Hezbollah operatives were killed or fled terror group’s ‘nerve center’ beneath hill in south Lebanon in recent weeks, army says, belying reports it was holding off offensive amid threats by Iran.
The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday night that it had finished clearing a “strategic” underground facility belonging to the Hezbollah terror group beneath a mountainous ridge in southern Lebanon in recent weeks. The Ali Taher Ridge is located within Israel’s southern Lebanon buffer zone, near Nabatieh. According to the IDF, Hezbollah built tunnel systems beneath the hill, which served as the “nerve center” of the terror group’s Badr regional division — a unit tasked with the area of southern Lebanon that is north of the Litani River. Dozens of Hezbollah operatives were believed to be holed up under Ali Taher when a new ceasefire took effect in June.
In a statement Thursday night, the IDF said that in the past few weeks, troops of the 36th Division, who had achieved “operational control of the ridge area above and below ground,” cleared two major tunnel routes under Ali Taher of Hezbollah operatives, killing some of them while others fled. A military official said that control was achieved through “offensive operational activities” in recent weeks, including ambushes against the Hezbollah operatives who had been hiding there, and attacks on the tunnel shafts with gunfire, grenades, drones, and airstrikes. Hezbollah also launched several explosive drones at troops operating on the ridge in recent weeks, including on Wednesday. The IDF described the facility as a “strategic infrastructure that was built over two decades,” activity it said was financed and planned by Iran.
The military said that Hezbollah operatives from the Badr unit had launched attacks from the underground site at troops and Israeli civilians in recent years. “Following the activity in the infrastructure in recent weeks, the ability to carry out terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops from the infrastructure has been neutralized,” the military said. Inside the tunnels, the troops found “command centers, weapons rooms, generator rooms, living quarters, showers, and a kitchen,” which the IDF said enabled Hezbollah operatives “to conduct fighting and remain there for extended periods.” (Read More)
