Drone attack attributed to Israel targeted planetary mixer for making special fuel for precision missiles, reports say.
By World Israel News Staff
Last Sunday’s drone attack on Hezbollah offices targeted a critical component in the manufacture of precision missiles, Israel media reported on Wednesday. The revelation explains the anger of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his promise to exact vengeance.
The target, a planetary mixer, is essential in the production line of precision missiles. It mixes the rocket propellant to make the missiles more exact in hitting their target.
The eight-ton, industrial-sized machine was being temporarily housed in an innocent-looking, nondescript box in the heart of Beirut near offices housing Hezbollah’s propaganda arm.
Only a few countries have such mixers, Israel Hayom reports.
According to reports, the control systems for the mixer were destroyed and the mixer itself was damaged.
The mixer, which was manufactured and delivered secretly by Iran to Hezbollah, was going to be moved to a factory, likely somewhere the terror group hoped would be out-of-reach of Israeli airstrikes.
If the mixer had been set to work in a missile production factory, Hezbollah could have produced an endless supply of precision missiles.
Such missiles, which are accurate to within meters, is a high-priority goal of the terror group. However, achieving this goal has been challenging for Hezbollah, which has only tens of such missiles, despite wielding an arsenal of 120,000-150,000 rockets in total.
Due to Israel’s success in disrupting the transfer of precision missile technology from Iran via Syria into Lebanon, Hezbollah and its Iranian masters decided to set up a production line for the missiles in Lebanon itself, reports say.
If Hezbollah obtains a large quantity of precision missiles, it would be considered a game-changer. Israel has declared it won’t permit the terror group to build up such an arsenal. In September 2018, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed three locations in Lebanon where Hezbollah was attempting to manufacture precision missiles.
“Israel also knows what you’re doing. Israel knows where you are doing it and Israel will not let you get away with it,” Netanyahu said.
Israel has not officially taken credit for the drone attack, which was originally reported as an observation drone that suffered a technical glitch and crashed near Hezbollah’s offices. (A second drone that detonated near the offices was reported as having been sent to destroy the first drone.)
Israel Hayom reports that the threats by Hezbollah leader Nasrallah are likely connected to the fact that the terror group has lost a valuable asset.
Nasrallah has not spoken of the mixer but links his threats to another attack – the only attack in recent days that Israel admits to – which took place not in Lebanon, but Syria, and which targeted an Iranian-trained group of drone operators who planned to launch drones into Israel to carry out kamikaze-style attacks.