Then it is a lights, Camera, actIon sort of situAtion in So mAny Unspoken ways of Deception and obfuscatIon, isn't it?
"4 killed in Beirut suicide blast" by Diaa Hadid | Associated Press, February 20, 2014
This happens when big-shot congre$$man critters are visiting? Where is the vaunted U.S.-security screen? Or did they have aheads-up and knew they would be safe?
BEIRUT — Two suicide bombers blew up their cars near an Iranian cultural center in Beirut on Wednesday, killing at least four people and wounding scores, including children in an orphanage, in the latest attack targeting Shi’ite areas in Lebanon.
Now who would want to do that?
An Al Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility for the bombings, saying they were retaliation for Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian war alongside President Bashar Assad’s forces. The Shi’ite militant organization is backed by Iran.
Uh-huh.
But the attack — like a dozen other similar bombings since July against Shi’ite areas of Lebanon — killed and wounded civilians. They included a dozen boys and girls living in a home for abandoned and orphaned children, said Dr. Hussam Bitar, a surgeon at Al-Zahraa hospital, where the youngsters were treated.
Yeah, that will win the local populace over to your side -- after they put you to death.
The explosions have embittered and angered residents, who said they face an unknown enemy seeking to kill them because of their faith....
The hallmark of covert hit squads, along with the false narrative of sectarianism tossed in by by Zionist-controlled media. Nice touch.
You can read the carnage and decide for yourself if you think it was a couple of car bombs. Damn powerful explosives whatever was used.
The Lebanese Army said the bombers drove vehicles packed with explosives and mortar shells to maximize the damage.
The explosions seriously damaged the facade of Iran’s cultural center, despite blast walls recently erected around the building. The state-run Lebanese news agency quoted the Iranian Embassy as saying no diplomats or workers were wounded. But one wounded man in the hospital said he was an Iranian Embassy worker.
The Abdullah Azzam Brigades tweeted that the ‘‘invasion of the Iranian cultural center’’ was in ‘‘retaliation for Iran’s party fighting along the criminal regime in Syria.’’
Sure looks Zaudi, I mean, Saudi to me.
It referred to Hezbollah, which has been a staunch ally of Assad’s government. Hezbollah’s fighters have been instrumental in helping dislodge Syrian rebels from areas near the border with Lebanon.
The Abdullah Azzam Brigades said the attacks in Lebanon will continue until Hezbollah fighters withdraw from Syria and scores of detainees are released from Lebanese jails. It said Hezbollah will not ‘‘enjoy security in Lebanon until the people of Syria feel secure.’’
The explosions came a few days after Prime Minister Tammam Salam formed a new cabinet to end almost 11 months of paralysis. He described Wednesday’s attack as ‘‘a message by forces of terrorism to continue in their plan to spread death in Lebanon.’’
‘‘We will respond to it with solidarity and our commitment to peace,’’ he said.
Could not have said it better myself.
Two visiting US senators, Tim Kaine of Virginia and Angus King of Maine, condemned the latest spillover of violence from Syria’s civil war. ‘‘We hope the formation of the government will build some trust that will enable the country’’ to combat terrorism, Kaine said.
Yeah, I saw and noted that.
--more--"
No follow-up on that today; instead I get this:
"Border post in Syria targeted by deadly blast" by Barbara Surk | Associated Press, February 21, 2014
BEIRUT — A powerful explosion ripped through a Syrian border post Thursday near a refugee camp on the border with Turkey, setting cars ablaze and killing at least five people, Syrian opposition activists and Turkish state media said.
Well, you let your borders be open to the movement of ammunition, arms, and foreign mercenaries and things like that will happen.
Again, Turkey's role in facilitating action in Syria as well as providing refuge for insurgent bases (these guys different from the Kurds they bomb, see -- another omission by my media).
The blast, believed to have been caused by a car bomb, tore through the Bab al-Salama border crossing, also wounding a large number of people taken to hospitals in the Turkish town of Kilis across the border. Thousands of people have fled from Aleppo through the border crossing in recent weeks because of the government’s escalated aerial bombardment there....
See: Geneva All About Regime Change
An online video uploaded by activists showed people ferrying casualties, including a young boy, away from the flames as ambulances rushed to the scene. The video appeared genuine and consistent with Associated Press reporting on the incident.
All the more reason to doubt it.
The Bab al-Salama crossing is controlled by rivals of an Al Qaeda breakaway group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The two sides have engaged in deadly infighting as the splinter group has sought to take over the crossing.
Also on Thursday, the relief agency supporting Palestinian refugees resumed food distribution inside the rebel-held district of the Syrian capital that has suffered from crippling shortages of food and medicine for months, a United Nations spokesman said.
Oh, the humanity!
--more--"
Now back to Beirut:
"Beirut bomb kills politician who criticized Syria; Lebanese activists blame regime or Hezbollah allies" by Anne Barnard | New York Times, December 28, 2013
I hate to say it, but I guess you gotta take your lumps.
BEIRUT — The bomb that tore through downtown Beirut on Friday killed a former Lebanese finance minister who was a prominent critic of the Syrian government — an attack that unleashed a storm of political recriminations that threaten the fragile alliances keeping the Syrian war from spilling outright into Lebanon.
The former minister, Mohamad B. Chatah, was one of the closest advisers to Saad Hariri, son of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, another opponent of the Syrian leadership whose assassination in a 2005 bombing touched off the March 14 protest movement that helped end Syria’s 29-year military presence in Lebanon.
I suspect Israel! Who benefits?
On Friday, Saad Hariri, himself a former prime minister, and his March 14 political allies issued statements implying that the Syrian government or its ally Hezbollah were responsible for the bombing, which killed at least six people and wounded dozens, and drew parallels to the killing of Rafik Hariri, for which the international Special Tribunal for Lebanon has indicted four Hezbollah operatives.
The allegations were electric in a country deeply divided over Syria, with Hariri’s Future bloc, the main Sunni party, backing the opponents of President Bashar Assad, and Hezbollah, the Shi’ite militia that is also Lebanon’s most powerful political party, supporting Assad.
And just jwho would want to keep it that way?
Syria’s conflict has already touched Lebanon. Street fighting has erupted in Tripoli. Car bombings in the southern suburbs of Beirut have been widely blamed on Syrian insurgents or their backers.
That's zwho I was talking about.
Hezbollah has sent its fighters into combat alongside Syrian forces and accused the Future bloc of backing Lebanese militants who have joined insurgents across the porous border.
In such a climate, Lebanese politicians on both sides said the country can ill afford the loss of Chatah, 62. He was regarded even by opponents as a moderate who could foster dialogue across political and sectarian lines, and took part in talks to end the impasse that has left Lebanon without a government for months.
Stinks of Israel and Saudi Arabia!
Hezbollah condemned the attack as an attempt to sow divisions in Lebanon. Its leaders, along with Syrian officials, called the allegations dangerous and irresponsible.
You mean, like divide and conquer?
From 2005 to 2008, long before the conflict in Syria, Lebanon was riven by an acrimonious political struggle, with numerous assassinations of mainly anti-Syrian politicians and journalists. That conflict pitted Hezbollah and its Syrian allies against the Hariri coterie of pro-Western politicians — at one point, the entire March 14 parliamentary bloc holed up in Beirut’s Phoenicia Hotel for months, fearing assassination — and ended when Hezbollah gained the dominant share in Lebanon’s government.
Today, those divisions have been magnified by the war in Syria and the larger regional struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran that helps fuel it.
Yeah, maybe, just maybe, if we can get Iran implicated in all this or provoke them in some way the war-promoting morning mouthpiece can convince the American people to approve and sanction another mass-murdering effort in favor of world domination. Maybe a February false flag is just what's needed?
The bombing Friday morning was the first to mar Beirut’s shiny renovated downtown since Rafik Hariri’s murder, which occurred nearby. It dealt a psychological blow to a perennially resilient city and left the business district, normally bustling and sparkling with Christmas decorations, oddly silent.
Jee, yeah, jwho would want to ruin Xmas.
“This is a time when this plaza would be crowded, full of hope and colors, and now it’s black with this criminal act,” said Elie Ward, the manager of the Sultan Ibrahim restaurant, watching as investigators examined a charred car. “But Beirut is sending a message to all the world, that she will stay alive.”
Chatah, a prominent economist, served as ambassador to the United States from 1997 to 2000, worked at the International Monetary Fund, and was a spokesman for the Lebanese government. Born in Tripoli, he was married with two children.
