Illustrative image.
Hezbollah released video footage on August 16 unveiling for the first time a fairly large underground missile base codenamed “Imad 4”.
The base was apparently named after Imad Mughniyeh, one of Hezbollah’s founders and top military leaders who was assassinated by Israel in Syria in 2008. The codename of the base suggests the presence of at least three other similar facilities.
The video, dubbed “Our Mountains Are Our Stores,” shows a network of tunnels within the base in addition to several mobile multiple launchers each armed with six Khaibar-1 rockets. One of the launchers carries the number “14,” which suggests that the base can host more than a dozen such systems. The base also has gated launch shafts that allow the launchers to fire their heavy rockets from underground.
Khaibar-1 is Hezbollah’s codename for the Syrian-made M302 rocket, which is a derivative of the Chinese WS-1. The rocket has a range of up to 150 kilometers, meaning it can reach any target in central Israel, including the city of Tel Aviv, when launched from southern Lebanon.
While the Khaibar-1 is unguided, there is information suggesting that Hezbollah has developed guidance kits for the rocket with help from Syria and Iran.
To make the most out of the range of these rockets, Imad 4 base will have to be located somewhere in southern Lebanon, the stronghold of Hezbollah.
“The resistance in Lebanon today has in its possession weapons and equipment and capabilities and members and cadres and ability and expertise and experience and also faith and determination and courage and its will is stronger than at any time since its launch in the region.
These missiles are placed, deployed, and focused on targets and in perfect secrecy.
The resistance now possesses precision and non-precision missiles along with weapons capabilities so that if Israel imposes a war on Lebanon, Israel will face a destiny and reality it didn’t expect any day.
War with us extends across all of Palestine from the Lebanese border to the Jordanese border to the Red Sea.
From Kiryat Shmona to Eilat,” a quotation from a recent speech by Hezbollah’s Secretary-General that accompanied the video reads.
Hezbollah and its allies began launching near-daily attacks against Israel in support of the Hamas Movement and other armed factions in the Gaza Strip after the outbreak of the war on the Palestinian enclave last October. The confrontation has so far claimed the lives of more than 600 people in Lebanon.
The unveiling of the Imad 4 underground missile base came as Israel is preparing for a possible response by Hezbollah to the assassination of the group’s senior commander Fuad Shukr in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, last month.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
