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.
Sounds like hez/lebanon violated the agreement and Israel responded to enforce it.
Lenin has it right here and you know it. Iran threatens Israel with destruction every week. This has stripped all pretensions from the Arab/Palestinian agenda. The Muslim goal is to destroy Israel. Not to get back "occupied lands" and then be content and make peace.
Only idiots can now believe that giving West Bank and Golan to Arab Muslims will bring peace. Muslims always want war and Jihad. Atheists are always in denial of religious wars except when it comes to complaining about long gone Christian religious wars
Can you point me to the passage? I'd be interested to read that.
As for the story...it's probably going to result in retaliation by Hizballah...hopefully not, because I too was very happy to see this end (my girlfriend is Lebanese...non-practicing Druze, if you're wondering).
Start the war again.
Within a day of the so-called cease fire, Lebanon said they would not rid Hezbo of arms, the UN said they would not enforce any agreements with force, and the Hezbos just kept right on with their plans for the annihlation of Israel. It never was what you hoped it would be.
If so, isn't that already a violation of the ceasefire agreement?
It seems you already had your answer before you started searching.
What's wrong with StoneWall Brigade's tagline? Personally, I'm tired of hearing people whine about how America is "unenlightened" and "barbaric,” yet they insist on staying in America (and voting in CA elections!). Regarding his manner in post three, what do you mean? Granted, his capitalization, punctuation (or lack thereof), and general grammar leave much to be desired, but the basic thought conveyed seems sound. The koranus seems to be pretty clear that muslimes are to place the world under the islamic yoke. Maybe I'm one of those bright-eyed naive optimists, but I see no "trollness" in his statements (of course, my exposure to DU has been limited to what I've seen posted here and on another conservative website :) ).
StoneWall Brigade, I’d definitely try some proofreading before posting. The last part of post three is mostly incomprehensible.
"This concept is firmly implanted in the Arab mind in the form of the hudna, a long practiced Islamic manner of making temporary deals with an enemy. These hudnas are only made when you are weak. The simple fact of making a deal often means you are weak. In the most famous hudna in the Koran, Mohammed made a 10 year truce with his neighbors when he was weak. A couple of years later, when he was strong, he resumed hostilities"
Penraker: Competing Psychologies of Negotiation
In the most famous hudna in the Koran, Mohammed made a 10 year truce with his neighbors when he was weak. A couple of years later, when he was strong, ...
www.penraker.com/archives/004789.html - 7k -Cached - Similar pages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudna
This war will begin again, on a far larger scale. It is only a matter of time.
Congressman Billybob
Latest article: "The Democrat Party - 1828 - 2006 - R.I.P."
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It's kinda ironic that back in the 600s, when islam launched its assault on Christian lands and for almost a century after, people had the will to wipe out cut off the death cult at its root, but not the capability. Now the civilized world has the capability, but not the willpower.
Note that I'm not advocating the annihilation of the people, but rather the religion. A lot of those people are to be pitied as they know no other life than that of islam.
I saw no mention of the soldiers in the "cease-fire" text, and Olmert was raked over the coals for agreeing to this CF with a soldier-clause not in there. Is Olmert now a hero because he actually managed to get it in there in some fine print somewhere (ie: a 0.01 point font)
But doesn't everyone do that? It's not just Islamic peoples who do that...Sun Tzu advocated the same, as did Machiavelli. I know I'd do that, and I'm guessing you would too if you were the weaker with a stronger enemy near you.
America needs to wake the F up now! The time for talking about it is over, it's time to take a stand for our future.
Perfectly legitimate under international law when the responsible country - Lebanon - will not eliminate the threat. Go Israel!
That's very multicultural of you but untrue. Hudna is integral to Jihad. Mohammedanism is alive and vibrant while Machiavelli and Sun Tsu are dead and gone. Their theories are studied and used but are not integral to anything comparable to Islam, which believes in permanent Jihad until the whole world is Muslim
There are such things as honest treaties and honest cease fires. This is never the case with Islam because Jihad is eternal until the world is Muslim. So the Muslim is commanded.
You are aware that Islam divides the world into "The House of War" and the "House of Peace"?
They were preventing arms smuggling to Hezbullah from Syria. The arms smuggling is a violation of the cease fire, since Hezbullah is required to disarm.
First, thanks for responding earlier (should've put that in my earlier post!).
But, Islam doesn't believe in permanent jihad until the whole world is Muslim. There is no problem in the Qu'ran with the "peoples of the book," that is, the Abrahamic faiths. The issue is the way in which it is taught, no different than people who believe that everyone should be converted to Christianity. The sad thing is that the vast majority of people in most Middle Eastern/subcontinental nations are denied the proper education to be able to see through the vitriol that they often hear at the mosques. Essentially the Islamic majority countries are going through their version of the Middle Ages now, and we're all left with having to deal with it because of the nature of the globalised world.
Israel should bomb this place so thoroughly that not one stone is be left upon another in this town, not one.
Hudna has a distinct meaning to Islamic fundamentalists, well-versed in their history: The prophet Mohammad struck a legendary, ten-year hudna with the Quraysh tribe that controlled Mecca in the seventh century. Over the following two years, Mohammad rearmed and took advantage of a minor Quraysh infraction to break the hudna and launch the full conquest of Mecca, the holiest city in Islam.
In essence, this is religious license to renege on ones word, and to regroup, rearm, and reorganize to attack when ones enemy is lulled into thinking that one will be honest and fulfill ones side of a truce. This is tactic has been used over and over in Islam's history, and is used to great effect today by Yasser Arafat, Hamas, al-Aqsa, and other Islamic terrorists all over the world. Recent examples include Fallujah and Najaf. What Westerners need to do is to read Islamic scripture and learn that in Islam there is no concept of permanent submission to any other power than God's. Treaties mean nothing. Beware the hudna.
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:o4p0e_2cS_IJ:clarityandresolve.com/candrlexicon.php+mohammed+koran+hudna+sura&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1
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