50,000 Hezbollah men said deployed along border with Israel

Haaretz ^ | February 16, 2008 | Yoav Stern

[West Coast Conservative]

The Lebanese newspaper A-Safir reported Saturday that the Lebanon-based guerilla group Hezbollah has deployed 50,000 "activists" along the southern border with Israel and declared a state of high alert in southern Lebanon.

According to the report, the organization has also evacuated all buildings in the area designated for social or political purposes in recent days, in preparation for a confrontation with Israel in the wake of the assassination of Hezbollah terror chief Imad Mughniyah.

Mughniyah, the organization's deputy secretary general, was killed in a blast in an upscale Damascus neighborhood late Tuesday. On Thursday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah blamed Israel for the assassination and vowed to retaliate. Israel denied any involvement in the incident. Advertisement Meanwhile Saturday, another Lebanese newspaper reported that Lebanese officials believe a serious military confrontation with Israel will erupt in the near future.

According to a report in the Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar this possibility has been raised in intensive discussions being held between Hezbollah officials and Iranian and Syrian officials. The various militant Palestinian organizations have also declared a state of high alert, the report added.

Al-Akhbar also reported that Syrian investigators probing the assassination suspect that "official security organizations operating in Arab nations" may have been involved in the killing, and that some of the suspects arrested in the course of the investigation were not civilians.

The report also said the investigation revealed that Mughniyah had been killed from a blast originating from a car bomb nearby, and not from a bomb planted in the vehicle he was occupying, as originally believed. The investigation revealed that the car bomb had been detonated remotely as Mughniyah walked past.

[Boblo]

Why don’t we ever see an effort to recruit fighters from the west to counter these folks? Israel would be a happy camper!!

[Iron Munro]

You smell that?
You smell that?
Napalm Son.
Nothin' else in the world smells like that.
I love the smell of napalm in the mornin'.
There was this one time we bombed this hill for 12 hours.
When it was all over, I walked up.
There was not one left.
Not one dink body.
But that smell, that gasoline smell, it smelled like........

Victory!

-- Lt.Colonel Kilgore (Apocalypse Now)

[ridesthemiles]

Does this title indicate that it is a Target Rich area???

[processing please hold]

I hadn’t heard that before but it’s so true. Thanks.

[Liberty2007]

sounds like a target rich environment to me

[SauronOfMordor]

I'm thinking that selling the Israelis a few Reaper UAVs would be just the ticket

[Concho]

Crank up the AC-130’s. Capitalize on that target rich environment.

[kinghorse]

I understand their concern considering all the effort these muslims put into trying to find the assassins of the Christian politicians.

Not.

[bert]

It’s called a pincers movement......

The Hezzies are now deployed between the Lebanese Army,the French and the IDF

[Jabba the Nutt]

Good, get them all in one place. That makes targeting a heck of a lot easier.

[yldstrk]

Blast em Israel

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]

----------------------------

[G Larry]

What do you call 50,000 Hezbollah “activists” along the southern border with Israel?

A target rich environment.

Clearly this is a joke, as “Hezbollah” never fights unless they are behind the skirts of their women.

[bill1952]

Return of the Trilateral Commission!

Seriously, Zbig was one guy I never did quite get a handle on.
He was a major hawk on a lot of things - even the rapid deployment force was his baby, IIRC, and he did endorse the first Bush for POTUS.

I guess he is a neocon.
Did you know that he has just endorsed ... Obama?!

[Quix]

Dear Military experienced folks . . .

Have any of you ever seen this many folks all cocked and ready for battle

stand down?

[RightWhale]

If they are military they will stand down when ordered. These are quasi-military and do as they please. However, 100 snipers along the 50 miles of border will discourage any unilateral action.

[Quix]

Sounds good. But I wasn’t speaking of “only” the 50,000

. . . sounds like the whole region has been rachetted up.

But then, I haven’t been following it toooo closely.

Thanks much for your kind reply.

[G8 Diplomat]

50,000 Hezbollah troops on the border
50,000 Hezbollah troops
Fire a round, shoot one down
49,999 Hezbollah troops on the border.....

[elhombrelibre]

Yes, I did. And I knew he’d been a neo-con, but apparently he isn’t one anymore.

[xJones]

50,000 Hezbollah men said deployed along border with Israel

And that will very shortly be 50,000 dead Hezbollah men if they try to push the Israelis. Think of all those 72 per dead Moosie Virgins in Paradise - oh, the horror.