On his blog he warned that Assad could never reform or restore stability to Syria, and that his ally Iran, Hezbollah’s patron, would prefer a prolonged and spreading war to letting him fall. That, he wrote, “will help terrorism flourish even more. Both the kind manipulated and used by the regime to blackmail the West and the ‘authentic’ strain that festers and spreads in open wounds, like opportunistic parasites.”
Oh, man! Iran has turned into Israel!
In his last Twitter message , less than an hour before he was killed, he criticized Hezbollah, saying it sought the same “powers in security & foreign policy matters that Syria exercised in Lebanon for 15 yrs,” referring to Syria’s occupation of Lebanon after its civil war.
The March 14 movement issued a statement implicitly blaming the bombing on Assad’s government: “The murderer is the same one, killing the Syrians and the Lebanese.”
Saad Hariri called the bombing a message to the international tribunal that is to hold its opening sessions on his father’s killing at The Hague in January.
“Those who assassinated Mohamad Chatah are the ones who assassinated Rafik Hariri,” he said, adding that they were “luring regional fires to our country.”
Oh, I agree!
Analysts said that, if the Syrian government were responsible, it could have used other proxies besides Hezbollah, which has an interest in maintaining calm, despite pressure from some supporters to respond to bombings in Hezbollah-dominated suburbs.
Basically admitting that they are not behind any of these things.
So who benefits?
--more--"
Whose narrative is that?
"Lebanon’s army told to take over Tripoli; Syrian civil war sparks series of sectarian clashes" by Bassem Mroue | Associated Press, December 03, 2013
TRIPOLI, Lebanon — The Lebanese government authorized the army on Monday to take control of the northern city of Tripoli for six months after three days of sectarian clashes, a decision meant to allay fears that fighting in the nation’s second-largest city was spiraling out of control.
Looking forward and back, that's failed.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati made the announcement after a security meeting at the presidential palace, saying the army has been empowered to take necessary measures to keep the peace.
The army, he added, would carry out patrols and implement arrest warrants issued for fugitives in the city.
Security officials say 12 people were killed and more than 100 people were wounded in Tripoli since Saturday, when the latest round of violence erupted. Sectarian clashes linked to the war in neighboring Syria often flare there between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The fighting is concentrated in two impoverished rival neighborhoods in the port city. The Bab Tabbaneh district is largely Sunni Muslim, as are most of the Syrian rebels fighting against Assad’s rule. Residents of Jabal Mohsen, a neighborhood on a hill, are mostly from Assad’s Alawite sect.
Sort of a reverse Golan Heights situation, huh?
But the fighting in the past few days has taken a more ominous turn, spreading to other parts of the city as snipers took positions on rooftops and gun battles and rocket fire raged.
Uh-huh. Like in the Ukrainian destabilization campaign.
Fighting began Saturday when Sunni gunmen shot a man whose brother leads an Alawite militia, sparking gun battles that trapped children in schools and forced traders to flee their shops.
Fighters used rocket-propelled grenades to target rivals in the crowded neighborhoods. On Monday, schools, banks, and other businesses were mostly shuttered and streets deserted amid occasional sounds of gunfire.
Also Monday, the Israeli military said its troops came under attack from across the Syrian border and fired back in retaliation.
Yeah, I mentioned that somewhere. Israel always retaliating, yeah.
The military said a mortar round landed on the Israeli side of the frontier and gunfire targeted an Israeli patrol. There were no injuries on the Israeli side. The troops returned fire toward their attackers in Syria.
Gunfire and mortar rounds from Syria have periodically hit inside the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Israel thinks most of the gunfire is errant spillover from the Syrian civil war. But in some cases, it has accused forces in Syria of intentionally firing into the Golan.
There is that word again.
Israel has generally kept its distance from the civil war, saying it has no interest getting dragged into a conflict where nearly all factions involved are hostile to Israel.
Translation: my mouthpiece jew$media is covering up Mossad's covert role.
In Syria on Monday, fighting continued for control of Maaloula, an ancient, progovernment Christian village about 40 miles northeast of Damascus.
Whatcha say there?
The government said six nuns were trapped in Maaloula after Al Qaeda-linked rebels seized large swaths of the area. Syrian army tanks were positioned around it as the fighting sent smoke over the scenic village, nestled into hillsides.
There is Al-CIA-Duh again.
And look who is "helping out":
Whose narrative is that?
"Lebanon’s army told to take over Tripoli; Syrian civil war sparks series of sectarian clashes" by Bassem Mroue | Associated Press, December 03, 2013
TRIPOLI, Lebanon — The Lebanese government authorized the army on Monday to take control of the northern city of Tripoli for six months after three days of sectarian clashes, a decision meant to allay fears that fighting in the nation’s second-largest city was spiraling out of control.
Looking forward and back, that's failed.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati made the announcement after a security meeting at the presidential palace, saying the army has been empowered to take necessary measures to keep the peace.
The army, he added, would carry out patrols and implement arrest warrants issued for fugitives in the city.
Security officials say 12 people were killed and more than 100 people were wounded in Tripoli since Saturday, when the latest round of violence erupted. Sectarian clashes linked to the war in neighboring Syria often flare there between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The fighting is concentrated in two impoverished rival neighborhoods in the port city. The Bab Tabbaneh district is largely Sunni Muslim, as are most of the Syrian rebels fighting against Assad’s rule. Residents of Jabal Mohsen, a neighborhood on a hill, are mostly from Assad’s Alawite sect.
Sort of a reverse Golan Heights situation, huh?
But the fighting in the past few days has taken a more ominous turn, spreading to other parts of the city as snipers took positions on rooftops and gun battles and rocket fire raged.
Uh-huh. Like in the Ukrainian destabilization campaign.
Fighting began Saturday when Sunni gunmen shot a man whose brother leads an Alawite militia, sparking gun battles that trapped children in schools and forced traders to flee their shops.
Fighters used rocket-propelled grenades to target rivals in the crowded neighborhoods. On Monday, schools, banks, and other businesses were mostly shuttered and streets deserted amid occasional sounds of gunfire.
Also Monday, the Israeli military said its troops came under attack from across the Syrian border and fired back in retaliation.
Yeah, I mentioned that somewhere. Israel always retaliating, yeah.
The military said a mortar round landed on the Israeli side of the frontier and gunfire targeted an Israeli patrol. There were no injuries on the Israeli side. The troops returned fire toward their attackers in Syria.
Gunfire and mortar rounds from Syria have periodically hit inside the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Israel thinks most of the gunfire is errant spillover from the Syrian civil war. But in some cases, it has accused forces in Syria of intentionally firing into the Golan.
There is that word again.
Israel has generally kept its distance from the civil war, saying it has no interest getting dragged into a conflict where nearly all factions involved are hostile to Israel.
Translation: my mouthpiece jew$media is covering up Mossad's covert role.
In Syria on Monday, fighting continued for control of Maaloula, an ancient, progovernment Christian village about 40 miles northeast of Damascus.
Whatcha say there?
The government said six nuns were trapped in Maaloula after Al Qaeda-linked rebels seized large swaths of the area. Syrian army tanks were positioned around it as the fighting sent smoke over the scenic village, nestled into hillsides.
There is Al-CIA-Duh again.
And look who is "helping out":
"Saudis give Lebanon $3b to buy weapons, bolster army; Sectarian violence threatens stability" by Ryan Lucas | Associated Press, December 30, 2013
BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia has pledged $3 billion to Lebanon to help strengthen the country’s armed forces and purchase weapons from France, Lebanon’s president said Sunday, calling it the biggest grant ever for the nation’s military.
I was wondering which western defense contractor or country was going to land that deal, and I see the former imperial and colonial roots won out.
I was wondering which western defense contractor or country was going to land that deal, and I see the former imperial and colonial roots won out.
Michel Sleiman, who made the surprise announcement in a televised national address, did not provide any further details.
The Lebanese army has struggled to contain a rising tide of violence linked to the civil war in neighboring Syria, a conflict that has inflamed sectarian tensions in Lebanon and threatened the country’s stability.
Well, if nothing el$e some French defen$e firms will get rich (I try to look on the bright $ide of things).
Well, if nothing el$e some French defen$e firms will get rich (I try to look on the bright $ide of things).
‘‘The Saudi king decided to give a generous, well-appreciated grant to Lebanon amounting to $3 billion for the Lebanese army, which will allow it to buy new and modern weapons,’’ Sleiman said. ‘‘The king pointed out that the weapons will be bought from France quickly, considering the historical relations that tie it to Lebanon and the military cooperation between the two countries.’’
