Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Iranian Built Katyusha MLRS
"You won't see this kind of weapon in the arsenal of any civilized country," the deputy head of the police bomb disposal unit said. "Certainly not with Israel or the United States."
HAIFA, Israel -- The rockets Hezbollah is raining down on Haifa and much of northern Israel are distinctly different from the Soviet-built katyushas of earlier wars, Israeli officials say.
Instead of standard military fragmentation warheads – deadly enough – Hezbollah's rockets are packed with thousands of tiny ball-bearings, which burst out from the warhead in every direction like so many bullets.
"This kind of rocket gives no one a chance," Haifa police chief, Commander Nir Meriash, said today.
Haifa is Israel's third-largest city, and since the rocket attacks began on July 12, nearly half its roughly 270,000 population has fled for safety to Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel.
More than 1,200 rockets have hit northern Israel over the past thirteen days, killing 17 civilians and wounding another 410, according to the Israeli police.
Another 609 people have been treated for shock and minor injuries and released, said regional police commander, Maj. Gen. Ronen Dan. At least 60 of the Hezbollah rockets have slammed into Haifa over the past two weeks. Most of them have been 220 mm Katyusha-type rockets, made in Syria. Each rocket carries 40,000 deadly ball bearings, packed into a warhead with 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of high explosives.
In addition, around a half-dozen of the larger FAJR-3 rockets have hit the Haifa area, including a deadly strike on July 16 that killed eight railway workers in a train maintenance depot.
Iranian Built FAJR-3 MLRS
The FAJR rockets, made in Iran, carry a 110 pound warhead. But what made the July 16 strike so deadly were the tiny ball bearings packed inside.
"Haifa has never been attacked like this," Meriash said. "These attacks are meant to kill civilians."
Even as Haifa police tried to attend to the wounded and clear the scene of any unexploded ordnance, three more rockets struck elsewhere in the city.
Although the rockets are relatively small, they have smashed through the tile roofs and the soft cinderblock walls of apartment houses and other dwellings, killing and wounding people on several floors.
When they explode out in the open, anyone within a fifty meter radius will be seriously wounded.
"I found a woman lying in the street with one of her legs beside her, detached from her body," Meriash said. That attack occurred last Friday, July 21.
In attacks here just yesterday, one man was killed while driving to work. Another was struck by the deadly ball-bearings while running to reach a shelter after the air raid siren went off. He also died.
Most of these rockets are highly inaccurate, wandering off their aim point by anywhere from two to seven percent over distances up to 75 kilometers (45 miles).
That can mean missing their target by half a mile or more.
But Haifa is an enormous target-rich environment, with a sprawling city center that climbs up a mountain directly across from Hezbollah positions in Lebanon.
Vast industrial areas in low-lying areas along the port contain sprawling chemical plants and a refinery. The police have taken special measures to protect those sites, they said.
North of here, closer to the Lebanese border, Hezbollah is using extended-range katyushas known as "Raed" rockets. These also are packed with the deadly ball bearings, and have killed and maimed civilians in dozens of Israeli towns and agricultural settlements along the Mediterranean and in the Galilee.
type81_122mm Raed MLRS firing a salvo
The Chinese-made Raed rockets were supplied to Hezbollah by Iran.
British-born Michael Cardash said his bomb disposal teams had physically handled debris from 444 of those attacks, but has rarely been called upon to disable live munitions.
"These weapons were all made in factories. So they work," he said.
1 comment:
The way they make those (filled with ball bearings, nails, etc) is just like how the "Palestinians" make their suicide bombs. So what you have here is (to a muslim) the best of both worlds. A fusion of modern factory made weapon and suicide bomb.. without the suicide bomber.
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