Israel Versus the Guerrillas

As America is doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel is learning the hard way the lessons of counter-insurgency. From DEBKAfile:

In South Lebanon, soldiers in their twenties are fighting tough, highly-trained guerrilla fighters for the first time on unfamiliar terrain without air or tank cover. Choppers are not used for fear of anti-air missile ambushes and the tanks in rugged mountain terrain are at the mercy of densely-placed roadside bombs and heavy Hizballah Katyusha rocket and mortar fire. Two tanks have been blown up. Ground troops are therefore taking the brunt of the fighting. Some report to DEBKAfile that in close combat, they have heard officers shouting in Farsi. Just as in Jenin 2002, Israeli forces encountered Hizballah and al Qaeda fighters in support of Palestinians, now they are facing members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards who are aiding Hizballah in Lebanon.
The men come home with hair-raising accounts of storming the hundreds of bunkers and caves in which Hizballah fighters are lurking. On Wednesday, July 19, Israeli soldiers fought their way into a tunnel in the Maroun es Ras area, blew it up killing the 10-15 fighters inside, and emerged to engage another group of Hizballah hiding in the dense foliage a few yards away. A hand-to-hand battle ensued in which the first two soldiers, 1st Sgt Yonatan Hadasi, 21, and 1st Sgt. Yotam Gilboa lost their lives. Israel’s death toll would have been higher had not rescue and ambulance teams braved heavy fire to extricate the wounded. Five years of tactics used against the rag-tag Palestinian terrorists - painstaking counter-measures, air strikes on empty buildings, succumbing to diplomatic pressure for restraint, have left the IDF ill-prepared to face tough Hizballah guerrilla methods of warfare.

But this doesn't mean they are losing (as has been said of US troops), rather they are LEARNING!.