Tag Archive for Lebanon

| January 31, 2013
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Thursday’s Updates of Israel’s reported strike on the Syria-Lebanon border

The target of the IAF attack was apparently an arms convoy moving from Syria to Lebanon, but it is still not clear exactly where the strike occurred because of contradicting reports, or whether the SA-17 Missile cache also included chemical weapons.

International media reported Wednesday that Israel launched an overnight air strike on Lebanon’s border with Syria, after carrying out four separate flyover missions in Lebanese air space.

Map of Israel-Syria-Lebanon borders

The target of the reported attack was apparently an arms convoy moving from Syria to Lebanon, but it is still not clear precisely where the strike occurred, or whether the cache included chemical weapons. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , , , ,
| January 28, 2013
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Palestinians flee catastrophe in Syria to catastrophe in Lebanon

“We go from catastrophe to catastrophe, from refugee camp to refugee camp, but at least we are alive,” Umm Sami said in Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, near the southern port city of Sidon.

By

 

Then she told her sons they were leaving their home in the Yarmouk refugee camp in the Syrian capital for neighboring Lebanon, where they would wait out Syria’s civil war.

Palestinian children who fled their houses in the Yarmouk camp

“There will be no more martyrs for Palestine in my family,” the 45-year-old widow said. “This war is a Syrian problem.”

Now safe in Lebanon, Umm Sami and her family have joined thousands of other Palestinian refugees who have found shelter in the country since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad erupted nearly two years ago. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| January 21, 2013
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Lebanon catches ‘highly-paid spy for Israel’

Al-Manar TV reports that the Lebanese army arrested local man who was paid $600,000 to pass on intel on Hezbollah & the military to his Mossad handler.

By Roi Kais

 

The Lebanese army has arrested a citizen suspected of collaborating with Israel, the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV reported on Monday.

"מתקן ריגול" שחשפה חיזבאללה בעבר (צילום: AFP)

‘Israeli spy site’ found by Hezbollah – Archive photo: AFP

Ali Taufiq Yari, a former member of the Baalbek City Council, was branded as the highest paid spy to date, as he was said to have received $600,000 for his service to the Jewish state.

According to the report, Yari began working with Israel’s Mossad in 1990, and had undergone intelligence training that taught him to use invisible ink, concealed radio devices and other means of communication. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| January 13, 2013
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U.S. plans to stop release of convicted Lebanese terrorist who killed Israeli & U.S. diplomats

George Ibrahim Abdallah, granted release from imprisonment by French appeals court for  the 1982 murders of an Israeli diplomat & the U.S. military attaché in Paris, as well as the attempted murder of the U.S. Consul General in Strasbourg in 1984.

By Reuters

 

 

The United States objected on Friday to a French court’s planned release of a Lebanese leftist militant, saying he may still be a threat a quarter century after he was convicted of killing an American and an Israeli diplomat.

A file picture taken on July 3, 1986 shows former Lebanese militiaman George Ibrahim Abdallah

A file picture taken on July 3, 1986 shows former Lebanese militiaman George Ibrahim Abdallah during his trial in Lyon, central-eastern France.

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| January 3, 2013
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Nasrallah: Syrian Civil War Could Partition Lebanon

Hizbullah chief blames the West, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, & Turkey, for the influx of  thousands of Syrian refugees into Lebanon.

By Gil Ronen

 

Hizbullah head Hassan Nasrallah warned Thursday against “schemes of division and partition along sectarian and ethnic lines” in-war torn Syria and the entire region.

A campsite in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley

A campsite in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley – AFP/File

A key ally of the embattled Syrian regime, Nasrallah made a televised appearance via video link and proclaimed: “We hereby underscore our rejection of any plan for partitioning or dividing any Arab or Islamic country in the entire Middle East region.