Speaking of generosity, how many people beheaded in the kingdom today?
Speaking of generosity, how many people beheaded in the kingdom today?
President Francois Hollande of France was to discuss the matter during his visit Sunday to Saudi Arabia, Sleiman said, adding that he hoped Paris will quickly meet the initiative, and help the Lebanese army with arms, training, and maintenance.
Working out the future plans for Syria, too?
Working out the future plans for Syria, too?
Fragile in the best of times, Lebanon is struggling to cope with the fallout from Syria’s civil war. That conflict has deeply divided Lebanon, and paralyzed the country’s ramshackle political system to the point that it has been stuck with a weak and ineffectual caretaker government since April.
I kinda know how they feel in some ways.
I kinda know how they feel in some ways.
It has also seen a wave of deadly bombings and shootings that have fueled fears that Lebanon, which suffered a brutal 15-year civil war of its own that only ended in 1990, could be slowly slipping back toward full-blown sectarian conflict.
Here we go again!
In a nod to those concerns, Sleiman said in his address that ‘‘Lebanon is threatened by sectarian conflict and extremism,’’ and said that strengthening the army is a popular demand.
The Lebanese army is generally seen as a unifying force in the country, and draws its ranks from all of Lebanon’s sects.
Like AmeriKa's mythical Armed Forces.
But it has struggled to contain the escalating violence in the country since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict. It is also widely considered much weaker than the Shi’ite Hezbollah militant group, which is armed and funded by Iran, a regional Shi’ite power and Saudi rival.
And who was the only one to stand up and defend when Israel came calling in 2006 (while the PM at the time wept on television, oh, please, Israel, please, please stop, wah, wah).
Like AmeriKa's mythical Armed Forces.
But it has struggled to contain the escalating violence in the country since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict. It is also widely considered much weaker than the Shi’ite Hezbollah militant group, which is armed and funded by Iran, a regional Shi’ite power and Saudi rival.
And who was the only one to stand up and defend when Israel came calling in 2006 (while the PM at the time wept on television, oh, please, Israel, please, please stop, wah, wah).
The Saudi pledge appeared aimed, at least in part, at boosting the military in relation to Hezbollah.
Oh, I thought it was for peace and stability. Silly me.
Oh, I thought it was for peace and stability. Silly me.
Historically, the Lebanese army has been equipped by the United States and France.
But that's okay!
But that's okay!
Washington has provided hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid in recent years to Lebanon that has included armored vehicles, weapons and training for the Lebanese army. The United States says the program aims to strengthen Lebanese government institutions.
It's the basic model of absorption and control of foreign governments -- and it's all good!
It's the basic model of absorption and control of foreign governments -- and it's all good!
Lebanon’s tenuous grip on stability was made clear Friday, when a car bomb killed Mohammed Chatah, a senior Sunni politician who had been critical of Syria and Hezbollah.
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
On Sunday, hundreds of mourners packed into a landmark mosque in downtown Beirut to bid farewell to Chatah, a former finance minister and top aide to the former prime minister, Saad Hariri.
Chatah was affiliated with Hariri’s Western-backed coalition, which has been locked in a bitter feud with a rival camp led by Hezbollah. Hariri, whose own father was killed by a massive car bomb in 2005, has indirectly blamed Hezbollah for Chatah’s assassination.
After a somber funeral service inside Beirut’s blue-domed Mohammed al-Amin Mosque, pallbearers carried Chatah’s casket to the adjacent funeral tent, where he was buried next to Hariri’s father, Rafik.
At several points during the ceremony, some in the crowd broke into chants of ‘‘A terrorist, a terrorist, Hezbollah is a terrorist!’’
Speaking later, Fouad Siniora, an ally of Chatah, praised his late colleague as a voice of moderation, and promised those in the crowd that such political killings will not knock the Lebanese off their course.
That's the guy!
That's the guy!
‘‘We will not surrender. We will not back down. We are not afraid of terrorists and murderers. It is they who should be afraid. They kill to govern. While we reiterate our commitment to Lebanon of coexistence and civil peace,’’ he said.
Siniora, who is a former prime minister, also took a swipe at Hezbollah, saying ‘‘we have decided to liberate Lebanon from the occupation of illegitimate weapons.’’ Hezbollah’s critics accuse the group of being a veritable state-within-a-state because it has maintained its own militia.
This is the guy who weeped in 2006 when Israel was flattening and dropping WMD on the place while Hezbollah is the only group that raised a finger in defense of Lebanon -- and beat Israel's ass bad. Now he's a big tough guy!
False flags flying all over the place!
The car bombing that killed Chatah was reminiscent of a string of assassinations of around a dozen members of the anti-Syrian Hariri camp between 2004 and 2008, the biggest of which was the powerful blast that killed Hariri’s father, Rafik, who also was a former prime minister.
--more--"
Here is who they will need those weapons against:
"Israel hit by rocket fired from Lebanon, returns fire" by Isabel Kershner | New York Times, December 30, 2013
JERUSALEM — At least one rocket fired from Lebanon fell in northern Israel on Sunday without causing damage or injury, and Israel responded with artillery fire, according to the Israeli military, in the latest disruption of a fragile cease-fire that has kept the area largely quiet for the last seven years.
The Israeli military said that five rockets were launched and one appeared to have landed in an open area near the Israeli border town of Kiryat Shimona. The military said it fired dozens of shells toward the source of the rocket fire.
I'm zensing zettler zhenanigans.
The Lebanese armed forces issued a statement saying that two rockets were fired from the Hasbaya area of southern Lebanon and that the Israeli military responded with 32 shells directed toward the sources of fire, without causing casualties, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency.
Really cut loose in response, huh?
The attack came about two weeks after a Lebanese army soldier fatally shot an Israeli soldier who was driving along the Israeli side of the border, after which Israeli forces fired back into Lebanon.
So the tough guy of the NYT says.
Related: THE TWO ISRAELI SOLDIERS WERE CAPTURED IN LEBANON
They were where?
The Israeli and Lebanese authorities and UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon described the killing as the individual act of a rogue soldier and quickly worked to defuse tensions.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Sunday that Israel holds the Lebanese government responsible for fire emanating from its territory and also pointed a finger at Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shi’ite militia that fought a monthlong war with Israel in 2006, indirectly implicating it in Sunday’s rocket fire.
Yeah, doesn't matter who did it (as the false flag stench grows).
“What is happening in Lebanon is that Hezbollah is stationing thousands of missiles and rockets in apartments, in the heart of the civilian population, and is thus perpetrating two war crimes simultaneously,” Netanyahu said. “It is organizing the firing at civilians, just as it did today, and it is hiding behind civilians as human shields.”
No, that's more Israel's shtick.
He added that the Lebanese government and army were “not lifting a finger to prevent this arming and these crimes.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s attack, though those in recent years generally appear to have been the work of small militant groups in Lebanon rather than of Hezbollah.
We have seen this all before! Who remains unmentioned in all this (for the mo$t part?)
In August, four rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel for the first time in two years.
So that calls for, what, 64 shells?
A militant group called the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam, an offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq, claimed credit.
Ah, the Zaudi provocateurs.
Israel responded to that attack by bombing what military officials here described as a “terrorist site” between the Lebanese cities of Beirut and Sidon.
Gave Israel an excuse to launch? What idiot Islamic terrorists.
The Israeli defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, said Sunday that Israel would not tolerate fire from Lebanese territory and would use more force if necessary.
Just itching to, aren't they!?
“I do not recommend that anyone test our patience and our determination to preserve the security of Israeli citizens,” he said in a statement.
Hot wind moving fast across the desert....
Notwithstanding the heightened tensions and harsh rhetoric, an Israeli expert said that neither Israel nor Hezbollah, which is currently embroiled in the civil war in Syria, had an interest now in a full-blown confrontation on the Israeli-Lebanese front.
No?
Here is who they will need those weapons against:
"Israel hit by rocket fired from Lebanon, returns fire" by Isabel Kershner | New York Times, December 30, 2013
JERUSALEM — At least one rocket fired from Lebanon fell in northern Israel on Sunday without causing damage or injury, and Israel responded with artillery fire, according to the Israeli military, in the latest disruption of a fragile cease-fire that has kept the area largely quiet for the last seven years.
The Israeli military said that five rockets were launched and one appeared to have landed in an open area near the Israeli border town of Kiryat Shimona. The military said it fired dozens of shells toward the source of the rocket fire.
