Lebanese reports say Israeli forces have conducted a helicopter landing near the border town of Sarghaya
By Bernie,
Lebanese reports say Israeli forces have conducted a helicopter landing near the border town of Sarghaya, close to the Syrian border, and are attempting to infiltrate toward the Nabi Sheet mountain range in the Bekaa Valley. Hezbollah's Al-Manar correspondent reports that the group is engaging the Israeli force with rocket barrages. The IDF issued evacuation warnings for Nabi Sheet and several other Bekaa Valley villages earlier in the conflict.
This is the second Israeli special forces operation in the Nabi Sheet area in recent days. Just overnight Friday, IDF commandos landed by helicopter and raided a cemetery in Nabi Sheet in an attempt to locate remains connected to missing IAF navigator Ron Arad, who was captured after his plane went down over Lebanon in 1986 and was believed to have been held in the village. That operation did not recover any findings. The Bekaa clashes that night were among the most violent of the conflict, with Lebanon's Health Ministry reporting 41 killed and 41 wounded during the heavy airstrikes that accompanied the raid.
The latest operation comes two months after a Mossad-linked operation in the same area, in which former Lebanese security officer Ahmad Shukr, whose brother is suspected of involvement in Arad's capture, was kidnapped. The Bekaa Valley is approximately 100 kilometers north of the Israeli border, far beyond the southern front where IDF ground forces have been operating.
Topics: Lebanon & Hezbollah, Missile Defense & Alerts, IDF
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