Tag Archive for Lebanon

| July 2, 2012
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Report: Israel detonated spy device in Lebanon

Local media outlets say warplane fired air-to-ground missile at espionage device that was exposed by Hezbollah

By Roi Kais

 

An air-to-ground missile fired by an Israeli plane on Monday detonated a surveillance device that was planted between the southern Lebanese towns of Zrariyeh and Tayr Filsay, the National News Agency reported.

Archives Photo: Dan Bronfled, IDF's Spokesperson Unit

Archives Photo: Dan Bronfled, IDF's Spokesperson Unit

According to the report, the device was planted on a Hizbullah telecommunications cable. The device was destroyed by Israel because the terror group had exposed it, the National News Agency reported.

Lebanese media reported that Israeli warplanes have been flying at a low altitude over the country’s southern sector since the afternoon hours, while Hizbullah has cordoned off the area. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| July 2, 2012
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Israel fears Hezbollah will blockade sea in future war

Navy assessments are that Hezbollah will try to target cargo ships within 30-kilometer radius of Israel to try to get commercial vessels to refuse to sail there during war; senior navy officer: Operational capability exists.

 

Israel is concerned that in a future war with Hezbollah, the Lebanese guerilla group will try to impose a sea blockade on Israel by attacking civilian cargo ships.

Container ship (illustrative) - Photo: Thinkstock/Imagebank

Container ship (illustrative) - Photo: Thinkstock/Imagebank

Israel’s sea lines of communication (SLOC) span the length of the Mediterranean and around the Magreb region of North Africa with some 99 percent of all goods arriving in the country by sea, including ammunition and military hardware. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| June 27, 2012
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Leading Lebanese TV station attacked in Beirut over critisism of Nasralla

Al-Jadeed TV station attacked with burning tires after airing interview with Sunni cleric who threatened Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah

By Associated Press

 

Masked men attacked the headquarters of a leading Lebanese TV station with burning tires after it hosted a hard-line Sunni Muslim cleric who harshly criticized the country’s Shiite Muslim leaders, police said Tuesday.

Sheik Ahmad al-Aseer (archive) Photo: AP

Sheik Ahmad al-Aseer (archive) - Photo: AP

Video footage of the Monday night attack taken by security cameras and broadcast on local television showed five masked figures assaulting the headquarters of Al-Jadeed TV in Beirut.

The attackers also fired several shots at the building, police said, leaving it damaged only lightly and causing no casualties. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| June 8, 2012
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Report: Assad’s Forces Using Unidentified Gas on Civilians

Syrian opposition claims Assad using toxic material, unidentified gas on Syrian civilians.

Syrian opposition sources claimed on Thursday that aircraft belonging to the Syrian Air Force have dropped toxic material into the province of Daraa, the Al-Jazeera network reported.

Bashar Assad

Bashar Assad - Reuters

According to the report, the unidentified material smells like sulfur and causes drowsiness and unconsciousness.

No further information on these materials was provided, but the report also said that Assad’s forces had used unidentified gas shells on civilians in Daraa, Hama and Deir ez-Zor.

The fact that Syria has a stockpile of unconventional weapons, including chemical weapons, is well-known. Continue Reading »

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| June 7, 2012
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Lebanon: Syrian Army Killed TV Cameraman

Lebanon has charged the Syrian Army with the murder of an Al-Jadeed television journalist

Lebanon has charged the Syrian Army with the murder of an Al-Jadeed television journalist.

Military Prosecutor Judge Saqr Saqr on Thursday charged members of the Syrian armed forces in connection with the cameraman’s death on April 9. Charges of attempting to murder the cameraman’s two colleagues, who were with him at the time, have also been filed.

Along the Lebanese-Syrian border

Along the Lebanese-Syrian border - Reuters

The case has been referred to Military Investigative Justice Riyad Abu Ghida.

Ali Sha’aban, 30, was shot and killed while on assignment for the Al-Jadeed television network in the northern area of Wadi Khaled, near the Lebanese border with Syria, according to the Daily Star. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| June 3, 2012
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Seven killed in clashes between pro- and anti-Assad groups in Lebanon

Clashes in northern Lebanese city of Tripoli raise fears of an escalation of sectarian tensions in Lebanon.

 

Gunbattles between pro- and anti-Syrian groups in northern Lebanon killed at least seven people and wounded 22 on Saturday, security officials said, as activists reported fresh shelling in a region in central Syria where a massacre last week left more than 100 people dead.

The clashes were the latest to hit the Lebanese port of Tripoli. Repeated outbreaks of violence in the city, the country’s second largest, are seen as spillover from the conflict in neighboring Syria and have raised fears of an escalation in sectarian tensions in Lebanon. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , , ,
| June 2, 2012
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Hizbullah Wants to Move Far-Reaching Scuds from Syria

Hizbullah looking to move Scud D missiles, which can reach Eilat, and modern anti-aircraft equipment from Syria to Lebanon.

The Hizbullah terror group wants to move Scud D-type missiles and modern anti-aircraft equipment from Syria to Lebanon, Channel 2 Newsreported on Thursday.

Scud missile reportedly in Hizbullah arsenal

According to the report, the group fears the weapons may come into the hands of the rebels against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The report said that Hizbullah has recently been considering moving to Lebanon the modern weapons it already owns but which are being kept in the group’s bases in Damascus. Channel 2 noted that the Scud D missiles are considered quite sophisticated and have the ability to reach as far as the city of Eilat.

