Assassination method: surveillance drone and a Hellfire missile
Brian Whitaker
Tuesday March 23, 2004
The Guardian

A small, pilotless plane circling above the home of Sheikh Yassin - unseen
in the pre-dawn gloom and almost silent - was the only advance warning that
anyone on the ground might have had.

Far away, the Israeli military studied the night-sight images from the plane
on a TV screen, waiting for the Hamas leader to leave his house on a short,
fateful journey to the mosque.

The few minutes that he spent praying were enough time to call up an Apache
helicopter armed with Hellfire missiles.

As he left the mosque, the drone overhead shone its laser beam on to the
target, guided by the distant Israeli operator at the TV screen.

Recognising the laser beam by its coded pulses, the helicopter's missile
headed straight for the target.

Although the Israelis are not saying exactly how they hit Sheikh Yassin, a
combined operation using a drone and a helicopter is the most probable
scenario, according to Doug Richardson, editor of Jane's Missiles and
Rockets.

"My guess is that it would be Hellfire," he said. "There have also been
persistent rumours that the Israelis might have been using a version of the
Spike anti-tank missile but the manufacturers, Rafael, say it is not being
used."

Locating the target for assassinations often requires people on the ground -
either undercover Israelis or Palestinian collaborators - but in Sheikh
Yassin's case it was easy: they knew where he lived and could keep watch on
his house from the air.

Another method used by the Israelis to locate their victims is to phone them
at their office. When the victim answers the call a helicopter-launched
missile is aimed directly at his desk.

Sometimes, though, it is the phone itself that explodes. Three years ago, an
Islamic militant in the West Bank town of Jenin died when he inserted a
pre-paid card in a public callbox.

A few years earlier, a Palestinian bombmaker, Yehia Ayyash, known as "the
Engineer", was killed by explosives in his mobile phone.

According to reports at the time, the Israelis made sure he was talking on
the phone then triggered the explosion by remote control from an aircraft.

About a third of suspected militants assassinated by the Israelis have been
killed by missiles fired from aircraft, though rockets that miss their
target can end up killing bystanders by mistake.

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