Convoy or Warehouse: What really was attacked in Lebanon?
Ronen Solomon reveals recent satellite imagery showing that the target that was attacked in the Bekaa Valley in February 2014 was a warehouse of Hezbollah used as a stopover for weapons transferred to the organization
Ronen Solomon
| 22/02/2015
Recent satellite imagery of Google Earth from March 6 taken in the area where the alleged attack (attributed by foreign media to the IAF) took place on February 24, 2014, now allow us to determine that the attack was focused on a receiving warehouse of Hezbollah located on the road linking the Syrian border with the Lebanese village Jinta in the Bekaa Valley. This is in contrast to reports saying the strikes were on a moving convoy carrying ballistic missiles from Syria to Lebanon.
The warehouse, which spans 21 meters by 11 meters, was located adjacent to a side of a mountain in the desert on a dirt road, on a compound belonging to Hezbollah, in which there are also storage and training facilities. By all indications, the warehouse was used as a stopover for a quick intake of weapons Hezbollah had succeeded smuggling into Lebanon. It can be assumed that the final goal is to move and store it in one of the neighboring underground bunkers scattered throughout the valley crossing the village Jinta.
In the "after" satellite image one can see that there is no trace of the structure except for a pile of dirt and scorched earth. Nearby we can identify a number of vehicles. It could be vehicles which were damaged in the attack and/or vehicles engaging in cleaning the surface. A day after the attack, it was reported that the objective was to destroy a shipment of long-range missiles the organization was trying to smuggle out of its facilities on Syrian territory. In the attack several Hezbollah operativeswere killed.
The warehouse, according to archive photographs, was built after the Second Lebanon War, and is very alike in its purpose to the Russian-made Yakhont missiles warehouse which was attacked in July 2013 near the Syrian arms base in Latakkia.
Recent satellite imagery of Google Earth from March 6 taken in the area where the alleged attack (attributed by foreign media to the IAF) took place on February 24, 2014, now allow us to determine that the attack was focused on a receiving warehouse of Hezbollah located on the road linking the Syrian border with the Lebanese village Jinta in the Bekaa Valley. This is in contrast to reports saying the strikes were on a moving convoy carrying ballistic missiles from Syria to Lebanon.
The warehouse, which spans 21 meters by 11 meters, was located adjacent to a side of a mountain in the desert on a dirt road, on a compound belonging to Hezbollah, in which there are also storage and training facilities. By all indications, the warehouse was used as a stopover for a quick intake of weapons Hezbollah had succeeded smuggling into Lebanon. It can be assumed that the final goal is to move and store it in one of the neighboring underground bunkers scattered throughout the valley crossing the village Jinta.
In the "after" satellite image one can see that there is no trace of the structure except for a pile of dirt and scorched earth. Nearby we can identify a number of vehicles. It could be vehicles which were damaged in the attack and/or vehicles engaging in cleaning the surface. A day after the attack, it was reported that the objective was to destroy a shipment of long-range missiles the organization was trying to smuggle out of its facilities on Syrian territory. In the attack several Hezbollah operativeswere killed.
The warehouse, according to archive photographs, was built after the Second Lebanon War, and is very alike in its purpose to the Russian-made Yakhont missiles warehouse which was attacked in July 2013 near the Syrian arms base in Latakkia.
