Hezbollah’s ability to use relatively advanced weapons against Israel, as well as the variety of its armaments, has surprised U.S. military experts, current and former officials involved in Middle East policy said.
Hezbollah has gained attributes more often associated with a national military–fixed training bases, rocket-launching facilities, well-trained artillerymen–than with a guerrilla or terrorist group, they said.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because intelligence matters are involved, said Hezbollah fighters, once viewed as a ragtag group, appear to have received training from Iran in sophisticated missile technologies. Some of the training may have taken place in Iran, they said.
“The analysis around here is they have more expertise than the Lebanese military,” a senior U.S. military official said.
U.S. defense and intelligence officials cautioned that despite the speculation of some analysts, including Israeli officials, that Iranian operatives are directly involved in the combat, there is little evidence that Iranian special operations groups are fighting alongside the Shiite Muslim militants.
Former officials warned that any determination of Iranian intent is highly uncertain.
“This is an opaque universe that’s very hard to penetrate, and there’s a lot of extrapolation based on bits of information,” said Jon Alterman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, who worked in the State Department under President Bush.
One Israeli intelligence official, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, said there was evidence that Iran had stepped up arms shipments through Camp Zabadani, a base that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards maintain in Syria, near the Lebanese border.
An Israeli air raid Tuesday destroyed an arms-laden convoy of trucks that had originated at Camp Zabadani, entered Lebanon and was bound for the militants, the official said.
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Recent shipments from Iran to Lebanon via Syria included FL-10 naval missiles, which are based on Chinese technology and have a range of 9 to 18 miles, as well as Katyusha short-range artillery rockets and Iranian-made Fajr 3 and Fajr 5 missiles, the Israelis allege.
U.S. and Israeli analysts and officials believe Hezbollah’s weaponry includes thousands of the unsophisticated Katyushas, as well as about 100 longer-range Fajr 3 and Fajr 5 rockets, which can travel about 25 and 45 miles.
Of greater concern to Israel is whether Hezbollah possesses the Iranian-made Zelzal 2 missile. The International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based information clearinghouse, estimates the range of that weapon at 60 to 240 miles, which would put virtually all Israeli cities within striking distance of southern Lebanon.
The Israeli government says Hezbollah has had at least four of the missiles, one of which it says it destroyed and another it says malfunctioned.