Posted on 08/13/2002 1:22:36 PM PDT by knak
Agency says revolutionary guards drilling Hizbullah and palestinian groups
Intelligence briefing claims shipments of missiles and rockets dispatched to Lebanon
Nicholas Blanford Daily Star staff
A detachment of Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG) are in Lebanon training elite units of Hizbullah and Palestinian fighters to fire rockets and carry out underwater suicide operations as part of a $50 million program, according to a special report allegedly compiled by a Western intelligence agency.
The report focuses on a secret meeting of representatives of hard-line anti-Israel groups that took place on the eve of a June 2-3 conference in Tehran in support of the intifada.
The report contains perhaps the most detailed account yet made public on allegations that Lebanon hosts training camps for anti-Israel groups. But whether the report is genuine or a clever piece of disinformation remains unclear.
Details of the special report were included in an article written by Murray Kahl, the editor of the Israeli & Global News, and posted on the website of the Lebanese Foundation for Peace, an organization that opposes Syrias hegemony in Lebanon.
Kahl quotes the report as saying that some 10 people met in Darjah in Tehrans suburbs on June 1, a day before the conference began. Among those gathered for the meeting were Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, Ramadan Shallah, leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, representatives of Hizbullah and two senior officers from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. One of the IRG officers was named as General Ali Reza Tamzar whom the report claimed is the commander of the Iranian forces in the Bekaa.
Also present at the Tehran meeting, according to the report, was Imad Mughnieh, who is suspected of masterminding anti-Western attacks in 1980s Lebanon and is ranked second after Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden on Americas most wanted terrorist list. The report said that an Islamic Gulf figure wanted by the US for affiliation to bin Ladens Al-Qaeda network also attended.
The report claimed that the meeting was arranged to thwart any attempts to halt the suicide bombing campaign in Israel and neutralize the intifada. A working plan was hammered out in which Hizbullah, Hamas and the PIJ would cooperate on launching attacks. The report said that the participants were assured that Tehran was willing to put all the financial, military, logistic, and security capabilities of the Islamic revolution at their disposal.
The report said the budget allocated for the plan amounted to $50 million. New shipments of missiles and rockets have been dispatched to Lebanon, the report said, including Fajr 5 surface-to-surface rockets which have a range of 70 kilometers, SAM-7 anti-aircraft missiles and the more advanced US-made Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.
Training is underway at Khuraj in the Bekaa near the border with Syria with each session involving 20-25 elite Hizbullah and Palestinian fighters, the report said. Other than the training camp at Khuraj, units of frogmen are being trained at another camp near the Aasi River in the northern Bekaa, east of Hermel, to carry out suicide operations, the report said. The Daily Star delivered a copy of Kahls article to Hizbullah. The party declined to comment.
There have been numerous public references in recent months to training camps in Lebanon but none contain the level of detail as contained in Kahls version of the special report. While the wealth of detail is compelling, there are some discrepancies.
Khuraj, the alleged location of the IRG training camp, does not appear to exist. Residents of Baalbek and the eastern Bekaa claim that there is no village, hamlet or district called Khuraj.
The reference to an underwater training facility along the Aasi River is reminiscent of a rumor circulating in fall 1999 that Hizbullah frogmen were being trained in trout-breeding pools near Shouaghir village, 2 kilometers east of Hermel. The rumors were fueled by an Israeli air strike on Sept. 7 1999 against the banks of the Aasi near Shouaghir, a location not usually targeted during the years of Israeli occupation.
The claim that Hizbullah has received new rockets and missiles also reflects long-standing allegations. Reports of Hizbullah acquiring Iranian Fajr rockets were first aired in February 2000 and the Israeli military has long asserted that the resistance possesses Stinger missiles, although no firings from south Lebanon have ever been confirmed. SAM 7s were part of Hizbullahs arsenal throughout the 1990s, but the antiquated missile is largely ineffective against the sophisticated defenses of Israeli helicopters and warplanes. Nonetheless, the claims contained within the special report fit well with statements from Iranian and Hizbullah officials as well as the importance the party attaches to the continuation of an active military role in support of the intifada beyond the static status quo along the border with Israel.
On a visit to south Lebanon in late May, the deputy speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Reza Khatami, said that Iran was ready to support the Lebanese resistance movement, as well as the Palestinian intifada, and that the worlds Muslims were religiously obliged to provide material and moral support for the intifada.
In April, Hojatoleslam Mohammadi Golpayegani, who heads the office of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khameini, told a gathering of Syrians, Iranians, Iraqis, and Lebanese in Damascus that Iranian policy is to strengthen and support the front line of resistance against the Zionist regime.
