The IDF released new details Thursday morning on the Hezbollah IED attack that killed Staff Sgt. (res.) Alexander Filin and wounded seven soldiers Wednesday afternoon in southern Lebanon. The force — fighters from the deputy 36th Division commander's forward command and Givati — was on a foot patrol in the Litani area when the bomb was triggered. Among the wounded: the deputy division commander (a colonel), a reserve battalion commander (reserve lieutenant colonel), and a female reservist. Artillery struck terror targets afterward, the IDF said.
The IDF released new details Thursday morning on the Hezbollah IED attack that killed Staff Sgt. (res.) Alexander Filin and wounded seven soldiers Wednesday afternoon in southern Lebanon. As The Zioneer first reported at 05:58 Jerusalem Thursday, the incident unfolded during a foot patrol near the village of Tayba in the Litani area. The new disclosure specifies that the targeted force consisted of fighters from the deputy 36th Division commander's forward command (חפ״ק) together with Givati infantry soldiers, patrolling on foot when the bomb was triggered. Artillery struck terror targets afterward.
The thread developed rapidly across Thursday morning. At 05:58 Jerusalem, the IDF cleared Filin's name for publication and reported six wounded. Within minutes, successive updates — all timestamped 05:58 — refined the casualty count to seven wounded, then eight, and identified the deputy 36th Division commander (a colonel) and a reserve battalion commander (a lieutenant colonel) among those moderately wounded. By the sixth version, the IDF attributed the blast explicitly to an enemy explosive device. Throughout, what began as a single-channel announcement was corroborated by multiple IDF statements and a preliminary investigation.
The attack marks the latest in a series of incidents affecting the 36th Division during operational activity in southern Lebanon, a zone where Hezbollah has continued to use planted explosives against Israeli ground forces. As The Zioneer reported on Thursday at 07:50 Jerusalem, Defense Minister Israel Katz sent condolences to Filin's family, noting that the reservist repeatedly volunteered for duty out of a deep sense of mission.
What remains open: The IDF has not specified the precise type of IED used or the exact location relative to the Litani River. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, though the IDF attributes the blast to Hezbollah.
10 developments
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