I'm zensing zettler zhenanigans.
The Lebanese armed forces issued a statement saying that two rockets were fired from the Hasbaya area of southern Lebanon and that the Israeli military responded with 32 shells directed toward the sources of fire, without causing casualties, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency.
Really cut loose in response, huh?
The attack came about two weeks after a Lebanese army soldier fatally shot an Israeli soldier who was driving along the Israeli side of the border, after which Israeli forces fired back into Lebanon.
So the tough guy of the NYT says.
Related: THE TWO ISRAELI SOLDIERS WERE CAPTURED IN LEBANON
They were where?
The Israeli and Lebanese authorities and UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon described the killing as the individual act of a rogue soldier and quickly worked to defuse tensions.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Sunday that Israel holds the Lebanese government responsible for fire emanating from its territory and also pointed a finger at Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shi’ite militia that fought a monthlong war with Israel in 2006, indirectly implicating it in Sunday’s rocket fire.
Yeah, doesn't matter who did it (as the false flag stench grows).
“What is happening in Lebanon is that Hezbollah is stationing thousands of missiles and rockets in apartments, in the heart of the civilian population, and is thus perpetrating two war crimes simultaneously,” Netanyahu said. “It is organizing the firing at civilians, just as it did today, and it is hiding behind civilians as human shields.”
No, that's more Israel's shtick.
He added that the Lebanese government and army were “not lifting a finger to prevent this arming and these crimes.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s attack, though those in recent years generally appear to have been the work of small militant groups in Lebanon rather than of Hezbollah.
We have seen this all before! Who remains unmentioned in all this (for the mo$t part?)
In August, four rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel for the first time in two years.
So that calls for, what, 64 shells?
A militant group called the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam, an offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq, claimed credit.
Ah, the Zaudi provocateurs.
Israel responded to that attack by bombing what military officials here described as a “terrorist site” between the Lebanese cities of Beirut and Sidon.
Gave Israel an excuse to launch? What idiot Islamic terrorists.
The Israeli defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, said Sunday that Israel would not tolerate fire from Lebanese territory and would use more force if necessary.
Just itching to, aren't they!?
“I do not recommend that anyone test our patience and our determination to preserve the security of Israeli citizens,” he said in a statement.
Hot wind moving fast across the desert....
Notwithstanding the heightened tensions and harsh rhetoric, an Israeli expert said that neither Israel nor Hezbollah, which is currently embroiled in the civil war in Syria, had an interest now in a full-blown confrontation on the Israeli-Lebanese front.
No?
--more--"
"In move to shore up its border, Lebanon targets Syria copters" by Diaa Hadid | Associated Press, December 31, 2013
BEIRUT — The Lebanese army fired on Syrian aircraft that violated the country’s airspace Monday, the first time the country has done so since Syria’s uprising broke out nearly three years ago, security officials said.
Israel does it all the time and it's no big deal.
The move suggests Beirut is trying to enforce its borders in the hopes of slowing the expansion of the conflict into Lebanon, where it has exacerbated sectarian tensions and prompted shadowy groups to conduct attacks that have killed dozens this year.
Also Monday, a UN official said at least 15 people have died of hunger-related illnesses in a besieged area of Damascus over the past four months.
Lebanese officials said the military fired antiaircraft guns at two Syrian helicopters after they fired four missiles in a mountainous, barren area close to the eastern Lebanese town of Arsal. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the media.
Syrian aircraft have frequently conducted strikes near the frontier, sometimes hitting Lebanese territory.
Beirut had protested but not responded with force.
A Lebanese military official could not confirm the report but said the army has orders to shoot anything — planes, tanks, or troops — that violate Lebanese territory. There was no comment from the Syrian government. Local security officials said the Syrians were chasing rebels who were trying to sneak into Lebanon.
Communities on the Lebanese side of the border dominated by Sunni Muslims have become safe havens for rebels battling the rule of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Syria’s three-year conflict has become increasingly sectarian. The rebels are largely from the Sunni majority. Religious minorities, including Shi’ites, support Assad or have remained neutral, fearing for their fate if Muslim hard-liners come to power.
Those loyalties are reflected in Lebanon, where Sunnis generally support the rebels and Shi’ites support Assad.
The Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah has sent its fighters to Syria to shore up Assad’s forces, adding to the tensions.
In Damascus, meanwhile, the new deaths from hunger-related illness highlighted what activists say is the Assad government’s tactic of starving out rebel-held areas.
Rebels seized the Palestinian-dominated Yarmouk district last year, part of a swath of neighborhoods around Damascus now held by opposition fighters.
The UN’s Relief and Works Agency that supports Palestinian refugees had until recently shipped food into the area, but has not been able to do so since September, said agency official Chris Gunness.
He said at least five people died over the weekend, but 10 people had died in the previous months. The dead include children.
Gunness estimated 20,000 civilians still lived in the area, where clashes between rebels and Assad loyalists frequently break out.
‘‘If this situation is not addressed urgently, it may be too late to save the lives of thousands of people including children,’’ warned Gunness in comments e-mailed to the Associated Press.
No, I'm not for more bombings, invasions, or wars, sorry. Tell Obummer to call off the CIA-Duh dogs.
No, I'm not for more bombings, invasions, or wars, sorry. Tell Obummer to call off the CIA-Duh dogs.
Rami Abdurrahman of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists on the ground, also confirmed the numbers.
He said those who died over the weekend included an elderly man, a man suffering from unknown disabilities, and a woman.
Yarmouk before the war was a densely populated district of cheaply built multistory homes, but it was called a ‘‘camp’’ since Palestinians came there as refugees during 1948 Mideast war surrounding Israel’s creation.
It's Israel's ethnic cleansing that did it, but you know, that would make Israel look bad and the mouthpiece isn't going to do that.
It's Israel's ethnic cleansing that did it, but you know, that would make Israel look bad and the mouthpiece isn't going to do that.
Government forces are also besieging other rebel-held areas around Damascus, including the nearby area of Moadamiyeh, where activists said at least two women and four children died of hunger-related illnesses through September.
It's a regular Holocaust (with all due trademarks and royalties to certain select groups noted, thank you, cha-ching).
It's a regular Holocaust (with all due trademarks and royalties to certain select groups noted, thank you, cha-ching).
Last week, Moadamiyeh’s rebels accepted a humiliating deal in which they would receive food in exchange for raising the government flag over the area.
They did it. How humiliating. Almost as humiliating as having Israel control your borders for you.
They did it. How humiliating. Almost as humiliating as having Israel control your borders for you.
--more--"
Related: Syrian warplanes bomb hills inside Lebanon
They killed a Hezbollah?
"Hezbollah leader killed amid growing Lebanon instability" by Liz Sly and Loveday Morris | Washington Post, December 05, 2013
BEIRUT — A senior Hezbollah commander was gunned down outside his home, the Lebanese Shi’ite group reported Wednesday, marking a further escalation in a shadowy series of attacks and bombings that risk drawing Lebanon deeper into the region’s simmering sectarian strife.
Oh, the CIA obfuscater is calling it all shadowy!
The militant Iranian-backed movement immediately blamed Israel for the assassination and warned that it would suffer the consequences. Israel denied that it was responsible.
That's what I thought, but....
But at a time when many in the region fear the consequences of warming ties between the West and Iran, and as Syria’s government gains ground against rebels with Hezbollah’s help, almost anyone could be responsible, analysts said.
Saudis not mentioned. Hmmmm.
‘‘There are so many players around who could be involved in this,’’ said Elie Hindy, assistant professor for international affairs at Lebanon’s Notre Dame University. ‘‘Hezbollah has created so many enemies around it — regional enemies, Islamist enemies, Israeli enemies — and that does not include invisible possibilities.’’
Great stuff, isn't it? What's behind that curtain, huh?
According to a brief statement issued by Hezbollah, veteran commander Hassan al-Laqees was shot late Tuesday in Hadath, a mixed Christian-Shi’ite neighborhood 6 miles south of Beirut, as he returned from work near midnight. Lebanon’s Daily Star reported that he was shot five times in the head and neck in his car outside his home by at least one unidentified gunman.
How is that possible with sectarianism?
‘‘Israel automatically stands accused of responsibility,’’ the Hezbollah statement said, warning that Israel will bear ‘‘all consequences of this heinous crime.’’
Although Israel usually does not comment on such allegations, in this instance the accusation brought a swift response.
