A confrontation at sea Thursday night, in which an Israeli naval officer was killed by terrorist gunfire, has raised speculation here that Iranian-inspired terrorists operating from Lebanon are mounting suicide missions against the Israeli navy.
The naval officer, 2nd Lt. Amit Sela, 21, of Kibbutz Nahsholim, was buried here Friday.
Defense sources described the encounter, which took place at the mouth of the Litani River between Sidon and Tyre in southern Lebanon. An Israeli navy patrol boat sighted a small craft, initially identified as a motorized rubber dinghy and later as a speedboat about 33 feet long.
As the patrol boat approached and turned on its search light, the four occupants of the speed boat opened fire with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades. The Israeli crew returned the fire at point-blank range. The smaller boat exploded, burned and sank. The patrol boat dropped explosive charges into the water to make sure there were no survivors.
At a news conference in Haifa Friday, defense sources said it was not inconceivable that the speedboat was on a suicide mission. Two Lebanese groups claimed credit — Hezbollah, the pro-Iranian extremist organization and Amal, the mainstream Shiite militia.
A navy source said that an analysis of the craft and tactics used in the attack indicates that the terrorists belonged to Hezbollah, which began naval activities at the end of 1985, under the influence of the Iranian guards. Both the boat and methods used were said to be similar to those used by Iran in its attacks on shipping in the Perisan Gulf.
The Israeli daily Maariv, quoting the Beirut weekly Al-Kifah Al-Arabi, reported that Palestinian terrorist organizations have recently deployed missile-equipped speed boats along the coast from Tyre and Sidon, as far north as Beirut, for suicide attacks on the Israeli navy.
Until now, terrorists have used rubber dinghies in attempts to infiltrate Israel by sea. Most have been intercepted and sunk by Israel’s fast Dabour-class patrol boats. The terrorists have usually attempted to escape by swimming. They seldom fire on Israeli naval craft and casualties among naval personnel are rare.
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