Hezbollah Used Advanced Iranian Guided Missile In Recent Attack On Key Israeli Base

Hezbollah has used advanced Iranian-made anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) known as Almas in the January 23 attack on the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Mount Meron air traffic control base.

At the time of the attack, Hezbollah said it fired “a large number of suitable missiles” at the key base, which is located some eight kilometers away from the border with Lebanon, in response to “recent assassinations and repeated attacks on civilians” in Lebanon and Syria.

A video showing the launch of unguided rockets at the base was released on January 24. However, another video showing an electro-optical guided missile impacting what Hezbollah described as a dome housing an intelligence gathering system at the base was released on January 25.

The missile was apparently the Almas, a copy of the Israeli Spike family of ATGMs that was first unveiled by Iran some four years ago.

Iran was reportedly able to copy the Israeli-made system thanks to several missiles which were captured by Hezbollah during the 2006 Lebanon War.

So far, Iran has shown off three versions of the Almas with ranges from 4-10 kilometers and the ability to launch from ground or air.

Just like the Spike ATGM, Almas is equipped with an electro-optical or an infrared imaging seeker. The missile has a top-attack feature, meaning it can target armored vehicles from above as a form of plunging fire. Almas’ ground launcher is almost an identical copy of the Spike command and launcher unit.

The IDF admitted that the attack on Mount Meron base -which was the second in recent weeks- resulted in material losses. However, it didn’t provide any details.

The attack came after several commanders of Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas Movement as well as senior officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed in strikes on Lebanon and Syria. Israel was held responsible but didn’t not take responsibility for them.

Hezbollah possession of Almas ATGM is not surprising. The IRGC has always supplied the group with the latest weapon systems produced in Iran.

The missile poses a serious threat to the IDF. Its top-attack feature means that it could in theory defeat Israel’s Merkava Mark 4M main battle tank which is outfitted with the Trophy active protection system.

Hezbollah’s decision to unveil the presence of the missile is likely meant as a message to Israel, which recently made several threats to Lebanon over the clashes on the border -that broke out after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip-. Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Hezbollah, stated more than once that de-escalation will not be possible before the end of the Israeli war on the Palestinian people.

Source @South Front