Hassan Nasrallahthe top leader of the Lebanese militia Hezbollahwas killed on September 27 during a massive bombing of Israel to the group’s headquarters located in Beirut. The bunker where the cleric was was demolished by heavy projectiles capable of penetrating sophisticated underground buildings.
According to the Israeli air force, bombs were dropped “every two seconds” that completely destroyed three residential buildings and seriously damaged two others that were above the Nasrallah bunker.
The depth of the bunker nor its extension.
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According to Israel’s Channel 12, Nasrallah could have suffocated due to toxic gases that emanated within his secret bunker.
The Israeli media detailed that when Lebanese officials discovered his body, He had no visible injuries.suggesting that it may have been buried under rubble as gas from the explosions filled the space around it.
The day he died, Nasrallah had called other Hezbollah leaders to a meeting. Israel followed their movements in real time thanks to the fact that intelligence had penetrated the Shiite group’s circle of power.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) assured that they died in the bombing at least 20 senior Hezbollah officials.
The 907 kilo American bombs
At this point, it is worth asking what the bombs used by Israel in the attack.
According to munitions experts consulted by CNN, it is likely that ammunition was used in the Israeli attack. 907 kilo bombs made in the United States.
The experts watched a video released by the Israeli army the day after the attack showing planes used in the mission carrying at least 15 907 kilogram bombsincluding the American-made BLU-109.
Trevor Ball, a former U.S. Army senior explosive ordnance technician who reviewed the footage for CNN, said: These bombs are colloquially known as “bunker busters.”for his ability to penetrate deeply before detonating.
The expert added to CNN that They were equipped with Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMfor its acronym in English), a kit of guide precision which turns unguided, or “dumb,” bombs into “smart” munitions that can hit a target with precision.
On one of the planes in the Ball video identified at least four BLU-109 bombs with JDAM kits.
The BLU-109 bombs contain 240 kilos of explosives.
The American newspaper The New York Times, based on Israeli Defense sources, reported that 80 bombs were used in the attack on Nasrallah. Ball told CNN that figure was credible.
Justin Bronk, senior research fellow in air power and technology at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told CNN that the crater that remained after the attack was consistent with the use of bombs BLU-109 907 kilos.
“It fits the attack profile and the configuration of the penetrating fuze and the large warhead required to produce that type of crater,” Bronk said. He added that the combination of the BLU-109 bomb and the JDAM kit were “what you would expect to go after a buried, hardened target like that.”
The Al-Arabiya television network carried out a simulation of the attack.
In May of this year, the American president Joe Biden withheld the shipment of 3,500 bombs to Israel of 900 kilos, claiming that they had been used against civilians in Gaza and he feared that at that moment they would be launched in the raid on Rafah.
When Biden confirmed at that time that the United States will not deliver more bombs to Israel, he argued that It was to protect the civilian population.
“Civilians have died in Gaza as a result of these bombs and other ways in which they attack population centers”The president told CNN in May, in one of his strongest statements against his ally so far in the war between Israel and Hamas that began on October 7, 2023.
The Washington Post newspaper claimed at the time that Israel used the 900 kilo bombs in the bombing of the refugee camp in They counted on October 31, 2023, which left dozens of civilians dead and destroyed numerous buildings.
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“These are the bombs that can destroy entire city blocks,” a senior Biden administration official said then, referring to the 900-kilogram projectiles.
The bombs leave craters in the ground 12 meters wide or more and can send deadly shrapnel hundreds of meters from the impact site. They are almost never used by Western armies in highly populated places due to the risk of civilian casualties, the Washington Post reported.