Posted on 08/19/2006 3:00:24 AM PDT by BlackVeil
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah fighters battled Israeli commandos who landed near the militants' stronghold deep inside Lebanon early Saturday, killing one soldier, in the first large-scale violation of the U.N.-brokered cease-fire between the sides.
Hezbollah said its guerrillas foiled the raid after a gunbattle, and the Israeli army said one officer was killed and two soldiers were wounded, one seriously.
Witnesses said Israeli missiles destroyed a bridge during the raid — the first major violation of the U.N.-imposed cease-fire that took effect Monday following 34 days of fighting.
The Israeli army said the special forces operation aimed "to prevent and interfere with terror activity against Israel, especially the smuggling of arms from Iran and Syria to Hezbollah." It said the commando team completed its mission.
The army said such operations would be carried out until "an effective monitoring unit" of Lebanese or multinational troops was in place to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding its arsenal.
Hezbollah TV and Lebanese security officials said Israeli helicopters dropped off a commando team outside the village of Boudai west of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to release information to the media, said the Israelis apparently were seeking a guerrilla target in a nearby school but had no other details. The officials also reported heavy overflights of Israeli jets.
Such a bold operation risked scuttling the fragile cease-fire and suggested Israel was going after a major target near Baalbek — perhaps to rescue two Israeli soldiers snatched by Hezbollah on July 12, or to try to capture a senior guerrilla official to trade for the soldiers.
Hezbollah has said it wants to exchange the two soldiers for Arab prisoners, but the U.N. cease-fire resolution demands Hezbollah unconditionally release the soldiers.
Local media said Sheik Mohammed Yazbeck, a senior Hezbollah official in the Bekaa and a member of the Shura council of the group, may have been the target. Yazbeck is a native of Boudai.
Israeli troops have killed several guerrillas who Israel said threatened its troops in south Lebanon since the cease-fire, and warplanes have flown over the country. But the cease-fire allows military action in self-defense, and the commando raid was by far the most serious incident since Monday.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh said Lebanese authorities found blood at the scene of the raid, indicating Israeli casualties. Salloukh, speaking to reporters after meeting with U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen in Beirut, said he informed the U.N. team of the Israeli action in Baalbek and said the U.N. team would raise the issue with Israeli authorities.
"If Israel continues its violations, it is the responsibility of the (U.N.) Security Council to take action and ask Israel to stop these violations," he said.
A provincial government official, Bekaa Valley Gov. Antoine Suleiman, confirmed the Israeli troop landing. He told the privately owned Voice of Lebanon radio station that the landing party brought with it two vehicles that were later withdrawn after clashes.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said the Israeli commando force landed before dawn and was driving into Boudai when it was intercepted by guerrillas who forced it to retreat under the cover of warplanes, which staged mock raids.
Hezbollah officials on the scene said overflights from Israeli jet fighters drowned the clatter of helicopters as they flew into the foothills of the central Lebanese mountains, dropping commandos and two vehicles they used to drive into the village when the Hezbollah fighters intercepted them in a field.
The commandos identified themselves as the Lebanese army, but the guerrillas grew suspicious and gunfire erupted, the officials said.
Israeli helicopters fired missiles as the commandos withdrew and flew out of the area an hour later, they said.
Witnesses saw bandages and syringes at the site. The also saw a destroyed bridge about 500 yards from the area where the landing took place, after missiles were fired by Israeli aircraft.
Overflights were reported Friday night in the same area.
Israel said late Friday its warplanes have not attacked Lebanon since the cease-fire took effect.
Baalbek is the birthplace of the Iranian and Syrian-backed Hezbollah. The area in the eastern Bekaa Valley, 60 miles north of the Israeli border, is a major guerrilla stronghold.
The U.N. Security Council cease-fire resolution calls for an immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations.
In letters to Lebanese and Israeli leaders, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned the two countries against occupying additional territory and told them to refrain from responding to any attacks "except where clearly required in immediate self-defense."
Annan also told Israel and Lebanon that once the cessation of hostilities took effect there must be no firing from the ground, sea or air into the other side's territory or at its forces.
Excuse me but your knowledge of the Hezbollah is very limited isn't it. The Hezbollah never disarmed and that was part of the agreement. Now you actually think they might fight back? LOL They never stopped killing Jews or trying to.
You also said..........."I too was very happy to see this end"
If you ask the Hezbollah, the Hamas or Iran and others, it never ended and it never will until the followers of Islam wipe the Jews off the face of this earth.>br> Islam is a death cult, look how they don't even blink when they send their own children out to be suicide bombers to kill.
Take off your burka and perhaps you can see that when the Hezbollah fired those rockets into Israel two days after the cease fire started it was broken. When the Hezbollah smuggled weapons it was broken also. Israel STOPPED the cease fire from being broken, the only thing they did wrong is not let the UN do the stopping.
But then the UN wasn't trying was it? In fact the UN was in place on the border from the year 2001 and never lifted a finger to stop the Hezbollah from building all those bunkers did it?
You are so brainwashed it is stunning. Must be from not getting any sunlight, the desease is called rickets. Take vitamin D, burkas are very bad for your health.
Uh, this is the whole basis of the treaty on Hizbullahs side! To say nothing about Hudnia as it applies to all of Islam. Your morality only applies to your enemies, this I suspect is why Islam is so evil.
Kinda like cannibals, you pity them, as you wipe them from the face of the earth.
