The New York Post has a good account of the raid on a Hezbollah hospital in Baalbek, in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, night before last. The Post reports that the hospital was chosen as a target in part because Israel had intelligence that its two kidnapped soldiers may have been treated there shortly after they were abducted. The Israeli commandos killed at least ten terrorists, captured five more, who are believed to be quite high ranking in Hezbollah’s organization, and recovered a cache of weapons and–perhaps most significant–a considerable number of documents. Israeli authorities say that this was just one of a number of commando operations, most of which have not been publicized.
Blog of the Week Vital Perspective has fascinating video footage shot during the raid by Israeli soldiers. Among other things, it shows them going through Hezbollah filing cabinets. The commandos were on the ground for 4 1/2 hours. What took so long? I’d guess that most of that time was spent reviewing and selecting documents to take back to Israel. The Baalbek raid had multiple objectives, and I’m only guessing here, but I suspect that one important purpose was to obtain information and evidence about the roles of Iran and Syria in Lebanon-based terrorism.
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