrage of anti-tank missiles and machine gun fire in the village.

2 more soldiers were wounded. Hezbollah said this was an attack on a Merkava tank and that the tank was destroyed. Al Arabiya TV was saying that 5 Israeli soldiers were killed in this attack, but that is not confirmed yet.
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1 more IDF soldier was killed in fighting in Taibeh late on Friday night.

Hezbollah fighters detonated an antitank mine on an IDF bulldozer in the eastern section of southern Lebanon in the town Atabiyeh, wounding 2 IDF troops, 1 seriously. Hezbollah said the bulldozer was destroyed.

There was heavy fighting in the villages of Shihin and Tayr Harfa, 2 miles north of the border in the western sector, opposite the Israeli town of Adamit.

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Heavy fighting continued in Aita Al Shaab and Bint Jbeil. Bint Jbeil was reportedly conquered by Israel last weekend and the Hezbollah force in the city was wiped out. When Israel left, however, the city was still in the hands of Hezbollah and it remains in the hands of Hezbollah at the moment.

Hezbollah said that in fighting near Aita al-Shaab and Taibeh, 7 IDF tanks and 1 armored personnel carrier were destroyed in house to house fighting. There was no confirmation of these claims.
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IDF forces tried to take a strategic hill near the town of Naquora on the coast, 2 miles north of the border and 2 1/2 miles north of the Israeli town of Rosh Hanriqa.

There are 10,000 IDF troops fighting in southern Lebanon right now against an unknown number of Hezbollah and other Lebanese fighters.

Hezbollah rained rockets down on Israeli military bases in the Golan Heights yesterday. Some rockets hit the Syrian city of Kuneitra in the demilitarized zone on the border of the Golan Heights and Syria.

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4 Israeli civilians were killed and 135 more were wounded in Katyusha attacks in another Katyusha barrage on Israel's north. 220 rockets rained down on Israel. The 4 civilians were killed in Magdal Krum, Kfar Mughar, Kiryat Shemona and Deir al Asad. 3 of the missiles landed all the way down to Hadera and Pardes Hannah, the furthest so far.

Hadera is a large city 50 miles south of Lebanon and about 1/2 way between Haifa and Tel Aviv. We don't yet know what kind of rocket hit Hadera. Another missile in the same volley landed in the nearby Jezreel Valley southeast of Haifa. That missile was aimed at the Ramat Dan Air Force Base.

It is useful to note that many of Hezbollah's rocket attacks are aimed at Israeli barracks, military bases and arms factories. These are often located right next to towns, often cynically right next to Israeli Arab and Druze towns.
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Another insane, Hellish Katyusha rocket barrage pummeled Israel Friday, with 220 rockets raining down by evening. The barrages are continuing with no end in sight. The economy in the north of Israel has slammed to a halt. Rescue vehicles fill the roads, racing to and from the scenes of attacks.

The IDF says they killed at least 23 Hezbollah fighters, wounded 1 more and took several POW's in fighting in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has lost at least 70 fighters, and possibly many more, so far.

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At least 33 Syrian Kurdish farmworkers were killed and 20 more were wounded when an Israeli jet fired 3 missiles at a farm warehouse in Qaa, 30 miles northeast of Baalbeck on the border of Syria and Lebanon in the Bekaa Valley. Another 7 workers are still buried under the wreckage.

Five Syrian refrigerator trucks arrived at the warehouse to load up peaches and apples for the Syrian market, in order to bring them back into Syria and sell them. There were about 150 people present at the warehouse at the time.

The warehouse was located past Lebanese customs in the no mans land before the Syrian border. It was actually 2 miles past the Lebanese border, so the assumption is that it was inside Syria. Syrian troops helped in the rescue operation. This attack is hard to figure. Looks like a case of bad intelligence.

The IDF thought that the warehouses were suspicious and were thought to be holding weapons. Just more Israeli "attack first, think later", that we have seen so much of in this war. Either Israeli intelligence is terrible in this war or they are trying to stop all truck traffic from going across the border in either direction.

US TV is now stating that all of the Kurdish farmworkers were really Hezbollah in disguise and the plum warehouse was really a weapons warehouse. That sounds pretty dubious to me, and it was contradicted by the Israeli site Debka, which has direct links to Israeli intelligence.
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IDF aircraft bombed a home in Aita al Shaab in southern Lebanon where 17 civilians were hiding - initially, they were all buried in the rubble but later, 10 of them were found to be dead and 7 more were found to be wounded.

Another home in Taibe was also bombed by the IDF. There were 50 civilians hiding there - initial reports were that they are all buried in the rubble also. Later reports indicated that there were not 50 people hiding in this home and that only 1 person was killed here.
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Israeli jets attacked in the town of Budai, west of Baalbeck, killing 1 civilian and wounding 4 more.

Israeli jets and ships attacked the southern Beirut suburbs of Ruweiss and Ouzai, killing 1 Lebanese soldier and wounding 3 more. It's strange how the Lebanese army just sits there and lets themselves get attacked over and over by Israel and does nothing about it. You would think at some point they might start fighting back? These attacks targeted a Hamas office and the Bourj al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp.

The death toll in Lebanon, including those missing and buried under rubble, is now approximately 1000, if the latest massacres in Qaa and Aita Al-Shaab are credible. Of those, at least 120 are either guerrillas or Lebanese military. That leaves about 880 Lebanese civilians killed, missing, or buried in rubble right now. Not only is there no end in sight, but the situation appears to be escalating dangerously.

An IDF attack on the village of Dayr Qanun, 4 1/2 miles southeast of Tyre, destroyed a home.

Israeli aircraft and artillery also battered a number of towns around Tyre.

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Egyptian judges are urging President Mubarak to abrogate the peace treaty with Israel as null and void due to the fighting in Lebanon. Also, there are rumors that the military is getting restive and that a military coup may be imminent in which Mubarak is overthrown and a military regime takes its place.

The first move of the military regime would reportedly be an abrogation of the peace treaty with Israel. I regard these rumors as valid, but I am not sure if a coup is going to really come down or not.
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