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RESISTANCE GROUP OPERATIONS INCREASE

Date Reported: Friday, November 05, 1999

Incident Type: SECURITY

Country: SOUTH, LEBANON

Incident: The Daily Star reports that the resistance staged 280 attacks in October, its highest number ever in a one-month period, according to UNIFIL. Almost all were carried out by Hizbullah and Amal, with a handful by the multi-faith Lebanese Resistance Brigades, a couple by the Communist-led National Resistance Movement and one by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The monthly figures have climbed steadily since a brief lull in July; August recorded 190 attacks and September 220.

UNIFIL spokesman Timur Goksel said that there were two main reasons behind the dramatic increase. "Hizbullah is determined to show that the Israeli air attacks aren't working and that they're continuing firing. The other reason is that there has been an increase in minor attacks by Amal." Amal, which returned to the frontline two months ago, accounted for around half the total in October, most of them routine mortar attacks of one or two rounds each. Hizbullah claimed responsibility for 121 operations.

The Israelis have begun responding to resistance operations with air strikes in a bid to minimize troop casualties. Israeli soldiers are rarely seen outside their reinforced concrete bunkers, providing the resistance with fewer targets. This explains why the month's casualty figures were relatively low. Three SLA militiamen were killed and three wounded. Three Israeli soldiers were wounded, along with one Hizbullah fighter and six civilians.

Hizbullah was responsible for the qualitative assaults: an attack on an Israeli armored convoy at the entrance of the Rihan outpost on Oct. 7 that wounded two soldiers; a roadside-bomb ambush just 100 meters from the entrance to Beaufort Castle on Oct. 27; and a bombing beside the Kfar Houne outpost last Friday in which an SLA militiaman was killed.

The Jihad operation provoked unfounded speculation that the group was about to become an active player in the south. But the attack, a couple of mortar rounds fired at the posts near Nabatieh, was more likely intended to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of the group's founder, Fathi Shekaki, by Israeli agents. Commemorating Shekaki's killing was the motive for the last Jihad attack in the south on Oct. 24, 1997, when three members of the group were killed in a clash with Israeli troops.

Security sources said that the two most significant developments on the ground in October were the increased use of the 107mm short-range Katyusha rocket and the return to roadside bomb ambushes. The latter suggests that Hizbullah has been able to replenish its stockpiles of bombs inside the zone, the sources said. However, bombs continue to be uncovered by the occupation forces. Two militiamen were killed by a roadside bomb at the Zimraya crossing on Sept. 1, the first such assault in the area.