Battle of Sultan Yacoub
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The battle of Sultan Yacoub was a tank engagement and massive Syrian victory against the Israeli Defense Forces during the 1982 Lebanon War.
[edit] Losses
The Syrians claimed destruction of 21 to 30 Israeli armoured vehicles during this battle. Israeli AH-1s and MD.500 Defenders claimed destruction of 15 T-62s and few T-72s near Zahla. However, they encountered fierce anti-aircraft fire and were not able to execute their attacks as expected. One of Defenders was badly damaged by explosion of a shell nearby, so that it crashed on the ground in front of Syrian positions. Another Defender was apparently lost to anti-aircraft fire from Israeli armoured units after being misidentified as a Syrian Gazelle: obviously, after previous experiences with SA.432s the Israeli gunners were exceptionally nervous by the time. In return, the Merkavas of the 7th Israeli Brigade shot down at least one Gazelle using their 105mm cannons, and another Syrian SA.342 should have been shot down by a long-range TOW-shot from an Israeli Cobra helicopter.
How fierce and bitter the fighting on the groud was shows the fact that - according to contemporary reports in Israeli press - in the fierce fighting of this day a single Israeli Brigade suffered a loss of 18 KIA - including its commander, Col. Avigdor Shriper - 87 injured, and 22 tanks destroyed.