Hizbullah has to an extent subordinated its domestic role to the confrontation with Israel, which the partys leadership views as having the potential to lead to the destruction of the Jewish state. Hizbullah officials regularly testify to the partys readiness to confront any eventuality, and the military infrastructure installed in south Lebanon is part of that readiness. We know that there is an all-out war, wholesale or retail, which the United States is waging, and we should be prepared for it, in months or years, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullahs secretary-general, said in a speech in May.
It has become clear in recent months that Hizbullahs support for Palestinian groups extends beyond mere propaganda and morale-boosting speeches. Hizbullah members have been caught attempting to smuggle Katyusha rockets into the West Bank from Jordan, as admitted by Nasrallah.
Hizbullah was involved in the Shelomi ambush in March in which two suspected Palestinian gunmen crossed from Lebanon into Israel and gunned down six Israelis. It is also no secret that Hizbullah has established an intelligence-gathering network in northern Israel. Two residents from the divided village of Ghajar were arrested last week by the Israeli authorities for passing intelligence information to Hizbullah fighters in exchange for drugs and weapons. Hizbullah, which disapproves of drugs, appears to have taken advantage of the cross-border drug smuggling connections established during Israels occupation.
All this enables Hizbullah to maintain its relevance in the struggle against Israel at a time when domestic political constraints require a period of calm and stability in the Shebaa Farms and along the southern border.
In fact, despite all the fuss appearing in the US and Israeli media over the past two months about the threat to northern Israel posed by Hizbullah, the border district has witnessed its longest period of calm since the Shebaa Farms campaign was launched in October 2000. The last attack in the occupied farms was over three months ago on April 26.
A ship carrying weapons intended for the Palestinian Authority was captured in the Red Sea by Israel's Navy and Air Force. The boat's cargo included 50 tons of advanced weaponry including Katyusha rockets, rifles, mortar shells, mines and a variety of anti-tank missiles. Senior figures in the Palestinian Authority were involved in the smuggling.
Communicated by the IDF Spokesman:
On January 3rd, the Israeli Navy seized control over the Karine A ship that was sailing in international waters on its way to the Suez Canal.
The shipment included both 122 mm. and 107 mm. Katyusha rockets, which have ranges of 20 and 8 kilometers respectively. It also contained 80 mm. and 120 mm. mortar shells, various types of anti-tank missiles, anti-tank mines, sniper rifles, Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition. From Gaza, the 122 mm. Katyushas could have threatened Ashkelon and other coastal cities; while from the West Bank, Ben-Gurion International Airport and several major Israeli cities would have been within their range. The shipment also included rubber boats and diving equipment, which would have facilitated seaborne attacks from Gaza against coastal cities.
Preliminary investigation of the crew members has revealed so far that the commanding officer of the ship is Colonel Omar Akawi. The ship was purchased by the Palestinian Authority, loaded with weapons by the Iranians and the Hizbullah, manned by Palestinian Authority personnel, with the aim of transfering the weapons it carried to the Palestinian Naval Police near the Gaza beaches.
Since October 2000, Adel Mughrabi, a major buyer in the Palestinian weapons purchasing system (with the assistance of the Palestinian Naval Police Commander Juma'a Ghali and his executive Fathi Ghazem), has been in contact with the Iranians and Hizbullah regarding a vast weapons smuggling operation for the use of the Palestinian Authority. This operation included the testing and purchase of ships, forming a sailing crew and appointing a commander for the team, as well as making arrangements as to how the weapons would be stored, loaded onto the vessels, and its journey until delivery to the Palestinian Authority.
Preliminary investigation of the team members arrested revealed that the Karine A ship was purchased by Adel Mughrabi in Lebanon, sailed to Sudan where it was loaded with regular cargo. The crew was then switched with the team members and in November 2001 sailed to Hodeida port in Yemen.
In December 2001 the ship sailed according to detailed instructions from Adel Mughrabi to the beaches of Iran near Qeshm Island. There a ferry approached it, most likely arriving from Iran, from which the weapons stored in 80 large wooden crates were transferred and loaded onto the ship. These weapons were stored in special waterproof containers produced only in Iran, which are floatable and are set with a special configurable system that determines how deep they are submerged, were prepared by Hizbullah personnel for smuggling to the Palestinian Authority. Included in the ferry team which transferred the weapons crates to the ship was also a Lebanese trainer, a Hizbullah operative who trained a diver from the ship's crew in configuring the floatation devices in Lebanon. The trainer was present for yet another refreshing training session prior to the sailing.
After completing the loading process of the weapons onto the ship, the ship had to divert to Hodeida port in Yemen due to technical problems. After crossing the canal, the ship was supposed to meet with three smaller ships that were purchased in advance and to unload the weapons onto them. According to the plan, the smaller ships were to leave the weapons near El Arish in Gaza, where the weapons were to be taken by the commander of the Palestinian Naval Police Juma'a Ghali and his executive Fathi Ghazem.
No. That's a DEBKA training camp!
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