Posted on 08/15/2006 9:38:48 AM PDT by Alouette
NABATIYEH, Lebanon (Reuters) - In the sheltered porch, women in headscarves and long robes weep gently, whisper verses of prayer and mourn a teenager as a "martyred hero."
The women are mourning the death of a 17-year-old who fought for Hizbollah against Israeli forces in south Lebanon. The mood is a mixture of sadness and exhilaration, and one of unusual calm as they are convinced that their martyr will go to heaven.
Emad Haj Ali is one of at least 100 fighters who died in the 34-day war, sparked when the grassroots guerrilla group seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack on July 12 in order to exchange them for a release of prisoners.
"Martyrs love God. They are not scared of anything. They are heroes. They terrified the United States and the whole world. God chose them to be martyrs," said Ali's mother, Ghada, 40, as she rocked back and forth mourning her son's loss.
"He was martyred ... God destroy Israel," she said.
Dozens of women sat huddled in the small porch, and each had lost either a son, a cousin, a brother, or a nephew during Hizbollah's long history of fighting with Israel.
After the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war, Hizbollah was the only Lebanese faction which kept its guns on the grounds it needed them to fight Israeli occupation.
Impatience with Israel drove the group to fight a war of attrition until the Jewish state was forced to withdraw from southern Lebanon in 2000. The group's status grew as the only one able to take on Israel.
DRENCHED IN BLOOD
Ali had died a week ago. His mother had fled to Beirut, but his aunt, speaking to Reuters, said she would never leave her home even in the fiercest of fighting.
"We the people of the south, the mothers, are never scared. Of course the loss is very painful, but when we think of how God will reward them in heaven, it cools our heart a bit," said Ahlam Moselmani, 53, who lost her son 12 years ago.
Both Ali and another teenage fighter, Abdul-Raouf Nasser, had their funeral procession on Tuesday down the main street of Nabatiyeh, one of the southern Lebanese Hizbollah strongholds.
Hundreds of men, women and children trailed behind the two coffins which were shrouded in Hizbollah's trademark yellow flags. "Death to America! Death to Israel!" they chanted beating their chests systematically in line with Shi'ite Muslim tradition. Women threw flower petals on the procession.
Nabatiyeh saw some heavy Israeli air strikes, particularly during the last few hours before the ceasefire, which took effect on Monday. Houses on the outskirts were particularly worse hit than the town center.
Residents felt no vindictiveness or bitterness toward Hizbollah over all their losses.
In fact, Ghada saw it as a religious duty to fight what she saw as Israeli aggression on Lebanese territory.
"How can we give Israel our land that's drenched in our fighters' blood?"
The entire ME mentality, even those so called MODERATE Muslims, seem fascinated with death, defeating Israel, and the USA with no idea that Islamofascism is poisoning their wells! I found little sympathy with all those CNN Lebanese pics showing Israeli destruction since CNN did not show the same in Israel. The more this WWIII episode proceeds against Islamofascism , the more one wonders just how many Muslims are not in league with the Islamofascists. And I mean in the USA, say Detroit and Baltimore. Say CAIR.
Let's all hear it for El Reuters again. They certainly know how to rake in the dinars from the faithful and the unfaithful.
You praise' em, we raze 'em.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.