JERUSALEM: Hezbollah guerillas’ sophisticated anti-tank missiles are the group’s deadliest weapon in Lebanon fighting, with their ability to blast Israel’s most advanced Merkava tanks.

Experts say this is further evidence that Israel is facing a well-equipped army in this war, not a ragtag militia force.

The guerrilla group had fired Russian-made Metis-M anti-tank missiles and owns European-made Milan missiles to destroy the tanks.

On Thursday and Friday alone, these missiles killed seven soldiers and damaged three Merkava tanks — mountains of steel that are vaunted as symbols of Israel’s military might, the army said. Israeli media say most of the 45 soldiers killed in four weeks of fighting were hit by anti-tank missiles.

“They (Hezbollah guerrillas) have some of the most advanced anti-tank missiles in the world,” said Yossi Kuperwasser, a senior military intelligence officer who retired earlier this summer.

“This is not a militia, it’s an infantry brigade with all the support units,” Kuperwasser said.

Israel claims that Hezbollah gets almost all of its weaponry from Syria and by extension Iran, including its anti-tank missiles.

That’s why cutting off the supply chain is essential — and why fighting Hezbollah after it has spent six years building up its arsenal is proving so painful to Israel, officials say. Israel’s Merkava tanks boast massive amounts of armour and lumber and resemble fortresses on tracks. They are built for crew survival, according to Globalsecurity.org, a Washington-based military think-tank.

Hezbollah celebrates when it destroys one.

“A Zionist armoured force tried to advance toward the village of Chihine. The holy warriors confronted it and destroyed two Merkava tanks,” the group proclaimed on its television channel Al-Manar on Thursday.

The Israeli army confirmed two attacks on Merkava tanks that day — one that killed three soldiers and the other killing one. The three soldiers who were killed on Friday were also killed by anti-tank missiles, the army said.

“To the best of my understanding, they (Hezbollah) are as well-equipped as any standing unit in the Syrian or Iranian armies,” said Eran Lerman, a retired army colonel and now director of the Israel/Middle East office of the American Jewish Committee.

“This is not a rat-pack guerrilla, this is an organized militia.”—AP