Israeli spies rush to cover Lebanon intel deficit

TEL AVIV, July 24 (Reuters) Israel's spy services are scrambling to make up for a lack of intelligence on Lebanon that has hindered an offensive against Hizbollah guerrillas, senior security sources said toonday.

They said Israel now realises, after 13 days of shelling that have killed more than 370 people, mostly civilians, but failed to crush Hizbollah or free two snatched soldiers, that its withdrawal from south Lebanon six years ago left it blind.

''From an intelligence standpoint, 2000 was Year Zero for us,'' a security source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Aerial surveillance has been stepped up in an effort both to find hidden Hizbollah command bunkers and to map the network of guerrilla trenches along the frontier. At least seven commandos have died trying to storm them.

Israeli television showed intelligence analysts using footage of south Lebanese villages thought to conceal Hizbollah gunmen and rocket crews to create three-dimensional computer mock-ups for use in planning ground assaults or air strikes.

Captured army equipment displayed by Hizbollah after one border battle included a video camera, suggesting that Israel's special forces are both fighting and documenting a guerrilla deployment that is the result of a long, hidden buildup.

In Beirut, more than 20 people have been arrested on charges of marking buildings for Israeli bombing runs, Lebanese security sources said. If the detainees are indeed spies, the apparent ease of their detection and arrest could indicate they were rushed into action by their handlers. Israel had no comment.

Another tactic used by the Israelis has been to drop leaflets on Lebanon urging locals to send information about Hizbollah over the Internet.

''We've been trying to track Hizbollah for years, but there's a big difference in terms of effectiveness when this is done at the height of fighting,'' a security source said.

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