ISRAEL SAYS IRAN SOLDIERS HIT THEIR SHIP W/MISSILE

i don't do diaries, but this is, imho, a bombshell (no pun intended) only recently reported, and i don't see anything up about it, so here goes:

Israel Official: Iran Helping Hezbollah

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 15, 2006
Filed at 7:28 a.m. ET

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A missile fired by Hezbollah, not an unmanned drone laden with explosives, damaged an Israeli warship off Lebanon, the army said Saturday. Iranian troops helped fire the missile, a senior intelligence official said.

the israelis are acknowledging one dead from this incident, and three sailors are still missing.

The intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information, said about 100 Iranian soldiers are in Lebanon and helped fire the Iranian-made, radar-guided C-102 at the ship late Friday.

The attack alarmed Israel because initial information indicated the guerrillas had used a drone for the first time to attack Israeli forces.

But the army's investigation showed that Hezbollah had fired an Iranian-made missile at the vessel from the shores of Lebanon, said Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan.

"We can confirm that it was hit by an Iranian-made missile launched by Hezbollah. We see this as very profound fingerprint of Iranian involvement in Hezbollah," Nehushtan said in an interview with The Associated Press.

the fact that this is very convenient for israel's propaganda needs shouldn't blind anyone to the story's essential plausibility.  of course, hizbollah has been in the militia business a long time, and is presumably capable of firing missiles by itself.  still, a believable scenario, and one that suggests israel may be facing an opponent better equipped and with more savvy and military skills than they'd anticipated.

developing, as sludgie likes to say.