‘‘Israel has nothing to do with this incident,’’ Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told the Associated Press. ‘‘These automatic accusations are an innate reflex with Hezbollah. They don’t need evidence, they don’t need facts, they just blame anything on Israel.’’
That's a tough statement to analyze because the assumption is the Israelis are liars because they are, and once you know what a false flag is things look very different through my prism.
Hezbollah routinely blames Israel, with which it fought a border war in 2006, for attacks against its interests, and Israel has remained the chief suspect in the 2008 assassination of a top Hezbollah commander.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, everybody piles on Israel, wah.
But many Lebanese said the killing of al-Laqees was more likely linked to the country’s soaring sectarian tensions, which have been aggravated by the war in neighboring Syria and a shift in the region’s balance of power in favor of Hezbollah’s sponsor, Iran.
Uh-huh. Living, working, and celebrating together, but whatever narrative obscures the truth and advances the war agenda.
‘‘No one believes it was Israel,’’ said a Hezbollah supporter who lives in suburbs of Beirut. The movement is accusing Israel ‘‘because it wants to avoid Sunni-Shi’ite discord,’’ he said.
Then it's Saudi, who remain unmentioned. Look for what is not there.
"Hezbollah base is target of car bomb" Associated Press, December 18, 2013
BAALBEK, Lebanon — A car bomb packed with explosives detonated near a Hezbollah base in eastern Lebanon Tuesday causing several casualties, officials said, the latest in a wave of deadly attacks that have targeted the Shi’ite militant group’s interests in Lebanon.
However, there were conflicting reports on the source of the predawn explosion and the number of casualties resulting from the blast in the remote, scarcely inhabited area was not immediately clear.
Hezbollah agents cleared the open field around the area and sealed it off following the blast, making it difficult to establish what had happened.
An attack or operation gone awry before they could drive into town?
Also consider the purpose of my morning obfuscater.
Hours after the attack, at least four badly damaged vehicles, including the charred, twisted wreckage of an overturned jeep, lay strewn across the rocky field.
It was the first such attack against a Hezbollah outpost in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa region, following a spate of bombings that targeted Hezbollah strongholds south of the Lebanese capital.
--more--"
"5 killed in blast in south Beirut" by Bassem Mroue | Associated Press, January 02, 2014
BEIRUT (AP) — An explosion tore through a crowded commercial street Thursday in a south Beirut neighborhood that is bastion of support for the Shiite group Hezbollah, killing at least five people, setting cars ablaze and sending a column of black smoke above the Beirut skyline.
ADDING IN TO EDITED VERSION:
The nature of the blast that hit during rush hour in the Haret Hreik neighborhood was not immediately clear, but a Lebanese security official said it appeared to be caused by a car bomb. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
If confirmed as a bombing,
END ADD-IN.
It would be the latest in a wave of attacks to hit Lebanon in recent months as the civil war in Syria increasingly spills over into its smaller neighbor. The violence has targeted both Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods, further stoking sectarian tensions that are already running high as each community in Lebanon lines up with its brethren in Syria on opposing sides of the war.
END VERBATIM?
"The Lebanese army said 44 pounds of explosives were placed in a dark green SUV. It said authorities were investigating how the explosives were set off. A security official said that human remains were found in and around the vehicle, and that authorities were investigating whether the blast could be a suicide bombing. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, said a DNA test will be conducted to try identify the person who was in the car.
BEGIN VERBATIM AGAIN
Lebanon’s official National News Agency said at least five people were killed and more than 50 wounded in the explosion, which left the mangled wreckage of cars in the street and blew out the windows of store fronts. The director of the Bahman Hospital, were dozens of the wounded were taken, said many of the injured were in critical condition.
ADD
Images from Associated Press television showed firefighters putting out the smoldering hulks of several cars that had been set ablaze. Crowds swarmed around ambulances waiting for the wounded with their lights flashing. At least one building had part of its facade blown off, and several neighboring buildings were also damaged.
END ADD
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said the explosion occurred ‘‘a few hundred meters (yards) from the politburo of Hezbollah.’’ It said the political office was not the target of the blast.
‘‘Suddenly, the whole area went bright and we started running away,’’ Ali Oleik, an accountant who works in a nearby office building, told The Associated Press. ‘‘I saw two bodies on the street, one of a woman and another of a man on a motorcycle who was totally deformed.’’
Hezbollah security agents as well as Lebanese troops were trying to cordon off the area to keep the angry crowds away from the blast site. Authorities brought out bomb sniffing dogs, and at one point announced over megaphones that there might be another bomb, setting the panicked crowd scattering.
The explosion comes a week after a car bombing in downtown Beirut killed prominent Sunni politician Mohammed Chatah. The former finance minister and top aide to ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri was critical of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Hezbollah allies.
END VERBATIM PRINT
Hezbollah’s once seemingly impenetrable bastion of support — Beirut’s southern suburbs — also has been hit several times in recent months.
In November, suicide bombers targeted the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, killing at least 23 people. Iran is the chief patron of Hezbollah and an ally of Syria, and the Islamic Republic’s embassy is located in a Hezbollah district.
Another blast in August killed around 20 people in the Beir al-Abed district, near the Haret Hreik neighborhood were Thursday’s bombing took place.
Two weeks later, a double bombing outside two Sunni mosques in the northern city of Tripoli killed scores more.
The attacks raise the specter of a sharply divided Lebanon being pulled further into the Syrian conflict, which is being fought on increasingly sectarian lines pitting Sunnis against Shiites. Syria-based Sunni rebels and militant Islamist groups fighting to topple Assad have threatened to target Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon in retaliation for intervening on behalf of his regime in the conflict.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the targeting of south Beirut area, less than a week after the bombing that killed Chatah ‘‘proves that the hand of terrorism does not differentiate between the Lebanese.’’
True.
‘‘The fire burning in more than one region of Lebanon portends what is worse if we do not meet and deal with our problems away from the language of defiance and exclusion,’’ he said in a statement.
--more--"
They are about to speak up:
"Al Qaeda offshoot claims responsibility in Beirut blast" by Bassem Mroue | Associated Press, January 05, 2014
BEIRUT — An Al Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility on Saturday for a suicide car bombing last week in a Shi’ite-dominated neighborhood in Lebanon, as its fighters fought other rebels in neighboring Syria in the most serious infighting since the uprising began.
It was the first time that the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for an attack in Lebanon, underscoring how the ever more complex Syrian war is increasingly spilling over into its smaller neighbor.
Now you know why I titled this post as I did.
The group may have rushed to claim responsibility to try to divert attention from the infighting in Syria, said Aymenn al-Tamimi, an expert on the country’s militant groups….
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant vowed more attacks. It was ‘‘the first small payment of a heavy account which these criminal hypocrites should wait for,’’ it said in a statement, referring to Hezbollah. The statement was posted on a website used by Sunni militants.
The Al Qaeda group sought to punish Hezbollah — and their Shi’ite Lebanese backers — for sending fighters to Syria to shore up forces of the President Bashar Assad, who is trying to quell an armed uprising.
The bombing was the latest in a wave of attacks to hit Lebanon in recent months. The violence has targeted both Sunni and Shi’ite neighborhoods, further stoking sectarian tensions that are running high as each community in Lebanon lines up with its brethren in Syria on opposing sides of the civil war.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an Al Qaeda-linked group that carried out attacks across the Mideast before shifting its focus to Syria’s civil war, died Saturday while in custody in Lebanon, the army said.
In a short statement, the Lebanese army said Majid al-Majid ‘‘died this morning while undergoing treatment at the central military hospital after his health deteriorated.’’
See: Silencing al-Majed Before He Exposes the Saudi Connection To 9/11
You can archive it.
A Lebanese army general said Majid died after suffering kidney failure.
I'd be surprised if my propaganda pre$$ did not bury him after this.
--more--"
"Suicide bomber kills five in Beirut" by Alaa Shahine and Donna Abu-Nasr | Bloomberg News, January 22, 2014
A suicide bomb killed at least five people in Beirut’s southern suburb, a residential neighborhood that is also the main stronghold of Hezbollah, the latest in a string of attacks in Lebanon as sectarian violence escalates.
The attacker was probably driving a white Kia vehicle, according to the state-run National News Agency, which said at least 26 people were wounded.
The civil war in neighboring Syria has deepened rifts between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims in Lebanon, leading to a wave of attacks against religious, civilian, and political targets.
Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group, acknowledged last year that its fighters were supporting President Bashar Assad of Syria against the mainly Sunni rebels.