“We hereby confirm our commitment to the unity of Lebanon as a people, a nation and institutions,” he said, adding that “Lebanon is too small to be divided or partitioned.” Continue Reading »

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| December 20, 2012
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Syrian defector reports: Assad’s regime transferred WMDs to Lebanon

Syrian defector says forces moved 100 kilos of lethal sarin gas from secret base in the direction of Lebanon

Yitzhak Benhorin

 

Syrian war escalates: According to Syrian sources, President Bashar Assad’s regime has developed special vehicles for moving and mixing chemical weapons, the Washington Post reported.

בסיס נשק כימי בספירה. קרבות ניטשו סביב המקום

Chemical weapon Syrian base

Post commentator, David Ignatius spoke to a Syrian source who received information from a Syrian defector who worked inside a chemical weapons network.

The source was speaking with Ignatius from his hiding place in an Arab country outside Syria, with the “hope of encouraging greater American involvement with the opposition.” Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| December 17, 2012
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Hizbullah Blames Israel for Huge Explosion in Southern Lebanon

An explosion, apparently at an illegal Hizbullah weapons depot, rocked Lebanon near the border early Monday morning.

Hizbullah accuses Israel.

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

 

A huge explosion, apparently at a Hizbullah weapons depot, rocked Lebanon near the border Monday morning, the country’s state news agency reported.

Hizbullah immediately accused Israel of carrying out an aerial bombing.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is responsible for maintaining security in the area, and it is investigating the blast, but Hizbullah cordoned off the area.

The explosion apparently was in an ammunition depot east of the port city of Tyre. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| December 9, 2012
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Israeli Navy Prepared to Defend Mediterranean Gas Rigs

If Nasrallah carries out his threats to attack Israeli rig, Hezbollah will be met by a well prepared & equipped naval force.

By Gil Ronen

 

The Israeli Navy is prepared to neutralize threats targeting Israel’s Tamar natural gas rig, the IDF Website reported Saturday. The Navy will protect the reception facility – a vital infrastructural facility to pump gas from the rig – which is currently being built.

The IDF’s defensive model has been tested in three scenarios: routine, escalation, and emergency.

“The wisdom in the development of this kind of model is that it provides an excellent response for all three scenarios,” senior naval commander Rear Adm. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| December 8, 2012
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Nasrallah: Corruption in Lebanon more dangerous than Israel

Terror chief tells students Hezbollah will save Lebanon from slipping further into political turmoil and says his Shiite group has created ‘true balance of terror’ vis-à-vis the IDF

By Roi Kais

 

Hezbollah Chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Saturday that the political corruption plaguing Lebanon was “More dangerous than Israel.”

Hassan Nasrallah Photo: AFP

Hassan Nasrallah – Photo: AFP

The Lebanese news website al-Nashra reported that Nasrallah, speaking to a student gathering, said that “Any solution in Lebanon has to begin with solving the chronic economical issues and the problem of the public debt.”

Hezbollah, he said, cannot offer any “clear solution” to the economic crisis, which he said “Stems from the disintegration of the government and the growing corruption within it. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| November 21, 2012
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Arabs Celebrate Tel Aviv Bus Bombing by Lighting Fireworks

Arabs celebrated after a bomb ripped through a bus in Tel Aviv Wednesday, injuring over 20 people.

By Rachel Hirshfeld

 

Arabs living in Lebanese refugee camps celebrated Wednesday after a bomb ripped through a bus in Tel Aviv, injuring over twenty people.

Arab terrorists

Arab terrorists – Reuters

In Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon muezzins sang out words of praise to G-d via their megaphones, while fireworks lit the sky and terrorists handed out sweets, AFP reported.

In Ain al-Hilweh near the southern city of Sidon, fighters shot live rounds into the air and chanted religious texts.

The blast took place following the meeting between U.S. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , , , ,
| November 13, 2012
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No longer the ‘resistance’ party, Hezbollah is eating itself

Hezbollah’s reputation as an honest defender of the weak is being destroyed, ironically not by Israel but by the party itself. Many Lebanese started to slowly discover that Hezbollah in power doesn’t equal openness and transparency, but instead the same old corruption stories.

