Large Hizbullah Training Exercise in S. Lebanon; Israel Reacts

(IsraelNN.com) A Lebanese newspaper, Al-Akhbar, reported on Monday that the Hizbullah terrorist organization held a large training exercise in southern Lebanon over the past three days. According to the report, the exercise, involving thousands of Hizbullah gunmen, took place in close proximity to the northern Israeli border.

IDF forces on the border and UN soldiers stationed in southern Lebanon reportedly did UN soldiers stationed in southern Lebanon reportedly did nothing more than observe the exercise. nothing more than observe the exercise. Hizbullah attempted to maintain secrecy about the large-scale training, but senor members of the terrorist group later confirmed the Al-Akhbar report.

The exercise allegedly indicated that rockets and missiles currently in the Hizbullah arsenal are able to strike anywhere deep inside Israeli territory. Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah reportedly oversaw the large training operation personally.

Reacting to the newspaper report, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora denied that any large Hizbullah exercise took place, saying that Lebanese soldiers, police and United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon all denied it. The newspaper report was probably just about a "simulation" of some kind, Siniora averred.

Later on Monday, it was reported that Israeli warplanes dropped flares over the southern coast of Lebanon. The overflight mission was apparently executed in response to the Hizbullah training exercise.

A large-scale exercise by Hizbullah would be consistent with a report from several days ago by the French newspaper Le Figaro that the Shiite terrorist organization is expanding its foothold in Lebanon. In particular, the newspaper noted that Hizbullah control and activity is not limited to the area north of the Litani River; rather, the group has reconstituted its strength in southern Lebanon, as well, including in those areas under official UNIFIL control.

According to Le Figaro, witnesses in southern Lebanon reported seeing caravans of trucks moving into the area, seeing Hizbullah men digging inside orchards and then immediately covering over the ditches they dug, as well as hearing suspicious explosions.

A French military source said that the Lebanese government was aware of the stepped up Hizbullah activity south of the Litani. "Yet, for now, it is not doing a thing about it," the French source added.

witnesses in southern Lebanon reported seeing caravans of trucks moving into the area, seeing Hizbullah men digging inside orchards and then immediately covering over the ditches they dug, as well as hearing suspicious explosions

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I’ll see if I can link in the other report I saw that said the Hizzies went thru the exercise without weapons in hand a dry run.. like that would not arouse suspicion..

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here ya go

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071105/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_hezbollah_2

Report: Hezbollah stages maneuvers

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Thousands of Hezbollah guerrillas staged secret military maneuvers without weapons or uniforms near Israel’s border in southern Lebanon, a pro-Hezbollah Lebanese newspaper reported Monday. The Lebanese government downplayed the report as probably just a simulation.

Al-Akhbar, a pro-Hezbollah newspaper, said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah personally supervised the maneuvers, which it reported were carried out in the last three days and were the biggest ever staged on Israel’s border by the Shiite Muslim militant group.

Monday’s report marked the first time Hezbollah, with its highly secretive military wing, revealed such exercises through a newspaper. The maneuvers, if confirmed, could pose a major challenge to a U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended last year’s war with the Jewish state.

Hezbollah officials declined to comment. However, a Hezbollah legislator, Hassan Fadlallah, said it was only “natural” that the group be fully ready to confront any possible Israeli attack.

“Clearly, we will not let Israel carry out aggression against Lebanon and we sit still,” he told Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. television, referring to the increased Israeli military flights over southern Lebanon in recent days.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, speaking to AP Television News at government headquarters, said authorities checked with military and police units as well as U.N. peacekeepers and “they confirmed nothing on the ground really happened.”

“It was, let’s say, a simulation probably, in an operation room, on the desk, probably they did such a thing,” he said. “This has been confirmed by all the sources.”

He noted there was no statement issued by Hezbollah confirming the reported maneuvers.

The alleged maneuvers came a few days after Israel held major military exercises in the north of the country near the Lebanese border. The Israeli action was interpreted by some Lebanese media as preparation by the Jewish state for a possible new war with Hezbollah.

Hezbollah’s actions could be an attempt to counter the Israeli exercises.

Al-Akhbar said the Hezbollah maneuvers were carried out south of the Litani River in southern Lebanon and aimed at “deterring the enemy from carrying out any adventure in Lebanon.” The zone has been controlled by a U.N. peacekeeping force and the Lebanese army since last year’s war.

“A state of Israeli alertness is countered by extraordinary movement by the resistance (Hezbollah),” read a front-page headline Monday in As-Safir, another newspaper close to Hezbollah. It quoted witnesses in southern Lebanon as saying they observed “unusual movement” by Hezbollah for the first time since last year’s war, but gave no further details.

There was no immediate comment from officials of the U.N. peacekeeping force, which has 13,500 soldiers who patrol a buffer zone near the border with Israel with the help of 15,000 Lebanese troops.

But As-Safir quoted Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano, the commander of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon as warning Lebanese leaders he met in Beirut last week that the tension in the south and a deepening political crisis in the country might prompt European countries “to withdraw from UNIFIL within less than four months.”

Italy, France, Spain and Germany form the bulk of the reinforced U.N. force that deployed in southern Lebanon after last year’s war.

Commenting on the reported Hezbollah maneuvers, a Lebanese security official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity in line with government regulations, said Lebanese forces in south Lebanon “did not register any armed presence south of the Litani.”

The official said troops are under orders to prevent any armed presence in accordance with a U.N. Security Council resolution that ended last year’s fighting, but pointed out “that civilians have the right to freely move in their villages” and if they do not carry weapons, they are not breaking the law.

Al-Akhbar said Hezbollah’s maneuvers were carried out all along the border with Israel “in extreme secrecy without any show of arms.”

The newspaper quoted Nasrallah as telling the participants that the maneuvers were intended “for foe and friend to make them understand that the resistance (Hezbollah) is fully ready to confront any kinds of Israeli threats.”

Nasrallah said last week his guerrilla group has grown stronger since last summer’s war as Israel has weakened. He said his guerrillas did not want war but “will not allow anyone to attack our villages, people and country.”

The Lebanese army command has in the last few days issued statements noting increased Israeli overflights in southern Lebanon in violation of the cease-fire resolution.

Since the fighting with Israel ended, Nasrallah has boasted that his guerrillas have replenished their rocket arsenal and were ready to fight Israel if attacked. The Hezbollah leader has said his group possesses more than 33,000 rockets.

Last week, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a new report that said Israel claims that Hezbollah has rearmed with new long-range rockets capable of hitting Tel Aviv. Ban’s report said Israel claims Hezbollah has tripled its shore-to-sea C-802 missiles and has established an air defense unit armed with ground-to-air missiles.

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