|
Saturday Oct. 13, 2012 4:52 PM (EST+7)
Hezbollah confirms it sent drone downed over Israel
|
|
|
BEIRUT, Oct 11 (Mariam Karouny/Reuters) - Lebanese Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged on Thursday sending a drone aircraft that was shot down last weekend after flying some 25 miles (55 km) into Israel.
|
|
|
 |
 Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah speaks at a forum in Beirut, Jan. 15, 2010. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Multimedia
 Al-Haq: Virtual tour of the Wall in the West Bank
Oct. 11, 2011 1:20 PM (EST+7)
al-Jazeera Int: Wall's new route returns land to Bilin
Feb. 14, 2010 2:17 PM (EST+7)
Riz Khan with Pink Floyd's Roger Waters
March 8, 2011 2:08 PM (EST+7)
|
 Documents
 Precisely Wrong - Gaza Civilians Killed by Israeli Drone-Launched Missiles
A Wall on the Green Line?
Accountability Denied: The Absence of Investigation and Punishment of Torture in Israel
|
Publications
Poll No. 14, March 1996 - On Attitudes of East Jerusalemites on the Recent Hamas Bombings
Poll No. 17, October 1996 - On Palestinian Attitudes Towards Current Issues
Poll No. 24, December 1997 - On Palestinian and Israeli Attitudes Towards the Peace Process
|
Background
Hezbollah
Kiryat Shmona
Bilin
|
Resources
Hezbollah, Council on Foreign Relations, June 8, 2009
Who are Hezbollah?, BBC News website, May 21, 2008
"Frequently asked questions on the anti terrorism fence" Israel ministry of foreign affairs, April 2009
|
|
|
|
Nasrallah said in a televised speech that the drone's parts were manufactured in Iran and it was assembled by members of the Shi'ite Muslim militant movement in Lebanon. He confirmed a statement by Israel's prime minister earlier in the day saying that Hezbollah was behind the drone flight.
"The resistance in Lebanon sent a sophisticated reconnaissance aircraft from Lebanon...It penetrated the enemy's iron procedures and entered occupied southern Palestine," Nasrallah said. Hezbollah does not recognize the state of Israel.
Tensions have increased in the region with Israel threatening to bomb the nuclear sites of Hezbollah's patron Iran if diplomacy and sanctions fail to stop Iranian nuclear activity the West suspects is meant to develop a weapons capability. Tehran says it is seeking only civilian nuclear energy.
Iran has threatened in turn to attack U.S. military bases in the Middle East and retaliate against Israel if attacked.
Seeking to underline that Hezbollah was capable of reaching targets well inside Israel, Nasrallah said the drone "flew over sensitive installations inside southern Palestine and was shot down in an area near the Dimona nuclear reactor".
Iran said the incursion exposed the weakness of Israeli air defense, indicating that Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile defense system "does not work and lacks the necessary capacity". The Iron Dome system, jointly funded with Washington, is designed to down short-range guerrilla rockets, not slow-flying aircraft.
Hezbollah last fought Israel in 2006 during a 34-day war in which 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed.
Since that war, Hezbollah has a number of times suggested it had expanded its arsenal in an apparent strategy of deterrence.
Hezbollah is also an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is fighting to put down a 19-month-old uprising that has turned into a civil war with sectarian dimensions, largely pitting the majority Sunni Muslims against Assad's minority Alawite community, who are an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
Nasrallah has explicitly expressed political support for Assad, whose opponents have accused Hezbollah of sending fighters to help the Syrian leader quell the insurgency.
Nasrallah denied such accusations. "We have not fought alongside the regime until now. The regime did not ask us to do so and also who says that doing so is in Lebanon's interest?"
Earlier this month Hezbollah buried two of its fighters who local sources said were killed near a Syrian border town. Hezbollah acknowledged the death of only one fighter and said he was a commander who "died while performing his jihad duties". It did not elaborate. Nasrallah said on Thursday that he was killed in a roadside bomb in a town near the Syrian border.
Last month, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on Nasrallah for what it said was support given to Assad against anti-government protests, as well as two other members for the group's "terrorist activities" in general.
|
|
|
 |
Log in
Add comment
Rules
( 0 )
|
|
|
|
logindive
|
All comments on blogs are pre-moderated. This means
comments are read before publication to check there
is no obvious breach of the Rules below. Users who
repeatedly break the rules will be blocked from
posting on JMCC.org.
If you become aware of content that breaches these
Rules, please report the abuse using the link on
each blog post.
|
| Rules |
|
Any posting of any message or content by users to
JMCC.org is subject to the following rules.
|
1. Postings must not:
|
a) contain material that is defamatory, abusive,
threatening, obscene, racially or sexually
offensive, in breach of copyright, trademarks or
other intellectual property rights, sexually
explicit or homophobic or in breach of privacy or
confidentiality or which encourages or condones any
illegal or criminal activity or is in any way
unlawful or inappropriate; |
|
b) contain swearing or inappropriate user names; |
|
c) constitute advertising or virus propagation,
provide weblinks that amount to advertising or which
are inappropriate or constitute spamming or
flooding; |
|
d) impersonate any person or entity; |
|
e) solicit or exchange personal information - for
example do not give out your email address, home
address, work place or telephone number or arrange
to meet anyone; |
|
f) be misleading or inaccurate or portray anyone in
a false light; or |
|
g) contain material that is copied or that you do
not own. |
2. You are responsible for liability and any legal
action arising from your posting. You indemnify us
against all losses, claims, damages and expenses
(including the cost of defending or settling any
claim or damages), whether foreseeable or
unforeseeable, suffered or incurred directly or
indirectly arising from your posting.
3. Please be aware that it is possible to trace
internet activity to a specific computer.
4. By submitting a posting to JMCC.org, you grant us
a worldwide royalty free license to use your content
in perpetuity and at our discretion in any media now
known or hereafter developed and you now give us all
waivers (including waivers of moral rights) and
consents to do so.
5. We may refuse to publish and/or remove any
content at any time for any reason at our sole
discretion. If you breach these Rules we may also
prohibit you from submitting further postings to
JMCC.org.
6. We are not responsible or liable for any posting
or for its accuracy.
|
|
|
|
|
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah speaks at a forum in Beirut, Jan. 15, 2010. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To subscribe to free newsletter submit your email |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|