Until now it was just a rumor - but now it has been confirmed: The famous training accident known as Tze'elim Bet, in which five soldiers were killed, cut short an exercise designed to kill Saddam Hussein.
The accident occurred in 1992, and is known as Tze'elim Bet (Two) to distinguish it from a previous training accident in the same place a few years earlier, which also claimed the lives of five soldiers. In the second incident, the elite Matkal Unit was practicing for a heretofore unidentified mission featuring two small forces. The first was to arrive in a well-equipped vehicle at the funeral of a relative of Saddam, where it would positively identify the dictator. It would then signal his precise location to the second force further away, which was to fire a "smart" missile that would hone in and bring an end to the cruel despot. The exercise was tragically cut short when the practice missile landed amidst a group of soldiers, killing five and wounding six.
The incident took on a controversial nature when then-Chief of Staff Ehud Barak was accused of standing by and not offering help to the wounded. A report by the State Comptroller did not dispute this, but found that, contrary to other claims, he had not "abandoned the wounded" in the field.
The accident occurred in 1992, and is known as Tze'elim Bet (Two) to distinguish it from a previous training accident in the same place a few years earlier, which also claimed the lives of five soldiers. In the second incident, the elite Matkal Unit was practicing for a heretofore unidentified mission featuring two small forces. The first was to arrive in a well-equipped vehicle at the funeral of a relative of Saddam, where it would positively identify the dictator. It would then signal his precise location to the second force further away, which was to fire a "smart" missile that would hone in and bring an end to the cruel despot. The exercise was tragically cut short when the practice missile landed amidst a group of soldiers, killing five and wounding six.
The incident took on a controversial nature when then-Chief of Staff Ehud Barak was accused of standing by and not offering help to the wounded. A report by the State Comptroller did not dispute this, but found that, contrary to other claims, he had not "abandoned the wounded" in the field.