Yamam Hostage Rescue Team Leader Reveals His Identity
Israeli authorities have lifted the veil of secrecy from the Yamam Special Police Unit. The unit’s commander, known until now as “Z”, revealed his identity meeting the press on Monday.
Zohar Dvir is reputed to the one of the most experienced people in the world in countering terror, leading the unit since the second intifada. He has headed the Yamam tactical hostage rescue team, the most elite unit of the Israeli Police, for five years. Dvir revealed his identity for the first time as he leaves his service.
Yamam was founded in 1974, following the Maalot terror attack when terrorists infiltrating from Lebanon stormed a school, taking the students hostage. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the Israeli government decided that the country needs a special hostage rescue team.
For over two decades, Yamam and its parallel Sayeret Matkal competed with each other, though it had been kept in secret for long. Dvir says that after tragic events in Russia units have grown up and begun to cooperate rather than compete. “Terrorist attacks in Beslan and Moscow became a turning point for us,” he admits. Once fierce rivals, Yamam and Sayeret Matkal even hold joint training sessions. The two agencies keep cooperating, sharing equipment and strategies with each other, Zohar Dvir says.
Dvir made another disclosure, telling the press that during the second intifada Yamam managed to kill some 50 terrorists en route to suicide bombings and 129 wanted terrorists. Over Dvir’s five-and-a-half years of service as the unit’s leader, Yamam eliminated 129 terrorists, wounding 44 and capturing 550 terrorists alive. It is in particular the number of arrests – rather than the kills – that shows the unit’s professionalism in fighting terror. Apprehending terrorists wanted for questioning rather than simply killing them is one of the unit’s specialties. During the same period, 18 Yamam police officers were wounded. 16 of them went back to their work later.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 17, 2007
|
