- Sultan Yacoub
Sultan Yacoub (Sultan Yakoub, Sultan Yaakov) is a Lebanese village in the eastern
Beqaa Valley , about five kilometers (three miles) from the border withSyria [http://www.meib.org/articles/0209_s1.htm] .Battle in the Lebanon War
The "battle for Sultan Yacoub", part of the
Lebanon War , occurred onJune 12 ,1982 . During the battle, a column ofIsrael Defense Forces (IDF) armored vehicles were ambushed at a narrow pass near the Beqaa Valley by theSyria ns [http://www.mia.org.il/archive/040216jpb.html] . Eighteen IDF soldiers died in the battle, which was viewed as an Israeliintelligence failure [ [http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_279.shtml "Syrian Tank-Hunters in Lebanon, 1982", Tom Cooper & Yaser al-Abed] ] . Three IDF soldiers remain unaccounted for.The three soldiers were captured by Lebanese Hezbollah and were paraded through Damascus held on top of their captured tank. Time Magazine reporter Dean Brelis testified to having seen the 3 captives alive at the time. Among the three is an American Citizen namedZachary Baumel who remains missing as areYehuda Katz andZvi Feldman .Syrian Influence
After the evacuation of Lebanon in April, 2005 by Syria, Sultan Yacoub remains a focal point of tension over sovereignty [http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2005/09/heavily_armed_p.php] . The
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -General Command has a base nearby the village, and dozens of PFLP-GC have been caught trying to sneak illegally across the Beqaa Valley to Sultan Yacoub [http://www.meib.org/articles/0209_s1.htm] .Rocket Attacks on Israel
In May, 2006, three to eight
Katyusha rockets were fired at northern Israel from Lebanon [http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3255741,00.html] . The IDF responded by with a missile strike on the PFLP base at Sultan Yacoub.References
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