Hezbollah has successfully smuggled parts of an advanced
missile system into Lebanon, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
According to U.S. officials, Hezbollah moved the equipment into Lebanon in
pieces, managing to avoid discovery by the Israel Air Force and intelligence
services.
The U.S. officials believe the Iran-backed militant
organization transferred advanced Yakhont anti-ship missiles from Syria into
Lebanon- but not the entire Russian-built system.
The officials also believe that during their attempts to
move the equipment, Hezbollah disconnected electricity and communications
networks in the Syria-Lebanon border area, in an attempt to hamper Israeli
intelligence efforts.
According to senior American officials, Hezbollah has large
weapons stockpiles in Syria that include surface-to-air missiles. The estimate
is that Hezbollah's depots in Syria currently have 12 advanced guided anti-ship
missile systems. The Israeli attack on the depots in July achieved only partial
results, according to U.S. officials.
Following the Israeli attack on weapons stockpiles on July 5
in Latakia, Israeli and American spy satellites detected Syrian Army forces
destroying equipment at a site that was bombed, in order to try and make the
Israelis and Americans think they had succeeded in destroying the anti-ship
missile launchers.
American intelligence damage control reports determined that
Israel had successfully eliminated only part of the target and that some of the
Yakhont missiles and launchers were not hit, but rather transferred to another
site.
According to the Wall Street Journal report, Israel bombed
the Yakhont launchers again on October 30. Israel informed the U.S. that the
attack hit some of the missile launchers' components, but that other parts are
stuck in depots in Syria.
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