The Al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front in Lebanon, an offshoot of the group fighting in Syria, claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s car bomb, saying it came in response to ‘‘the massacres of Iran’s party,’’ Hezbollah, against Syrians.
A car bomb in another Hezbollah stronghold in eastern Lebanon killed four people Jan. 16. A Sunni group linked to Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the November bombing of the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, which killed at least one diplomat.
Sunnis have also been targeted. Two explosions killed 50 worshipers at Friday prayers in the northern city of Tripoli in August, and a car bomb killed former finance minister Mohamad Chatah in central Beirut last month.
Violence, political turmoil, and the influx of Syrian refugees have slowed economic growth and deterred tourists. Gross domestic product, which expanded 7 percent in 2010, has not grown more than 1.5 percent in the last three years, according to the International Monetary Fund.
That's one way of slowing down the Lebanese economy.
--more--"
"In neighboring Lebanon, a car bomb blew up near a gas station in a Shi’ite town, killing at least three people, in the latest attack linked to the war in neighboring Syria. Footage on al-Manar television, associated with the Shi’ite group Hezbollah, showed a bright orange blaze as black silhouettes of people ran by the gas station in the northeastern town of Hermel that lies near the Syrian border. Blasts could be heard in the background. The Lebanese Red Cross said another 18 people were wounded. The large blast occurred near a school for impoverished and orphaned children. None were injured, officials said. It was the latest in a series of attacks targeting Lebanon’s Shi’ite community, as Syria’s violence causes neighboring Lebanon’s sectarian tensions to escalate into outright violence."
US warns citizens on Lebanon strife
Little late, isn't it?
"Hezbollah’s missile abilities improved, Iranians report" by Ali Akbar Dareini | Associated Press, January 12, 2014
TEHRAN — The Lebanese militant Shi’ite movement Hezbollah has dramatically improved its missile capabilities and can now pinpoint targets anywhere in Israel, a senior commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards said Saturday.
It's a warning to Israel to not start anything.
General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guard’s aerospace division, said Israelis will see Hezbollah’s new might should a war break out. Slain Hezbollah commander Hassan al-Laqis had played a key role in boosting the group’s military strength, he added, without elaborating. The comments were posted on the Guard’s website, sepahnews.com.
‘‘Hezbollah’s capability has improved so tremendously in recent years that it can hit and destroy any target in the occupied lands with very little inaccuracy and pinpoint ability,’’ he said. The assertions could not be verified, and Iran often claims technological advances with its own military that similarly cannot be confirmed.
It can't be any worse than the crap AmeriKan contractors are building.
Laqis was assassinated last month in Beirut, a blow to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Iran’s top Revolutionary Guard commanders attended a service last week in Tehran for him.
‘‘He [Laqis] was a great, resourceful and very active Hezbollah commander whose works could be revealed should a Hezbollah-Israel war break out. He created great defense supplies,’’ and was ‘‘one of Hezbollah’s brains in the field of electronic war,’’ Hajizadeh said.
The assassination of Laqis, widely described as the head of the group’s telecommunications network and an expert at procuring strategic weapons, was a loss for Hezbollah, which blamed Israel for his death.
I was going to I sensed Mossad wet work.
Israel believes Laqis played a significant role in obtaining weapons, including long-range rockets, despite airstrikes launched by the Jewish state inside Syria to try and stop weapons shipments into Lebanon.
An act of war, but you know....
Hajizadeh didn’t say how Hezbollah’s missile capability had improved, but Israeli media has reported that the group has been moving long-range missiles to Lebanon from bases inside Syria.
--more--"
"Israel, Lebanon try to calm tensions after flare-up" by Josef Federman | Associated Press, December 17, 2013
JERUSALEM — Israel and Lebanon tried Monday to ease tensions after a deadly border skirmish that left one Israeli soldier dead. Officials of the two countries held a face-to-face meeting with UN peacekeepers and pledged their commitment to a seven-year-old cease-fire.
Again?
The UN peacekeeping force along the volatile border, UNIFIL, said it called the meeting to ‘‘establish the facts and circumstances’’ behind the flare-up in violence and to restore a cease-fire that has been in place since a 2006 war. It said both sides pledged to preserve ‘‘calm and stability.’’
In Sunday’s incident, a Lebanese sniper opened fire at an Israeli vehicle traveling near the border area of Rosh Hanikra, killing a soldier inside. Several hours later, the Israeli military said it shot two Lebanese soldiers after spotting ‘‘suspicious movement’’ in the same area.
It was the heaviest fighting between the enemy countries in more than three years and drew condemnations and threats of retaliation from Israel.
Late Monday, the Lebanese army distanced itself from the shooting, saying it was the result of an ‘‘individual act’’ by a soldier.
It said a military committee was investigating the shooting and was coordinating with the UN peacekeeping mission. With the shooter in custody, there was no word on a motive for the attack and no mention of the two soldiers allegedly shot by Israel. The Lebanese army stressed its full commitment to UN resolutions, including maintaining the 2006 cease-fire.
The tame language, and near apology for the incident, was rare for the Lebanese military, which is usually quick to point out Israeli border transgressions. It suggested that Lebanon was keen to avoid a conflagration on its border at a time of severe tensions resulting from the civil war in neighboring Syria.
Likewise, Israeli officials tried to lower the tensions. ‘‘The idea is to bring the situation back to normal and not aggravate the situation,’’ said Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, a military spokesman.
The border has remained mostly quiet since the monthlong war in the summer of 2006, though there have been sporadic outbursts of violence.
In the most serious incident, Lebanese forces killed a high-ranking Israeli officer in 2010, asserting that the Israeli army had crossed the border while uprooting a tree. Israel responded with artillery fire that killed three Lebanese. Given the years of enmity between the two countries, even the smallest incident raises the risk of sparking a wider conflict.
Looks like the Lebanese got off light there; Israel usually exacts a 10:1 ratio for loss of Jewish life, if not more.
Lebanon and Israel have been officially at war since Israel’s creation in 1948. Each country bans its citizens from visiting the other and there are no direct trade ties or diplomatic relations.
Related: Syrian warplanes bomb hills inside Lebanon
They killed a Hezbollah?
"Hezbollah leader killed amid growing Lebanon instability" by Liz Sly and Loveday Morris | Washington Post, December 05, 2013
BEIRUT — A senior Hezbollah commander was gunned down outside his home, the Lebanese Shi’ite group reported Wednesday, marking a further escalation in a shadowy series of attacks and bombings that risk drawing Lebanon deeper into the region’s simmering sectarian strife.
Oh, the CIA obfuscater is calling it all shadowy!
The militant Iranian-backed movement immediately blamed Israel for the assassination and warned that it would suffer the consequences. Israel denied that it was responsible.
That's what I thought, but....
But at a time when many in the region fear the consequences of warming ties between the West and Iran, and as Syria’s government gains ground against rebels with Hezbollah’s help, almost anyone could be responsible, analysts said.
Saudis not mentioned. Hmmmm.
‘‘There are so many players around who could be involved in this,’’ said Elie Hindy, assistant professor for international affairs at Lebanon’s Notre Dame University. ‘‘Hezbollah has created so many enemies around it — regional enemies, Islamist enemies, Israeli enemies — and that does not include invisible possibilities.’’
Great stuff, isn't it? What's behind that curtain, huh?
According to a brief statement issued by Hezbollah, veteran commander Hassan al-Laqees was shot late Tuesday in Hadath, a mixed Christian-Shi’ite neighborhood 6 miles south of Beirut, as he returned from work near midnight. Lebanon’s Daily Star reported that he was shot five times in the head and neck in his car outside his home by at least one unidentified gunman.
How is that possible with sectarianism?
‘‘Israel automatically stands accused of responsibility,’’ the Hezbollah statement said, warning that Israel will bear ‘‘all consequences of this heinous crime.’’
Although Israel usually does not comment on such allegations, in this instance the accusation brought a swift response.
‘‘Israel has nothing to do with this incident,’’ Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told the Associated Press. ‘‘These automatic accusations are an innate reflex with Hezbollah. They don’t need evidence, they don’t need facts, they just blame anything on Israel.’’
That's a tough statement to analyze because the assumption is the Israelis are liars because they are, and once you know what a false flag is things look very different through my prism.
Hezbollah routinely blames Israel, with which it fought a border war in 2006, for attacks against its interests, and Israel has remained the chief suspect in the 2008 assassination of a top Hezbollah commander.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, everybody piles on Israel, wah.
