Lebanese Army Killed Like Sitting Ducks
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
KFAR SHIMA, Lebanon — The Lebanese army, a force that is supposed to be controlling the border with Israel sometime in the future, has become the latest target in Israel’s bombing campaign, with 11 soldiers killed yesterday in an air raid.
The army has been largely standing idle during the past week of attacks, while Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel and the air force methodically destroyed Lebanon’s infrastructure.
Twenty soldiers have been killed, the latest casualties when Israel targeted a barracks at Kfar Shima, on the southeast approaches to Beirut.
Lahoud Lahoud, a 24-year-old private who served in the army for six years, was asleep in his bunk when Israeli jets attacked. In the six days of the assault the army had been largely left alone and the alert state was low.
When the attack finished a few minutes later, Private Lahoud had lost his right leg and most of his left arm, but his four colleagues were killed.