Islamic Thinkers Com!
LOL!
Yes Islam does, it's in black and white in the above reference.
There is no problem in the Qu'ran with the "peoples of the book," that is, the Abrahamic faiths.
True, if they will remain slaves. The problem is the "people of the book" object to that. The other problem I have is the rest of the people not listed in the book might object to the beheadings planned for them.
The issue is the way in which it is taught, no different than people who believe that everyone should be converted to Christianity.
Well perhaps a little different, Christianity offers you a choice that you are free to take, Islam offers you a choice, which you must take or be executed. I see this a WAY DIFFERENT.
Now that was just the first three statements you made, all obvious lies. I did not bother to read the rest of your crap because you are just a brain dead Mohammadian with no grasp of reality.
The real horror was the million or so Israeli's having to live in bomb shelters day and night waiting to die as Lebanon deliberately shelled the cities of Israel 24/7. In Beirut the people sat in the coffee shops, knowing the bombs would be limited to the Hezbollah city center.
The real horror is not the Chemotherapy, it is the Cancer. Stopping the Chemotherapy to keep from being nauseous is the real horror. The ceasefire will guarantee far more deaths in the end, and has sealed Lebanon's fate as a country.
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also Keywords 2006israelwar or WOT [War on Terror]
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The reason(s) could be anything from not believing it will stick, to seeing the UN resolution fall apart due to lack of troops promised, to imminent self defence (i.e. intelligence that a rocket attack may be launched) to political (i.e. most of the Israeli public thinks the cease fire is a joke).
Yeah it's serious to break a cease fire, but I'm sure Israel is prepared for the consequences this time. I was of the opinion the cease fire was pushed by the US and France mostly to show goodwill, and perhaps accepted by Israel because they wanted a cooling off to regroup and redeploy. Maybe it was always intended to be used to deliver a sucker punch.
This was NOT the first time the cease fire was broken. The Cease-fire was broken right at the start, when Hezzies didn't release the Israeli soldiers, re-took neighborhoods under arms and fired more Katyushas, followed by a declaration by the Lebanese Government (20% of which is Hezbollah) that their army will violate the mandate to disarm Hezbollah. So much for the "news" article (left wing editorial in apparent news format).
Rather incomplete list. It does not mention the two Muslim-Khazar wars as well as the Muslim invasions of the Trans-Oxus region.
Hizbollah: Because they are continuing to Re-Arm and have not released the two soldiers undonditionally
By Lebanon: Because they have not began dis-arming Hizbollah
By the UN: Because they have not Deployed or even acquired the Peace Keeping Forces
By France: Because they have violated their promise to put a force in there, currently offering 200 troops.
Until I hear OUTRAGE at the Hezzies, kidnapping soldiers,
lobbing Iranian Rockets transported thru Syria, under the NOSE of the UN, they have lost what credibility they had.
I suspect the Lebonese forces will be loaded with Hezzies can't wait for the next election either. The Fragile Democracy that never was......
Thanks for the response. I tried to view the link, but received one of those 'not found' error messages.
In response to the topic at hand, I believe religions can be effectively wiped out (although perhaps not entirely). Take for instance druids or the myriad other pagan religions of yesteryear. Also, look what the mohammedans did to Persia. It used to be zoroasterian, now it's hardcore muslime (although there are pockets of other faiths). The Christian communities in large parts of the Middle East have been wiped out, by and large.
I'd have to respectfully disagree with your point that the islamofascists are using islam as a tool. Instead, I have to honestly say that I believe the problem is islam itself. The basic tenets of the jihadis today do not really differ from those of their 7th century couterparts. These guys are not radicals; they are simply sincere koran-believing muslimes. I believe Robert Spencer's book The Politically Incorrect Guide (PIG) to Islam (and the Crusades)is a useful and fun-to-read source for understanding the motives of the jihadis which infest the world.
What I was trying to get at is that I don't think it's necessary to wipe out all people who now claim to be muslim in order to have peace. Instead, it'd be sufficient to have folk who claim to be muslim without actually adhering to its tenets (essentially an atheist--I have a couple friends who are like this). Optimally, I'd like to see large swaths of them converted to Christianity, and if missionaries were allowed to spread the Word in muslim countries, perhaps that'd be the case, but I don't see that happening in the near future.
I could see a "reformation" like that which I wrote above. This reformation wouldn't actually be a reformation but instead a simple lackadaisical light-hearted attitude towards islam.
Like you, I'd much prefer a more peaceful solution than the extermination of a large group of people. :)
""America--Love it or Leave", as far back as I can recall, appeared on signs during the hardhat (blue-collar) counter demonstrations to antiwar protests during the Vietnam era. Later I saw it on bumper stickers. It is likely much older than that and has a proud lineage."
I never knew that the phrase had a history. Thanks for the info! :)
"Kinda like cannibals, you pity them, as you wipe them from the face of the earth."
Well..., I was thinking more along the lines of 'gee, it'd be nice if these guys were exposed to the Word of God' or at least 'it'd be swell if their children were taught something other than hate of Christianity, judaism, basically any other non-muslim group,and western civilization.'
Well, they seem to tend to kill those that expose them. As Islam is a choice not a bloodline, I generaly consider them as evil unless shown otherwise. Something like a rattlesnake, missing the rattles. I tend to watch the business end very carefully.
But then I live with a million or so of the most violent radicals on earth within a hundred miles of my house. It's a survival trait.
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