Israel's equivalent of the elite U.S Navy Seals snatched a senior Hezbollah operative over the weekend.
Commandos with Israel Defense Force's Shayetet 13 force stormed a beach in northern Lebanon and raided a Hezbollah facility in Batroun.
The unit captured Imad Amhaz, and raced off with him in a speedboat. Amhaz, who was turned over to Israeli interrogators for questioning, is believed to be a significant source of knowledge on Hezbollah's navy force.
German forces involved
The operation was carried out in coordination with German naval forces operating as part of UNIFIL, a United Nations peacekeeping effort, according to Israeli media.
Retired Navy Commander Kirk Lippold
commanded the USS Cole when it was attacked by terrorists in 2000.
"What that shows is that Israel will do what they feel is necessary in order to safeguard their country when they're willing to go into a dictator’s country that is supporting terrorists like Hezbollah and grab the top naval commander in hopes of getting intelligence so that they can thwart future threats to Israel. I think it's an outstanding job by them."
Lippold compared the Israeli mission to a former U.S. effort called the Rendition Program.
"It used to be that we could go around the world with special operations forces or with other development agency personnel, and we would literally grab terrorists off the street. We gave it up because Trump didn't feel it was right. But guess what? When you're dealing with terrorists you use the methods that best keep your country safe period!"