But many Lebanese said the killing of al-Laqees was more likely linked to the country’s soaring sectarian tensions, which have been aggravated by the war in neighboring Syria and a shift in the region’s balance of power in favor of Hezbollah’s sponsor, Iran.
Uh-huh. Living, working, and celebrating together, but whatever narrative obscures the truth and advances the war agenda.
‘‘No one believes it was Israel,’’ said a Hezbollah supporter who lives in suburbs of Beirut. The movement is accusing Israel ‘‘because it wants to avoid Sunni-Shi’ite discord,’’ he said.
Then it's Saudi, who remain unmentioned. Look for what is not there.
--more--"
"Hezbollah base is target of car bomb" Associated Press, December 18, 2013
BAALBEK, Lebanon — A car bomb packed with explosives detonated near a Hezbollah base in eastern Lebanon Tuesday causing several casualties, officials said, the latest in a wave of deadly attacks that have targeted the Shi’ite militant group’s interests in Lebanon.
However, there were conflicting reports on the source of the predawn explosion and the number of casualties resulting from the blast in the remote, scarcely inhabited area was not immediately clear.
Hezbollah agents cleared the open field around the area and sealed it off following the blast, making it difficult to establish what had happened.
An attack or operation gone awry before they could drive into town?
Also consider the purpose of my morning obfuscater.
Hours after the attack, at least four badly damaged vehicles, including the charred, twisted wreckage of an overturned jeep, lay strewn across the rocky field.
It was the first such attack against a Hezbollah outpost in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa region, following a spate of bombings that targeted Hezbollah strongholds south of the Lebanese capital.
--more--"
"5 killed in blast in south Beirut" by Bassem Mroue | Associated Press, January 02, 2014
BEIRUT (AP) — An explosion tore through a crowded commercial street Thursday in a south Beirut neighborhood that is bastion of support for the Shiite group Hezbollah, killing at least five people, setting cars ablaze and sending a column of black smoke above the Beirut skyline.
ADDING IN TO EDITED VERSION:
The nature of the blast that hit during rush hour in the Haret Hreik neighborhood was not immediately clear, but a Lebanese security official said it appeared to be caused by a car bomb. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
If confirmed as a bombing,
END ADD-IN.
It would be the latest in a wave of attacks to hit Lebanon in recent months as the civil war in Syria increasingly spills over into its smaller neighbor. The violence has targeted both Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods, further stoking sectarian tensions that are already running high as each community in Lebanon lines up with its brethren in Syria on opposing sides of the war.
END VERBATIM?
"The Lebanese army said 44 pounds of explosives were placed in a dark green SUV. It said authorities were investigating how the explosives were set off. A security official said that human remains were found in and around the vehicle, and that authorities were investigating whether the blast could be a suicide bombing. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, said a DNA test will be conducted to try identify the person who was in the car.
BEGIN VERBATIM AGAIN
Lebanon’s official National News Agency said at least five people were killed and more than 50 wounded in the explosion, which left the mangled wreckage of cars in the street and blew out the windows of store fronts. The director of the Bahman Hospital, were dozens of the wounded were taken, said many of the injured were in critical condition.
ADD
Images from Associated Press television showed firefighters putting out the smoldering hulks of several cars that had been set ablaze. Crowds swarmed around ambulances waiting for the wounded with their lights flashing. At least one building had part of its facade blown off, and several neighboring buildings were also damaged.
END ADD
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said the explosion occurred ‘‘a few hundred meters (yards) from the politburo of Hezbollah.’’ It said the political office was not the target of the blast.
‘‘Suddenly, the whole area went bright and we started running away,’’ Ali Oleik, an accountant who works in a nearby office building, told The Associated Press. ‘‘I saw two bodies on the street, one of a woman and another of a man on a motorcycle who was totally deformed.’’
Hezbollah security agents as well as Lebanese troops were trying to cordon off the area to keep the angry crowds away from the blast site. Authorities brought out bomb sniffing dogs, and at one point announced over megaphones that there might be another bomb, setting the panicked crowd scattering.
The explosion comes a week after a car bombing in downtown Beirut killed prominent Sunni politician Mohammed Chatah. The former finance minister and top aide to ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri was critical of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Hezbollah allies.
END VERBATIM PRINT
Hezbollah’s once seemingly impenetrable bastion of support — Beirut’s southern suburbs — also has been hit several times in recent months.
In November, suicide bombers targeted the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, killing at least 23 people. Iran is the chief patron of Hezbollah and an ally of Syria, and the Islamic Republic’s embassy is located in a Hezbollah district.
Another blast in August killed around 20 people in the Beir al-Abed district, near the Haret Hreik neighborhood were Thursday’s bombing took place.
Two weeks later, a double bombing outside two Sunni mosques in the northern city of Tripoli killed scores more.
The attacks raise the specter of a sharply divided Lebanon being pulled further into the Syrian conflict, which is being fought on increasingly sectarian lines pitting Sunnis against Shiites. Syria-based Sunni rebels and militant Islamist groups fighting to topple Assad have threatened to target Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon in retaliation for intervening on behalf of his regime in the conflict.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the targeting of south Beirut area, less than a week after the bombing that killed Chatah ‘‘proves that the hand of terrorism does not differentiate between the Lebanese.’’
True.
‘‘The fire burning in more than one region of Lebanon portends what is worse if we do not meet and deal with our problems away from the language of defiance and exclusion,’’ he said in a statement.
--more--"
They are about to speak up:
"Al Qaeda offshoot claims responsibility in Beirut blast" by Bassem Mroue | Associated Press, January 05, 2014
BEIRUT — An Al Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility on Saturday for a suicide car bombing last week in a Shi’ite-dominated neighborhood in Lebanon, as its fighters fought other rebels in neighboring Syria in the most serious infighting since the uprising began.
It was the first time that the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for an attack in Lebanon, underscoring how the ever more complex Syrian war is increasingly spilling over into its smaller neighbor.
Now you know why I titled this post as I did.
The group may have rushed to claim responsibility to try to divert attention from the infighting in Syria, said Aymenn al-Tamimi, an expert on the country’s militant groups….
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant vowed more attacks. It was ‘‘the first small payment of a heavy account which these criminal hypocrites should wait for,’’ it said in a statement, referring to Hezbollah. The statement was posted on a website used by Sunni militants.
The Al Qaeda group sought to punish Hezbollah — and their Shi’ite Lebanese backers — for sending fighters to Syria to shore up forces of the President Bashar Assad, who is trying to quell an armed uprising.
The bombing was the latest in a wave of attacks to hit Lebanon in recent months. The violence has targeted both Sunni and Shi’ite neighborhoods, further stoking sectarian tensions that are running high as each community in Lebanon lines up with its brethren in Syria on opposing sides of the civil war.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an Al Qaeda-linked group that carried out attacks across the Mideast before shifting its focus to Syria’s civil war, died Saturday while in custody in Lebanon, the army said.
In a short statement, the Lebanese army said Majid al-Majid ‘‘died this morning while undergoing treatment at the central military hospital after his health deteriorated.’’
See: Silencing al-Majed Before He Exposes the Saudi Connection To 9/11
You can archive it.
A Lebanese army general said Majid died after suffering kidney failure.
I'd be surprised if my propaganda pre$$ did not bury him after this.
--more--"
"Suicide bomber kills five in Beirut" by Alaa Shahine and Donna Abu-Nasr | Bloomberg News, January 22, 2014
A suicide bomb killed at least five people in Beirut’s southern suburb, a residential neighborhood that is also the main stronghold of Hezbollah, the latest in a string of attacks in Lebanon as sectarian violence escalates.
The attacker was probably driving a white Kia vehicle, according to the state-run National News Agency, which said at least 26 people were wounded.
The civil war in neighboring Syria has deepened rifts between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims in Lebanon, leading to a wave of attacks against religious, civilian, and political targets.
Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group, acknowledged last year that its fighters were supporting President Bashar Assad of Syria against the mainly Sunni rebels.
The Al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front in Lebanon, an offshoot of the group fighting in Syria, claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s car bomb, saying it came in response to ‘‘the massacres of Iran’s party,’’ Hezbollah, against Syrians.
A car bomb in another Hezbollah stronghold in eastern Lebanon killed four people Jan. 16. A Sunni group linked to Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the November bombing of the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, which killed at least one diplomat.
Sunnis have also been targeted. Two explosions killed 50 worshipers at Friday prayers in the northern city of Tripoli in August, and a car bomb killed former finance minister Mohamad Chatah in central Beirut last month.
