Battle of Wadi Saluki - The Battle of Wadi Al-Hujeir / Wadi As-Sulouqi

The Battle of Wadi Al-Hujeir / Wadi As-Sulouqi

What became known in Israel as the Sulouqi battle is called the battle of Wadi al-Hujeir in Lebanon. Wadi as-Sulouqi originates in the area of Bint Jubeil and runs north several kilometers west of the Israel-Lebanon border until it turns west near the town of at-Tayyiba. Wadi al-Hujeir branches off from the Sulouqi wadi to the north between the villages al-Ghandouriya / Furoun and Qusayr / al-Qantara before it reaches the Litani River near the Akiya bridge. The area was the obvious route of any Israeli attempt to cut south Lebanon off at the Litani river. Both the Israeli invasions in 1978 and 1982 passed through this area.

From the first days of the war, Israel bombed the small Christian village of al-Ghandouriya, situated near the wadi crossing, forcing the inhabitants to evacuate their homes. Israel usually did not attack Christian villages for no good reason and for Hizbullah it was clear that the Israeli army intended to pass this way. Several attempted Israeli incursions in the area reinforced this impression. The only question was whether it would take the form of a helicopter landing behind Hizbullah lines or an armored advance from the border. Hizbullah thus reinforced its forces in the area. It took up positions in the vacated villages and started preparing ambushes.

General Tzur had twice sent the brigade’s engineering battalion to secure a foothold on the western bank of the wadi near the village of al-Ghandouriya, in preparation for the rapid sweep westwards towards the city of Tyre. In both cases the Israeli forces were called back for unclear reasons. In both cases the Israeli forces were attacked by anti-tank missiles but for some reason these reports never reached their superiors. Hizbullah claims to have repulsed the Israeli attacks.

The battle was initiated by a large air drop of infantry from the Nahal Division in the vicinity of the villages of al-Ghandouriya and Furoun to the west of the wadi. The Infantry was supposed to clear the ground for the advancing tanks but somehow failed in their mission.

A column of 24 Merkava tanks from the 401st Brigade advanced westward from the area of Tayyiba and when it entered the wadi it was attacked from all sides, including from the rear near 'Udaysa (Adaisseh) that had been thought to have been under IDF control for several days. The Hizbullah had prepared an ambush from hidden positions on the hilltops. The tanks were attacked by missiles, probably of the Kornet type. Eleven of the tanks were hit and several went up in flames. Eight tankers, including two company commanders, and four Nahal infantry men died in the initial battle of Sulouqi. Hizbullah fighters used ATGMs, small-arms fire, and mortars to suppress the Nahal Brigade, preventing them from providing effective infantry support for the armor forces. Timur Göksel, the former chief spokesperson for UNIFIL later commented that that "anyone dumb enough to push a tank column through Wadi Saluki should not be an armored brigade commander but a cook."

The division proved unable to open the route across the wadi. Early morning August 13 another tank battalion reported having crossed the wadi successfully but the sweep west was cancelled. No further offensive action was taken on this front. Four IDF infantry soldiers were killed only hours before the cease-fire on the eastern bank of Wadi al-Hujeir. They were killed by an anti-tank rocket fired at them while operating in the village of Qantara.

According to the IDF, around 80 Hizbullah fighters had been killed in the battle of Wadi as-Sulouqi while IDF losses counted 12 dead. This estimate was apparently only based on battle damage assessments from the large number of cluster munitions the IDF used in the final days of the war. Captain Daniel Helmer of the US army commented that "as in much of the war, Hezbollah’s dead proved as elusive as its living fighters."

The planned westward sweep towards the coast never materialized. Guy Zur, commander of Division 162, apparently was "astonished” and told the press that Hizbullah was the "world’s best guerrilla group".

According to Lebanese sources seven Hezbullah fighters died in the battle of al-Ghandouriya, one of whom (Rani Bazzi) was a commander, and three others were wounded. An eighth fighter fell in Wadi al-Hujeir. Another fighter was wounded and captured by Israeli forces. He woke up at Poriya hospital in Tiberias and was eventually released in the prisoner exchange in 2008.