Click to see full-size image. (Screengrab\Hezbollah Military Media)
Hezbollah on July 18 targeted another Merkava Mk 4M main battle tank of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) using an Iranian-made Almas anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), which is a copy of the Israeli Spike family of missiles.
Similar to 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 hit its target from above as a form of plunging fire. It can also hit targets behind the line of sight.
The tank targeted by Hezbollah was hiding behind trees on a hill close to the IDF’s Hadab Yarin site along the border with Lebanon.
One of the tank crew members had his head outside one of the upper hatches when the attack took place. The tank’s Windbreaker active protection system, also known as Trophy, was activated as the missile approached. However, it failed to intercept the missile and the tank received a direct hit on the top, according to video footage of the attack released by the group’s Military Media on July 19.
The missile used in the attack was apparently the Almas-1, which has a range of around four kilometers. Iran has developed two heavier versions of the missile dubbed Almas-2 and 3 with a range of eight and ten kilometers respectively. These versions have also been spotted with Hezbollah.
Since the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza last October, Hezbollah and its allies began launching near-daily attacks against the IDF in support of the Hamas Movement and other Palestinian armed factions in the Strip.
So far, the border clashes have resulted in 12 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of at least 18 IDF soldiers and reservists. On the Lebanese side, more than 500 people have been killed, including 354 fighters of Hezbollah and over 100 civilians.
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