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2008-02-05 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
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Hezbollah warns guerilla retaliation on Israel
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A Hezbollah official warned yesterday of guerrilla retaliation for the deadly shooting by Israeli forces of a man across the border in southern Lebanon. The comments by Hezbollah lawmaker Hussein Haj Hassan came a day after Israeli troops opened fire across the Lebanese border. Lebanese security officials said one person was killed and another wounded in the incident late Sunday.
The Israeli military said it was responding to fire apparently from drug smugglers on the Lebanese side. Such shootings have been rare since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. "This matter definitely will not pass in a way that the people will remain silent," Haj Hassan said on LBC television yesterday. "It is the right of the resistance to respond one day by any means.
Haj Hassan decried the lack of international criticism of the Israeli firing, even though the circumstances surrounding the incident remained unclear. He said if the situation had been reversed, with an Israeli killed by fire from Lebanon, "you wouldn't imagine how many condemnations would have been issued ... as if a citizen on our side has no value." Haj Hassan did not threaten immediate retaliation. However, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned in a recent speech that the militant group's patience w as wearing thin with what he described as repeated Israeli violations of Lebanese territory.
On Sunday, the Israeli military said its soldiers came under fire in the border town of Ghajar, which is split between the two countries by a UN-demarcated line. The soldiers returned fire and identified a hit. There were no Israeli casualties. Lebanese security officials said the two people shot were in Lebanese territory along the Wazzani River in the southeastern corner of Lebanon across from Israeli positions in Ghajar, the officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. They were taken to a hospital in Marjayoun, a major town in the area, where officials confirmed they had received one body and another person who was wounded.
The UN peacekeeping force, which is deployed in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel, said there was a "shooting incident in the area of Ghajar" and that it has started an "immediate investigation to ascertain the facts, looking into initial allegations of smuggling." Yasmina Bouziane, spokeswoman for the 13,000-strong force, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement that a Lebanese man was evacuated by peacekeepers to a hospital in Marjayoun, where he was later declared dead. Another individual was ev acuated by the Lebanese army, the statement said.
Bouziane said the UNIFIL commander, Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano, "is in contact with senior officers on both sides, urging them to show maximum restraint.
In November, Israeli troops in Ghajar opened fire, slightly injuring one of two men trying to infiltrate Israel. The injured man was carrying a bag of illicit drugs, the Israeli military said at the time. There have been other incidents along the border since 2006 but most have been resolved quietly with the intervention of the peacekeepers. The most serious incident involved a shootout between Lebanese army troops and the Israeli army in February 2007 at Maroun el-Rass, an area of the border that was not clearly demarcated. 
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Posted by Fred 2008-02-05 00:00||
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File under: Hezbollah
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Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-02-05 21:11||
2008-02-05 21:11||
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