Syrian-backed terrorists have vowed to escalate attacks on Israel from Lebanon, describing last Sunday's raid near Damascus as the "first round in a new Middle East war".
| Thought they'd hit back using proxies. |
Senior leaders of the Lebanese-based Hizbollah group warned that the raid, on an alleged Palestinian training camp, would inflame a border that had been relatively quiet for 30 years. "It is wrong to bear an attack without a response. This changes the region," said Mohammad Raad, the deputy leader of Hizbollah. "It demands that the resistance groups increase pressure on Israel. In the south of Lebanon, this means Hizbollah has the responsibility for aggression towards Israel. We are moving towards regional war."
Western diplomats in Beirut believe that Damascus will use the terrorist group as a "forward defensive shield" against Israel. According to one diplomat, Syria is preparing to equip Hizbollah with Russian-made SA-18 surface-to-air missiles, which have a range of more than 16,000 feet, to target Israeli warplanes. Hizbollah, which is also funded by Iran, is believed to have a stockpile of 10,000 short and long-range rockets capable of landing in Israeli territory, but the few missiles it currently has are antiquated and pose little threat to the Israeli airforce. 
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