Hezbollah Vows Lebanon “Another Iraq” If US Builds Bases There
DEBKAfile: Nawaf Mussawi, one of the leaders of the Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite movement, has threatened: “We will treat US soldiers in Lebanon like an army of occupation.”
Lebanese and Israeli military sources advise taking the Hizballah threat seriously. Its gunmen will violently oppose the American plan for its military and instructors to provide the Lebanese national army with an edge against the Hizballah militia. They will also fight tooth and nail any American bid to implement the UN Security Council Resolution 1559 ordering the disbanding of Hizballah, and no doubt receive orders from Tehran to pre-empt a US military presence and bases in Lebanon.
The Shiite extremists’ bellicose response follows exclusive disclosures in DEBKA-Net-Weekly and DEBKAfile of the master plan developed by US CENTCOM chief, Adm. William Fallon, for upgrading and augmenting the Lebanese army. It entails the creation and training of four new brigades as elite units to provide a shield for the Beirut government.
Nerves in Beirut are growing tauter: US military projects move forward, on the one hand, Tehran and Damascus are pro-active in Lebanon’s military and political affairs, on the other, and the repeatedly delayed disputed presidential election, now postponed to Nov. 12, hangs over Lebanese heads.
Our sources add that Hizballah’s threat of a “second Iraq” in Lebanon may be interpreted as terrorist strikes against American military instructors and troops - up to and including sparking a civil war on the Shiite-Sunni sectarian lines that are bedeviling Iraq.
According to our military sources, the 25,000-strong Hizballah militia is better organized and trained than any of its opposite numbers in Iraq. Its leaders are not averse to reminding Washington of the events of 1983, when Syria and Hizballah using the terror tactics of massacre and hostage-taking, drove American forces out of Lebanon for 24 years.
~Bash Note: And WE are not averse to remebering that incident, in fact see another article here at PatDollard.com today regarding the 24th anniversary of this heinous crime.
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