Hezbollah Captures Crucial Highground
The Guardian:
Hizbullah yesterday took control of a strategic mountain-top village in Druze heartlands south-east of the capital after fierce fighting with government allies, consolidating strategic gains that analysts said would be used in confrontations with Israel.
“Hizbullah will very soon spread all over. They will not leave any strategic part of the country in the hands of their so-called enemies,” said Ahmad Moussali, a professor at the American University of Beirut and an expert on Islamist groups.
Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week branded the western-backed, Sunni-led government “Israelis dressed in suits speaking Arabic”, after ministers ordered a crackdown on his group’s secure telecoms system. In response, Shia Hizbullah fighters and allies overran Sunni strongholds in west Beirut, then withdrew following a government climbdown.
Despite calls for a ceasefire, Hizbullah fighters defeated militants loyal to Druze leader Waleed Jumblatt in clashes starting on Sunday night, gaining control of Niha, a village in the southern Chouf mountains, 25 miles south-east of Beirut.
Analysts said the village provides the Iranian-backed group, also an ally of Damascus, with a crucial link between its stronghold in the eastern Bekaa Valley and the coastal highway that leads to Hizbullah’s bases in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
“Hizbullah have shown they are not interested in unseating Jumblatt but rather opening a possible supply route between Bekaa and the southern suburbs,” said Ousama Safa, director of Beirut’s Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies. “They can now use the area as a second front, behind the Bekaa.”
On Sunday Hizbullah fighters took over key positions in Aley, a Druze town north of the Chouf, which abuts the main Beirut-Damascus highway, giving them control of another key artery. Both Druze areas have since been turned over to the army, which has a longstanding agreement on military cooperation with Hizbullah over Israel.
Beirut’s international airport remained largely closed for a sixth day yesterday, as Hizbullah supporters continued to block its main supply road, while hundreds of foreigners, fearing a descent into civil war, fled via land routes to Syria.
A ceasefire in the northern port city of Tripoli broke down yesterday as Sunni supporters of parliamentary leader Saad Hariri exchanged machine gun and grenade fire with Alawite militiamen allied to Hizbullah.
The fighting brought the death toll in six days of conflict to 81, with 250 wounded.
Arab foreign ministers said they would send mediators, headed by Qatar, to arrive in Beirut tomorrow.
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ein Volk, eine Armee, eine Religion, ein Heimland
May 13th, 2008 at 2:19 amI see, the results Jimmy Carter’s meeting are coming to fruition. Good job Jimmaaa, you old anti-semitic puke.
May 13th, 2008 at 3:24 am“a people, an army, a religion, a home country”?
I believe that’s what you mean. You wouldn’t be acquainting the current aggression of Shiites against not only “un-pure” Sunnis and Druze but also their march against Judaism with the activities of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party from the 1920’s to 1930’s would you? Is this the “May Campaign” or may it be otherwise known as “the 2008 Defensive War”?
It seems as though franchie understands what is occurring much as many others here do.
Who will be the Polskie Państwo Podziemne for Lebanon? Who indeed will be their Henri Honoré d’Estienne d’Orves?
WAKE UP PEOPLE!!
We are currently seeing the beginning of the war that many of our sons and daughters will have to fight.
But hey, isn’t the American Idol finale coming up soon?
May 13th, 2008 at 4:14 am
THANK YOU Prime Minister Chamberlain Peace in our Time Jimmy Carter for setting into motion a possible new World War starting with the fall of Lebanon!
May 13th, 2008 at 4:53 amHow could someone soooo educated could be soooo wrong for what they have done….
All this just insures that Israel will have to use tactical nukes to smoke Hezbolla in the coming war. The Hez monkies have only accomplished sealing their own fate via the Glow Of A Thousand Suns.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:33 amThere is no highland advantage anymore.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:25 amThe high ground that cannot, under any circumstances, be allowed into the hands of Israel’s enemies is the Golan Heights.
You can strike anywhere in Israel with the missiles these monkeys have from the Golan Heights.
If you see the Golan Heights fall into enemy hands, then you know that Israel will fight like a badger in a corner.
The Golan Heights must NEVER fall into enemy hands…
May 13th, 2008 at 6:40 am