Soldiers frustrated at slow progress

Kiryat Shmona, Israel: Late last week while guarding a house in southern Lebanon that Israeli forces were using as a command post, Corporal Matan Tyler received an unusual order from his commander: Watch out for guys wearing Israeli uniforms.

A day earlier a nearby regiment had been approached by fighters wearing familiar olive shirts and vests with Hebrew writing, Tyler said he was told. The fighters Hezbollah members disguised as Israelis opened fire on a house full of Israeli soldiers.

"You really can't underestimate Hezbollah," said Tyler, 20, a member of the army's Nahal Brigade. "They are the masters of the field. They know the area better than us. They know where to hide and when to move. They always know where we are."

The incident is just one among dozens of examples of an enemy that has proven more resilient and better-equipped than Israeli military forces anticipated. After nearly four weeks of air attacks and ground combat, Israeli military officials say they have killed only a small fraction of Hezbollah fighters and the group still has hundreds of launchers and thousands of rockets at its disposal.

"What we face is an infantry division with state-of-the-art weaponry night vision gear, advanced rifles, well equipped deployed along our border," said Brigadier General Yossi Kuperwasser, who until last month was director of analysis for Israeli military intelligence. "They have some of the most advanced anti-tank missiles in the world."

In more than two dozen interviews at army bases, hotels, artillery batteries and staging points for their entry into Lebanon since the heaviest ground fighting began last week, Israeli soldiers expressed confidence in their superiority over Hezbollah, but frustration that they are fighting an elusive enemy as difficult to find as it is to defeat.

"Most of the time we only see them when they want to draw attention to themselves, then they kick us from behind," said Tyler, who was resting with his battalion at a lakefront hotel near Tiberias after a week in southern Lebanon.