How Was Samir Kuntar Killed?

How Was Samir Kuntar Killed?

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Arie Egozi

How was Samir Kuntar killed, and what does it have to do with Terrain Dominance?

Arab media, including Hezbollah’s Al Manar news network, reported that a senior in Hezbollah, Samir Kuntar, was killed yesterday (Sunday) in an airstrike by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) in a Damascus suburb. According to reports, the strike killed several more people, among them another senior in the organization who was planning attacks against Israel in the Syrian Golan.

kuntar1Kuntar is considered among security services to be a leading element in Hezbollah’s attempts to create a foothold in the border with Israel in Ramat HaGolan in exchange for assistance from Hezbollah’s secretary general Hassan Nasrallah to Syria’s president, Bashar al Assad’s, army.

Whoever took out Samir Kuntar in Damascus did so after having exact intelligence obtained in various ways. Such intelligence effort has many names but it is mostly referred to as Terrain Dominance. It has pure military uses as militaries stand before you in a certain terrain, but it also has a version of fighting terrorism – and that is exactly what whoever shot those missiles taking out Kuntar managed to achieve.

That person knew exactly where and when to launch those missiles, and which missiles to use in order to get a definite kill. That person doubtlessly operated many air and ground sensors in order to know exactly what is the “movement” and in field.

Whoever achieved this focused kill was dominating the terrain: First a larger piece: The city of Damascus, and then a smaller one: The neighborhood where the terrorist lives.

This was a joint effort that included, according to experts, data fusion of the highest level.

Whoever did the kill is someone with varied intelligence capabilities including, of course, human intelligence, but also many technological means.

terrain This focused intelligence work is the subject of the Military and C4I Technologies for Terrain Dominance conference by I-HLS, which will be held on December 23rd at the LAGO conventions center in Rishon Letzion. The conference will discuss the integration of technologies and intelligence capabilities in order to achiever terrain dominance, just like that seen in the case of Samir Kuntar.

This integration is what did the job. According to experts, when the missiles were launched, “the business was already done” – literally.

Even if a full out war, which hardly exists nowadays, but mostly in a low intensity conflict against terror, controlling certain areas has great significance. SWe want to avoid harming innocent civilians and yet be as precise as possible when the weapon goes off, which is, according to every sign, what happened in Damascus.