By Raghida Bahnam

 

It was once the symbol of resistance for many in the Middle East. Not anymore.

Hezbollah’s reputation as an honest defender of the weak is being destroyed, ironically not by Israel but by the party itself.

Afterman of Beirut car bombing (Photo: Reuters)

Aftermath of Beirut car bombing – Photo: Reuters

It is not just Hezbollah’s attitude towards the Syrian revolution and its unrelenting support to the murderous regime that is damaging the party’s reputation, but the whiff of corruption that keeps hanging about them.

Continue Reading »
Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| November 4, 2012
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Hezbollah under fire, but its hold is solid

Despite Syria’s conflict & depleted funding, terror group unlikely to loose strangle-hold on Lebanon

By the Associated Press

A maze of military bunkers and tunnels carved into a mountain near the border with Israel hints at why the Shiite Hezbollah movement is unlikely to lose its grip in Lebanon despite the setbacks it has suffered because of the civil war in neighboring Syria.

Mleeta, a former staging ground for Hezbollah’s battles with Israel that has been turned into a sprawling tourist attraction, is emblematic of the base of its power: its arsenal and military prowess.

That base ultimately remains firm, even if Hezbollah has faced sharper criticism among Lebanese for its siding with Syria’s regime in the civil war and even if it has reportedly suffered some reduction in aid from its top patron, Iran, squeezed by Western sanctions. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , , ,
| October 28, 2012
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Hezbollah Prepares for a Broader War Than It May Want

Israel has warned Lebanon that if war with Hezbollah breaks out again, it will hold the Lebanese gov’t responsible & will destroy gov’t targets.

By Ronen Bergman

 

Hezbollah’s launching of a pilotless spy plane, which was shot down by Israel’s air force in the southern part of the country in early October, has been seen as more evidence that the Lebanese militia is preparing for war.

Hezbollah War

Hezbollah War – Illustration by: Clay Hickson

Israelis assume that the drone was gathering visual intelligence to help Hezbollah in its goal of bombarding distant targets with long-range surface-to-surface missiles.

No doubt it was collecting information in case of another confrontation with Israel, but whether the terrorist group is seeking a full-blown war is a more complicated question that may depend less on what Hezbollah wants than on the heat it is getting from its patrons.

Continue Reading »
Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| October 21, 2012
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After slain Lebanese official’s funeral, protesters try to storm PM’s office

Lebanon opposition leader Saad Hariri urges his supporters to pull back as heavy gunfire erupts in Beirut, with security forces using tear gas & firing into the air.

 

Heavy gunfire erupted in central Beirut on Sunday after protesters tried to storm the offices of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, demanding that he quit over the assassination of a top intelligence official.

Lebanese protestes wave Syrian revolutionary flags, national flags and Islamic flags

Lebanese protestes wave Syrian revolutionary flags, national flags and Islamic flags as they gather in Martyrs’ Square at funeral for the country’s intelligence chief, Brig. Gen. Wissam Hassan. – Photo by AP

Witnesses said at least two people had fainted, apparently as a result of tear gas fired by security forces after protesters breached an outer barrier around the prime minister’s offices. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| October 20, 2012
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Israelis & Lebanese irked by ‘Homeland’

U.S. TV series about Arab terrorists, American turncoats inadvertently becomes tale of 2 cities: Beirutis are angry over misleading depiction of their city as swarming with terrorists; Israelis are peeved that Tel Aviv & Haifa appear to be Middle Eastern after all

Associated Press

 

Militants carrying assault weapons clear the area around a street, shouting in Arabic for people to get out of the way. A jeep pulls up: The world’s No. 1 jihadi has arrived for a meeting with top Hezbollah commanders. On rooftops, US snipers crouch unseen, the kingpin in their crosshairs at last.

The scene, from a recent episode of the hit US Showtime series “Homeland,” is supposed to be Beirut. Continue Reading »

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