Sayeret Yahalom
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The Sayeret Yahalom (formerly Sayeret Yael) is a special elite combat engineering unit of the Israeli Engineering Corps of the Israel Defense Forces. The name "Yahalom" (Diamond in Hebrew) is an abbreviation of "Special Operations Engineering Unit". It has high reputation as one of the more capable elite unit of the IDF Special Forces.
Sayeret Yahalom specializes in special engineering mission which include:
- Accurate demolitions and planting of pinpoint explosives.
- Defusing bombs, landmines and unexploded ordenance (EOD).
- Maritime sabotage and obstacles breaching.
- Searching and destroying smuggling tunnels.
- Developing advance methods and tools for demolitions and EOD.
- Teach and train engineering corps soldiers and other Special Units in demolitions and EOD.
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Organization and Activities
General Activities
Sayeret Yahalom (SY) is one of the most classified units in the IDF and almost none of its special activities are exposed to the public. Usually, when its activities are published, they are just credited to a "combat engineering force" (a term which used interchangeably for regular Engineering sappers, IDF Caterpillar D9 operators and infantry engineering companies).
Foreign sources (such as Janes Defence Weekly) claim that Sayeret Yahalom are working closely with Sayeret Matkal and Shayetet-13, by providing them demolitions, explosive and sabotage skills.
Sub Units
- YAEL ("Ibex") - special demolition unit, long range sabotages missions, counter terror, maritime engineering.
- YACHSAP ("EOD Unit") - removing landmines, missile's warheads, handling NBC threats, bomb disposal.
- SAMOOR ("Weasel") - a unit which is expertise are to find and destroy smuggling tunnels and hidden weapon caches.
Weapons and means
The exact weapons of the unit aren't detailed but it was recently report they acquired new means to handle smuggling tunnels, such as remote-controlled robot which can scan tunnels, preventing the need for human operator to enter the tunnel and risk its life.
EOD robots for handling IEDs, bombs and explosive charges and advance EOD car are standard equipment for all engineering units handling explosives and also used by Magav sappers.
Other means of Sayeret Yahalom include the up-armored IDF Caterpillar D9 bulldozer (which was found extremely useful for special operation and CT duties), an armored Excavator with drills and IDF Puma CEV.
Activities during the Al-Aqsa Intifada
Recently, Sayeret Yahalom was enlarged when the Southern Command Gazan tunnel experts team was merged with the unit, in a platoon called SAMOOR.
The "YACHSAP" team (the equivalent of EOD) is constantly defusing large IEDs set by Hizbullah in the Israeli-Lebanese border and bombs planted by Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They are often assisted by armored bulldozers for that mission.
The YAEL team provided accurate demolition skills to destroy Palestinian terror facilities such as bomb-labs and terrorists' house. They also reportedly blew up buildings in the Mukataa and bridges near Beit Hanoun (in order to prevent transportation of Qassam rockets via trucks and vans).
Joining the unit and Trainings
In order to be accepted to the unit one must enlist to the Israeli Engineering Corps and go through basic training ("Tironut"), in which the the best trainees are tracked by the commanders and sent to "Gibush" (a 5-days test of physical and mental condition in intensive field trials) from whom the very best are selected to join the unit and received advance training. The extra training takes another year (which bring to a total of 1.5 years of training) and therefore joiners must commit themselves for two more years of service (in addition to the mandatory 3 years service in the IDF).
The long and intense training period include both Engineering and EOD training and both advance combat training and full Counter-terror training.
See also
External Links
- Sayeret Yahalom (http://www.isayeret.com/content/units/land/ce/guide.htm) at Isayeret (http://www.isayeret.com) (unofficial website dedicated to Israeli SF)
- Israeli Engineering Corps SF (http://www.geocities.com/mazanga9/IDF/CombatEngineeringCorps.htm#)he:סיירת יהלם