Violence, political turmoil, and the influx of Syrian refugees have slowed economic growth and deterred tourists. Gross domestic product, which expanded 7 percent in 2010, has not grown more than 1.5 percent in the last three years, according to the International Monetary Fund.
That's one way of slowing down the Lebanese economy.
--more--"
"In neighboring Lebanon, a car bomb blew up near a gas station in a Shi’ite town, killing at least three people, in the latest attack linked to the war in neighboring Syria. Footage on al-Manar television, associated with the Shi’ite group Hezbollah, showed a bright orange blaze as black silhouettes of people ran by the gas station in the northeastern town of Hermel that lies near the Syrian border. Blasts could be heard in the background. The Lebanese Red Cross said another 18 people were wounded. The large blast occurred near a school for impoverished and orphaned children. None were injured, officials said. It was the latest in a series of attacks targeting Lebanon’s Shi’ite community, as Syria’s violence causes neighboring Lebanon’s sectarian tensions to escalate into outright violence."
US warns citizens on Lebanon strife
Little late, isn't it?
"Hezbollah’s missile abilities improved, Iranians report" by Ali Akbar Dareini | Associated Press, January 12, 2014
TEHRAN — The Lebanese militant Shi’ite movement Hezbollah has dramatically improved its missile capabilities and can now pinpoint targets anywhere in Israel, a senior commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards said Saturday.
It's a warning to Israel to not start anything.
General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guard’s aerospace division, said Israelis will see Hezbollah’s new might should a war break out. Slain Hezbollah commander Hassan al-Laqis had played a key role in boosting the group’s military strength, he added, without elaborating. The comments were posted on the Guard’s website, sepahnews.com.
‘‘Hezbollah’s capability has improved so tremendously in recent years that it can hit and destroy any target in the occupied lands with very little inaccuracy and pinpoint ability,’’ he said. The assertions could not be verified, and Iran often claims technological advances with its own military that similarly cannot be confirmed.
It can't be any worse than the crap AmeriKan contractors are building.
Laqis was assassinated last month in Beirut, a blow to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Iran’s top Revolutionary Guard commanders attended a service last week in Tehran for him.
‘‘He [Laqis] was a great, resourceful and very active Hezbollah commander whose works could be revealed should a Hezbollah-Israel war break out. He created great defense supplies,’’ and was ‘‘one of Hezbollah’s brains in the field of electronic war,’’ Hajizadeh said.
The assassination of Laqis, widely described as the head of the group’s telecommunications network and an expert at procuring strategic weapons, was a loss for Hezbollah, which blamed Israel for his death.
I was going to I sensed Mossad wet work.
Israel believes Laqis played a significant role in obtaining weapons, including long-range rockets, despite airstrikes launched by the Jewish state inside Syria to try and stop weapons shipments into Lebanon.
An act of war, but you know....
Hajizadeh didn’t say how Hezbollah’s missile capability had improved, but Israeli media has reported that the group has been moving long-range missiles to Lebanon from bases inside Syria.
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"Israel, Lebanon try to calm tensions after flare-up" by Josef Federman | Associated Press, December 17, 2013
JERUSALEM — Israel and Lebanon tried Monday to ease tensions after a deadly border skirmish that left one Israeli soldier dead. Officials of the two countries held a face-to-face meeting with UN peacekeepers and pledged their commitment to a seven-year-old cease-fire.
Again?
The UN peacekeeping force along the volatile border, UNIFIL, said it called the meeting to ‘‘establish the facts and circumstances’’ behind the flare-up in violence and to restore a cease-fire that has been in place since a 2006 war. It said both sides pledged to preserve ‘‘calm and stability.’’
In Sunday’s incident, a Lebanese sniper opened fire at an Israeli vehicle traveling near the border area of Rosh Hanikra, killing a soldier inside. Several hours later, the Israeli military said it shot two Lebanese soldiers after spotting ‘‘suspicious movement’’ in the same area.
It was the heaviest fighting between the enemy countries in more than three years and drew condemnations and threats of retaliation from Israel.
Late Monday, the Lebanese army distanced itself from the shooting, saying it was the result of an ‘‘individual act’’ by a soldier.
It said a military committee was investigating the shooting and was coordinating with the UN peacekeeping mission. With the shooter in custody, there was no word on a motive for the attack and no mention of the two soldiers allegedly shot by Israel. The Lebanese army stressed its full commitment to UN resolutions, including maintaining the 2006 cease-fire.
The tame language, and near apology for the incident, was rare for the Lebanese military, which is usually quick to point out Israeli border transgressions. It suggested that Lebanon was keen to avoid a conflagration on its border at a time of severe tensions resulting from the civil war in neighboring Syria.
Likewise, Israeli officials tried to lower the tensions. ‘‘The idea is to bring the situation back to normal and not aggravate the situation,’’ said Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, a military spokesman.
The border has remained mostly quiet since the monthlong war in the summer of 2006, though there have been sporadic outbursts of violence.
In the most serious incident, Lebanese forces killed a high-ranking Israeli officer in 2010, asserting that the Israeli army had crossed the border while uprooting a tree. Israel responded with artillery fire that killed three Lebanese. Given the years of enmity between the two countries, even the smallest incident raises the risk of sparking a wider conflict.
Looks like the Lebanese got off light there; Israel usually exacts a 10:1 ratio for loss of Jewish life, if not more.
Lebanon and Israel have been officially at war since Israel’s creation in 1948. Each country bans its citizens from visiting the other and there are no direct trade ties or diplomatic relations.
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"Special tribunal in Rafik Hariri killing opens; But four accused in Lebanon have not been arrested" by Alan Cowell | New York Times, January 17, 2014
LONDON — Almost nine years after Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, was killed by a truck bomb, an international tribunal opened hearings into the case Thursday in a courtroom in the Netherlands with lawyers and judges clustered around a mock-up of the crime scene in Beirut.
The prosecution likened the result of the attack to a “man-made hell.”
But notably absent from the Special Tribunal on Lebanon, in a former spy agency office on the outskirts of The Hague, were the four accused who have been shielded from arrest by Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shi’ite Muslim group that supports President Bashar Assad of Syria in its civil war.
The trial of Assad Hassan Sabra, Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hussein Hassan, Oneissi and Mustafa Amine Badreddine is the first time that an international tribunal has tried defendants in their absence since the Nuremberg trials after World War II. If they are convicted, the four are entitled to a new trial if they are apprehended.
The tribunal has spent about $325 million in preparation for the hearings into the attack that killed Hariri and 22 others on Feb. 14, 2005, in an assassination that convulsed the region and inspired protests against Syria’s influence in Lebanon.
And who benefited? Syria withdrew and then Israel attacked!
And who benefited? Syria withdrew and then Israel attacked!
The prosecution said Thursday that Hariri had been traveling in a convoy of six vehicles and was in an armor-plated Mercedes. Some of the cars were fitted with jamming devices to prevent the triggering of explosives by mobile phone signals. Those electronic devices supported the argument that the explosives were detonated manually, the prosecution said.
The court was shown CCTV images of a white Mitsubishi van moving across Beirut as the convoy set off.
The van is seen moving slowly past the building shortly before the convoy drives by, traveling in the same direction. Then the prosecution showed a photograph of the scene of the blast and the huge crater it created, measuring around 35 feet across and 6 feet deep.
“The attackers used an extraordinary amount of high explosives, far more than was required to kill their main target,” the prosecution said. “It is not that the perpetrators did not care if they killed their fellow citizens. They intended to.”
The suicide bomber was killed by the blast.
The attack took place between the St. Georges Hotel and the adjacent Byblos building, in “a man-made canyon” that concentrated the force of the blast, the prosecution said.
Using records from more than 50 cellphones, prosecutors plan to describe how the accused meticulously tracked Hariri’s movements for months and procured the van that detonated as his convoy left Parliament en route to his residence.
As the hearings unfolded Thursday, the prosecution went into painstaking detail about the location and duration of calls as the accused conspirators communicated among themselves in what was depicted as close surveillance of Hariri for weeks and months before the bombing.
With the date of the bombing approaching, the prosecution said, the suspects purchased several new phones as the conspiracy widened and the level of surveillance increased dramatically.
“Wherever the prime minister went” in Lebanon, the prosecution said, cellphones linked to the conspirators were used close by.
Hundreds of prosecution witnesses are expected to be called, and the trial will take months and possibly much longer.
Hopefully we will all be here to bandy it back and forth.
Hopefully we will all be here to bandy it back and forth.
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