Israel Breaches UN Truce

IslamOnline.net & News Agencies



BEIRUT — Israel violated a UN-imposed truce with Lebanon Saturday, August 19, after a warplane and commandos raided a Hizbullah stronghold in eastern Lebanon and struck a power plant in the village of Bodai.

Lebanese security source said warplanes and helicopters attacked unidentified targets during an air drop of commandos at dawn around Bodai, west of the ancient city of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley, Reuters reported.

Israeli security sources confirmed that the army had carried out a raid in Lebanon on Saturday, Israel radio said.

Hizbullah denied in statements to Al-Jazeera satellite channel that three of its fighters had been killed in fierce clashes with Israeli commandos.

Hizbollah television reported its fighters clashed with Israeli commandos near Bodai and forced them to fly out under the cover of air strikes. It said the guerrillas had inflicted "certain casualties" among the Israeli forces.

Lebanese security sources told Reuters that helicopter-borne Israeli commandos in two vehicles were on their way to attack an office of senior Hizbullah official Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek in Bodai when they were spotted and ambushed by the fighters.

The sources said the Israeli force suffered six casualties before pulling out under the cover of fierce air strikes.

They added that the Israeli aircraft bombed roads leading to the village, a power plant and a hillside to the west.

Israeli security sources confirmed that the army carried out a raid in Lebanon, but gave no further details.

Such an assault is the first major attack since a UN truce ended 34 days of fighting between Israel and the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah.

A UN-ordered "cessation of hostilities" halted on Monday the war between Israel and Lebanon after at least 1,183 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed.

It ordered Israel to end all offensive action in Lebanon and Hizbullah to end all attacks on Israel or Israeli forces, the deployment of the Lebanese army and a beefed up UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon.

Israeli Objections


The United Nations was acing against time to reinforce the interim UNIFIL in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli ambassador to the United Nations said Friday that his country objected to include countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel in the planned UN force.

"It would be very difficult if not inconceivable for Israel to accept troops from countries who do not recognize Israel, who have no diplomatic relations with Israel," Dan Gillerman told the BBC.

Malaysia and Indonesia have each offered to send 1,000 troops to Lebanon. Both countries, with Muslim majority populations, have no diplomatic ties with Israel.

Gillerman said Israel would be "very happy" to accept troops from Muslim countries it has friendly relations with.

"But to expect countries who don't even recognize Israel to guard Israel's safety I think would be a bit naive," he said.

Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar dismissed Gillerman's remarks, saying, "we're going to be on Lebanese territory ... we're not going to be on Israeli territory."

In response to reporters' questions, Mark Malloch Brown, the UN deputy secretary-general, said "the final word" on troop deployment was up to the UN

Malloch Brown said he had discussed the issue with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on her visit to UN headquarters on Wednesday, and "I think they are reflecting on it."

Objections from Israel could complicate efforts by the United Nations to quickly assemble a force for southern Lebanon to stabilize a truce between Lebanon and Israel.

A UN Security Council resolution calls for the deployment of up to 15,000 troops, including a 2,000-strong UN force in Lebanon since 1978.

But a senior UN official said he doubted enough countries would come forward to reach that goal any time soon.

The United States urged France, which has offered only 200 new troops, to increase its contingent.

France's reluctance to contribute more troops has disappointed UN and US officials, who expected Paris to take a lead role.

The French military has hesitated following a loss of 58 paratroopers to a suicide bomb attack in Beirut in 1983 and some 84 soldiers in Bosnia in the early 1990s, Reuters said.

The United Nations wants to field an advance force of 3,500 troops by Sept. 2 and hopes to have the entire complement in place by November 4.

Because...



http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,209071,00.html

Iran Suspected of Attempts to Rearm Hezbollah Since Cease-Fire

Thursday, August 17, 2006


WASHINGTON — Iran has been attempting to rearm the Lebanon-based terror network Hezbollah since the U.N.-backed cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel took hold earlier this week, two U.S. officials told FOX News on Thursday.

A U.S. arms control official said it appears that Iran is using Syrian channels in its effort to give Hezbollah weapons it has used in the past, including Chinese-built C-802 radar-guided anti-ship missiles. Military observers said a C-802 was used successfully on an Israeli naval vessel off the coast of Tyre on July 14. The arms control officer and a senior American counterterrorism officer both said the U.S. government is "very concerned" about the "ongoing" effort.

Israel's Cabinet approved the U.N.-brokered cease-fire agreement Monday after 34 days of clashes across the Lebanon-Israeli border that began in response to Hezbollah kidnapping two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid and killing three others. Israel retaliated with air and ground strikes throughout Lebanon in an attempt to disarm the terror group, often taking criticism for causing civilian deaths. Hezbollah retaliated by firing 4,000 short- and mid-range rockets into northern Israel.

The cease-fire resolution authorizes up to 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers to deploy to southern Lebanon, a region the Shiite Muslim-rooted Hezbollah has controlled since Israel pulled back across the border in 2000. It also calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah and the unconditional return of the captured Israeli soldiers.


The counterterrorism official said the administration is "working with all of our allies" to get the message to Russia and China that they must do whatever they can to prevent their missiles from ending up in Lebanon.

A foreign government source told FOX News that the Chinese supplied Iran with at least 50 C-802s, and that the Iranians violated their contract with the Chinese by providing this weaponry to Hezbollah.

But the arms control officer was skeptical of that conclusion, saying, "Of course the Chinese knew" that Iran would turn over its weapons to Hezbollah, but Beijing doesn't care at all about nonproliferation.

"It's cash, and it's a lot of cash," the officer said, adding that while some members of the Bush administration have been willing to give the Chinese the benefit of the doubt and attribute the weapons proliferation to "bad export control," the geopolitical leanings of the Chinese have created the proliferation problem. The officials noted that none of China's weapons have inadvertently ended up in countries like India or Taiwan.

A leading security expert agreed with that conclusion.

"China understood that Iran was backing Hezbollah, they would have had to understood that in principal that if they transferred something to Iran, there's always a possibility that Iran was going to retransfer that Hezbollah," said John Pike, head of GlobalSecurity.org.

The arms control officer expressed optimism that an arms embargo in Lebanon could hold up in the short-term, but was less hopeful about the future.

"What happens in three months? If the will is there, the guns will get there," the officer said.

Also of concern is the prospect that Turkey, a Muslim ally in the War on Terror, is serving as or had been a point of access in the past for arms destined for Hezbollah. Pike said in recent days, Israelis have addressed their concerns directly to the Turks over the trans-shipment.

"They requested that Turkey detain a couple of airplanes coming into Lebanon from Iran. Turned out not to have weapons on them, but I don't think this is the last of it," Pike said. "Turkey has simply been looking the other way."

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said he was confident that if the situation in Turkey had been a problem, it isn't now.

"My understanding is that the issue of potential arms shipments through Turkey and through other countries are things that we have talked about with the Turkish government. ... We're fully convinced that they are taking and doing what would be necessary to prevent arms transfers from going through," Casey said.

FOX News' James Rosen contributed to this report.

Salaam,

Braniac...

[PIE]Iran Suspected of Attempts to Rearm Hezbollah Since Cease-Fire [/PIE]

Hmm suspected and from fox news no less..

wow..
I guess becasue of SUSPECTED INTELLIGENCE,,or should i say faulty intelligence,then it is alright to just kill and bomb people..

Hmm,if that is the case should the Hezbollah actualyl bomb every shif heading to ISrael suspected of suppliying it WMD?

will it be wrong??