CNN —
A 2,000-pound American-made bomb may have been used in the Israeli attack that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Friday night, according to a review of footage of the operation and its aftermath by CNN and military experts. It was revealed that the sex is high.
Former Israeli senior explosives engineer Trevor Ball said a video released by the Israeli military on Saturday showed the jet allegedly used in the attack carrying at least 15 2,000-pound bombs, including the U.S.-made BLU-109. It is said that the video showed him doing so. The US military reviewed the footage for CNN.
The bomb, colloquially known as a “bunker buster” because of its ability to penetrate deep underground before detonating, was also equipped with a US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM). This is a precision guidance kit that converts unguided or “dumb” bombs. Ball said the weapon will be a “smart” weapon that can hit targets with precision. Ball identified at least four of the planes as BLU-109s with JDAM kits, including one carrying a bomb that was seen on video taking off.
Ball added that other types of large bombs may have been used in the operation, but only the BLU-109 was visible in the footage. The ammunition contains 535 pounds of explosives, significantly less than the MK84, another type of 2,000 pound bomb frequently used by the Israeli military. “The BLU-109 gives up explosive weight for better target penetration than the MK84,” Ball said.
Video and images that CNN has located of the attack site in Beirut’s southern suburb known as Dahieh show a large, deep crater surrounded by rubble from destroyed buildings. CNN analysis of video and satellite imagery confirmed that four high-rise apartment buildings were destroyed in the attack.
Two senior Israeli defense officials told the New York Times that 80 bombs were used in the attack on Nasrallah. Ball told CNN that the number is plausible, but difficult to judge based solely on available images of the crater. “There may have been other similar craters that were buried by collapsed building fragments. It is also unclear how deep and wide the underground facilities were. Therefore, the number of munitions used “It has become very difficult to estimate reliably,” he said.
Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow in air power and technology at the Royal United Services Institute in London, who also analyzed the footage for CNN, said the Israeli Air Force plane was carrying a JDAM guidance kit and left a crater after the strike. said. It was consistent with the use of a 2,000 pound BLU-109 bomb.
“(It’s) compatible with the strike profile, the penetrator configuration, and the large warhead needed to produce that type of crater,” Bronk said. He added that the combination of BLU-109 bombs and JDAM kits is “promising for targeting such buried and hardened targets.”
The Israeli military has not released footage of the moment of the bomb drop, but a video circulating on social media on Friday shows a massive explosion in Dahiyeh, where the attack on Nasrallah’s underground headquarters took place. Ta. Bronk told CNN that the large amount of smoke seen in one of the videos was consistent with multiple near-simultaneous impacts from a 2,000-pound bomb with a fuse that detonated underground.
Addressing reporters on Saturday, Brig. Gen. Amichai Levin, commander of Israel’s Hazerim Air Base, said that “dozens of munitions hit the target within seconds and with very high accuracy,” adding that it was “necessary to strike this deep underground.” ” he added.
Israeli forces have repeatedly used 2,000-pound bombs during deadly operations in Gaza. Weapons and warfare experts blame the widespread use of such heavy ammunition for the huge death toll.
More than 41,500 Palestinians have been killed and more than 96,000 injured in Israeli military operations in Gaza, according to the latest statistics from the Gaza Strip Health Ministry. Israel launched ground and air strikes on the area in response to the Hamas-led offensive on October 7, in which the insurgents killed about 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage.
The use of 2,000-pound bombs, primarily produced by the United States, can cause large numbers of casualties due to the magnitude of their impact. The weapon’s explosion radius, or lethal fragmentation radius (the area around the target that exposes it to injury or death), can be up to 365 meters (approximately 1,198 feet), or the equivalent of 58 football fields.
The Biden administration announced in May that it had suspended bomb shipments to Israel over concerns that they could be used in the Rafah invasion and the risk of harm to civilians.
Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon continued at a high pace over the weekend, killing more than 100 people and wounding more than 350 in the country on Sunday. The Israeli military said it was attacking Hezbollah, including attacks by fighter jets on about 45 targets near villages in southern Lebanon.
At least 12 locations in Beirut were attacked between Friday and early Monday, according to a CNN analysis. One attack destroyed the floor of an apartment building next to the Chora intersection, a major transportation hub in central Beirut, marking the first time a location within the capital has been attacked in the nearly year-long conflict.
