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August 8, 2006
Fog Ink of War

The commander of IDF ground forces said Saturday that the IDF has won control of the village Maroun al-Ras in southern Lebanon, allowing troops to overlook Hizbullah command posts in the area.
[…]
"The forces have completed, more or less, their control of the area of the village Maroun al-Ras, and there have been lots of strikes against terrorists," Gantz told reporters in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening. "It was a tough fight that went on for some time."
‘IDF has won control over Maroun al-Ras’ – JPost – July 22, 2006

19:46  IDF forces destroy Hezbollah rocket launcher in Maroun Ras (Itim)
Flash News – Haaretz – August 8, 2006

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"The town is completely controlled by us," Col. Amnon Eshel Assulin, commander of the IDF Armored Brigade 7, told The Jerusalem Post. "No one came come in or out without our permission." The IDF’s success in taking Bint Jbail, considered the Hizbullah’s "terror capital" in southern Lebanon, proved, Assulim said, the military’s ability to reach any location in Lebanon, even Beirut if the government decided on that course of action.
Army seals off Hizbullah stronghold of Bint Jbail – JPost – July  25, 2006

12:47  IDF soldier seriously wounded in fighting in Bint Jbail (Haaretz)
Flash News – Haaretz – August 8, 2006

Posted by b on August 8, 2006 at 17:37 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Maroun al-Ras is described online as a “tiny village less than a mile from the border.”

Posted by: Ensley | Aug 8 2006 17:51 utc | 1

I don’t think it’s so much fog as ink — like an pctopus squirts to escape from an enemy. Except in this case the IDF’s enemy is the truth.

Posted by: billmon | Aug 8 2006 18:05 utc | 2

the idf are as george galloway sd, “getting a bloody good hiding” but with each hiding they receive they take it out on the innocents of tyre, sidon, beirut
it is a strategy, common to brutes & it would do the wehrmacht proud

Posted by: r’giap | Aug 8 2006 18:14 utc | 3

b. neither of those newsflash links are working for me.

Posted by: annie | Aug 8 2006 18:17 utc | 4

@annie – sorry, my mistake – the links are corrected now.
For people coming later, Haaretz circles the content at that link. If you check them later than today, the parts I quoted may have rolled off the screen.

Posted by: b | Aug 8 2006 18:25 utc | 5

I cannot imagine why they keep spouting such nonsense about their total control over this area, only to be proven wrong within hours, if not days. Bagdad Bob, anyone? The IDF has indeed found it’s Nasrallahgrad, and the highwater mark of their confederacy at Bint Jabail. War college textbooks of all nations will soon use this battle as the perfect example of how not to fight an insurgency, or anything else. It appears that the IDF’s vaunted Propaganda machine is going down in flames, along with Israel’s deterrence. They are now learning what they should have discovered from the America’s ongoing fiasco in Iraq. A sheathed sword in the scabbard of an apparently mighty soldier is a better deterrent than an unsheathed sword in the hands of a big blind fool. I wish I could hope that Israel will chose sane leaders after Olmert and Peretz are tossed out of office later this year, but history will again repeat itself, and they will go from bad to worse.

Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 8 2006 19:26 utc | 6

I cannot imagine why they keep spouting such nonsense about their total control over this area…
psych warfare. same thing went on in the early stages of the invasion of iraq. feeding disinfo to your enemies & their potential bases of support, exaggerating your power & sowing confusion, if not doubt.

Posted by: b real | Aug 8 2006 20:12 utc | 7

Yes, but @b real, disinformation that proves obviously wrong within hours of the statements, ala Bagdad Boob, creates doubts on the credibility of anything they might say afterwards. Sort of like the Poison Dwarf at the end of WWII, with his inane broadcasts regarding the impending defeat of the Allies. All anyone had to do to prove he was lying was look up at the aluminum overcast overhead. Guess the Israeli’s are trying to convince the home front all is well, and freeance and peance are on the march. No one else, other than Murdoch viewers is going to buy it. But from my years of reading Israel’s newspapers, I’d have to say that they will believe anything that tells them how wonderful and exceptional they are, and how horrid everyone else, Americans included, is. The honest voices, who actually point out the reality of the situation to them are castigated, reviled, and swiftboated instantly. Hats off to Akiva Eldar and Gideon Levy for honesty and courage beyond the call of duty. Wish we had a few more real reporters with their integrity in America.

Posted by: Serf in USA | Aug 8 2006 20:56 utc | 8

Paul Rogers says the Israelis are retreating across the border every night.

Posted by: Dick Durata | Aug 8 2006 22:30 utc | 9

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