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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Hezbollah parade farewell their fighters returned bodies |
| 2008-07-20 |
| (Xinhua) -- Over five thousand Hezbollah supporters gathered in the southern suburbs of Beirut to attend the funeral service of eight Hezbollah fighters killed in 2006 July war, and whose bodies were returned from Israel Wednesday, Local Daily Star reported Saturday. The memorial service was attended by grieving mothers and relatives, as well as Hezbollah officials and supporters. "They will be buried in this blessed land after their return from the blessed land of Palestine," said the head of Hezbollah executive council Hashim Safieddine in a speech at the occasion. Relatives kissed and touched the coffins before they were carried through the streets of the southern suburbs by Hezbollah fighters, and were handed over to their families for burials in their native villages in south Lebanon. Banners hanging on the streets said "Israel has fallen," others read "A victory from God." The eight fighters were killed in fierce battled with the Israeli army in south Lebanon during the month of July in 2006, when Israel launched a devastating war, following Hezbollah's abduction of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 of last year. The bodies of the eight fighters were handed over to Hezbollah as a part of the swap with Israel that included the return of five living prisoners and another 199 bodies of Palestinian and Arab fighters. Hezbollah in retune turned over the bodies the two captured Israeli soldiers who were killed during the capture operation as media reported. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 the following comments published in the “Blacksmiths of Lebanon” blog: And there was a certain sleight of hand in all this. Mr Nasrallah had promised to retrieve the bodies of Palestinian “martyrs”, and they included the remains of 19-year-old Dalal Moghraby, which were supposedly stacked on the first lorry to cross the border yesterday. She was the girl who led 11 Palestinian and Lebanese gunmen in an attack on the Israeli coast road north of Tel Aviv. Cornered by the Israeli [sic] army, she decided to fight it out. Thirty-six people died and a surviving videotape shows an Israeli agent, a certain Ehud Barak – yes, the man who is now Israel’s Defence Minister – firing shots into her body and dragging her across a road. Mr Barak was one of the Israeli cabinet members who voted for the return of her corpse yesterday. But the Palestinians, it turned out, did not want their dead returned to Lebanon. Dalal Moghraby’s mother Amina Ismail, for example, wished her remains to lie where she was buried in Israel – the land which she and millions of other refugees still regard as part of Palestine. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command said it wanted its dead “martyrs” to remain on “Palestinian land” as they would have wished, and asked Hizbollah to exclude them from the returning corpses. No such luck. For Hizbollah had other ideas and – with the agreement of the Israelis, of course – brought them back to the land of their exile. Also from the same blog: Net gains: Sami Kuntar 199 bodies of Lebanese and Arab fighters. *Kohdor Zaidan *Maher Kourani *Mohammeda Srour *Hussein Suleiman *Technically not a net gain, as they were captured during the 2006 war. Net Losses: 1200 civilians dead,400 of them under 13. 4400 civilians injured, 770 if them permannetly. 1 million people displaced from their homes. 125000housing units damaged or destroyed. 250 Hizbollah fighters killed. 80% southern villages destroyed. 5 billion economic damage. 15 billion long term economic looses. 91 bridges destroyed. Northern Gaharreoccupied. The continuing brain drain of Lebanon, etc.etc. And they have S. Kuntar. |
| Posted by: Glomomp Smith2601 2008-07-20 21:06 |
| #1 ... or killed in custody, but why would the world media be interested in checking if that were true? |
| Posted by: Odysseus 2008-07-20 16:59 |