Continue Reading »
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| May 26, 2012
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Arab World: Warning signs in Lebanon

The spillover from the violence in Syria has escalated and grown more complex.

The situation in Tripoli in northern Lebanon is now calm after several days of fierce fighting. The clashes pitted Alawi supporters of the Assad regime in Syria against Sunni Islamist partisans of the rebellion against his rule. At least 11 people were killed in three days of violence. A few days after the Tripoli incidents, clashes also took place between pro and anti-Assad Sunnis in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

This followed the death, in unclear circumstances, of anti-regime cleric Sheikh Ahmed Abdul- Wahid at a Lebanese Army checkpoint in the north.

Continue Reading »
Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| May 26, 2012
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Nasrallah: Fences Won’t Ensure Israel’s Existence

Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatens Israel (from his hiding place) as Lebanon marks 12 years since Israel withdrew its troops.

Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened Israel on Friday, saying the Jewish State is hiding behind walls and fences and that these cannot ensure its future existence.

Nasrallah addresses supporters via video in Bint Jbeil

Nasrallah addresses supporters via video in Bint Jbeil - Reuters

Nasrallah made the comments during a video speech which was broadcast during a rally in the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, marking 12 years since Israel withdrew its troops from Lebanon.

“The Israelis withdrew from southern Lebanon, began to build a fence in the West Bank, and now they are talking about building a fence along the border with Egypt or building a fence along the border with Jordan,” Channel 2 News quoted Nasrallah as having said in the speech, which was recorded from his hiding place. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| May 20, 2012
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Lebanese soldiers kill two anti-Assad group members

Residents of northern region of Akkar block off roads to protest deaths of Sunni cleric and anti-Assad activist; Switzerland opens investigation in Syrian money laundering.

 

TRIPOLI, Lebanon – Lebanese soldiers shot dead a Sunni cleric and a second member of an anti-Assad Lebanese political alliance in northern Lebanon on Sunday, security sources said.

Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahid and Khaled Miraib, members of the the March 14 alliance, were shot in their car as they sped through an army checkpoint without stopping, the sources said.

Residents of the northern region of Akkar said that they had blocked off roads to protest against the deaths.

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| May 12, 2012
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Nasrallah: Hezbollah able to strike anywhere in Israel

Amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran, Hezbollah chief claims Lebanese militant group is capable of striking any target in Israel, including Tel Aviv.


Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Friday that his militant group was capable of striking any target in neighboring Israel, saying “the days when we fled and they did not are over.”

“Today we are not only able to hit Tel Aviv as a city but, God willing, we are able to hit specific targets in Tel Aviv and anywhere in occupied Palestine,” Nasrallah said in a televised address.

“For every building destroyed in Dahiya, a building will be destroyed in Tel Aviv,” he said, referring to Hezbollah’s stronghold in a suburb of southern Beirut.

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| May 8, 2012
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Google Earth Outs Hizbullah Bases

New satellite images uploaded to the Internet reveal new Hizbullah bases and roadways in the Bekaa Valley and South Lebanon.

Recently uploaded satellite images to Google Earth reveal what appears to be a Hizbullah terror training ground constructed after the 2006 Lebanon War.

According to military analysts, the facility near Janta in the Bekaa Vaalley includes a suspected driver training course, a 100-meter firing range, and a possible urban terrain assault course.

The Google Earth images also reveal considerable overt construction activity in sealed-off Hizbullah security pockets in southern Lebanon, particularly in the hills south of Jezzine.

The area was designated the terror groups primary staging line following the redeployment of UNIFIL peacekeepers on the Blue Line, which separates Israel from Lebanon. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| May 6, 2012
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Israel rejects claims of violating Lebanese sovereign territory

Lebanon objected Wednesday to the excavation, which began Monday, arguing that at several points it was between 30 and 65 centimeters closer to the pavement on the Lebanese side of the border than originally agreed upon.

BEIRUT: The Israeli army Saturday rejected Lebanese claims that a security fence being erected on the border between the two countries violates Lebanese sovereign territory, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The statement from the Israeli army claiming it did not cross the Blue Line came after Lebanon filed a complaint with United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Friday.

The complaint claims that Israel was crossing over into Lebanese territory during excavations Thursday laying groundwork for the fence. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| May 5, 2012
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IDF denies Lebanon claim fence crosses Blue Line

Beirut complains to UNIFIL that security barrier being erected on border near Metulla violating Lebanon’s sovereign territory.

 

The IDF on Saturday rejected Lebanese claims that a security fence Israel is putting up on the border between the two countries near the Israeli town of Metulla violates Lebanon’s sovereign territory.

IDF soldier looks into Lebanon near Metula -Photo: REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

IDF soldier looks into Lebanon near Metula - Photo: REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

The IDF statement came after Lebanon filed a complaint with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Friday, claiming that Israel was crossing over the Blue Line into Lebanese territory during excavations laying the groundwork for the fence. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| April 30, 2012
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Israel Building Security Wall Along Lebanese Border

The wall is intended to protect the city of Metulla from sniper fire coming from the Lebanese border town of Kfar Kila

                                       

Israel began building a wall that will run several kilometers along part of its border with Lebanon, a military spokeswoman told Agence France Presse on Monday.

“This construction, which began on Monday, is being carried out in coordination with UNIFIL (the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) and the Lebanese army. The wall is intended to avoid frictions on the border,” she said.

Israeli public radio said the wall, which is expected to be several meters high, will protect the city of Metulla from sniper fire coming from the Lebanese border town of Kfar Kila. Continue Reading »

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