Israel bombs Hezbollah target on Syria-Lebanon border
On Monday night, "two Israeli raids hit a Hezbollah
target on the border of Lebanon and Syria," a Lebanese security source
told AFP.
Lebanon's National News Agency confirmed the report, adding
that the raids struck the countryside of the Lebanese border town of Nabi
Sheet.
Local residents said the raid took place inside Lebanon, and
a Lebanese military source said this was "most likely" the case.
Lebanon's army did not confirm there had been any strikes,
but it reported violations of the country's airspace by Israel.
Hezbollah is an arch-enemy of Israel, and has sent thousands
of fighters across the border to aid Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime
as it battles Sunni-led rebels.
Syria has long provided arms and other aid to Hezbollah, and
served as a key conduit of Iranian military aid to the movement, which battled
Israel to a bloody stalemate in a brief 2006 war.
Nabi Sheet is a bastion of Hezbollah, and the group has a
suspected weapons store and training camp there.
Residents told AFP they saw flares light up the sky ahead of
the raids, which shook their houses.
They said they heard planes flying low and that the target
appeared to be a Hezbollah position in the mountains near the town.
There was no official comment on the raids from Hezbollah,
the Lebanese government or Syria.
An army source told AFP: "The raids most likely took
place on Lebanese territory, but we cannot be completely sure because the
borders in that area are not well defined."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, asked about the
raid on Tuesday, responded cryptically.
"We are doing everything that is necessary in order to
defend the security of Israel," he said.
"We will not say what we're doing or what we're not
doing."
Top-selling Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot ran a front page
headline, "Foreign reports: Israeli strike in Lebanon," while
referring to strikes Israel implicitly admitted carrying out against Hezbollah
in Syria last year.
- Israel 'monitors arms transfers' -
Other media pointed to weekend remarks by Israeli army chief
Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, who warned against arms transfers from Syria to
Hezbollah in Lebanon.
"We are monitoring closely the transfer of all types of
weapons to all fronts," Gantz was quoted as saying. Sometimes, in case of
necessity, something can happen."
Lebanon's Al-Akhbar newspaper, which is close to Hezbollah,
said the raids took place inside Syria, saying "the nature of the target
was unclear."
Waddah Charara, a sociology professor and author of
"The State of Hezbollah," said the raids could mark an important
turning point if they took place inside Lebanon.
"It would be the first Israeli strike against Hezbollah
in Lebanon" since the 2006 war, Charara told AFP.
He said Hezbollah had helped "legitimise these raids in
Lebanon" by involving itself in the Syrian conflict.
"The moment that it violated that national boundary,
and became a regional force subordinate to Syrian interests, it became a target
for Israel and no longer enjoyed the protection accorded by the 'nationalist'
character of its actions."
- Fighting across Syria -
Hezbollah enjoyed widespread support during the 2006
conflict with Israel, but its popularity has diminished in recent years, and
its decision to participate in the Syrian conflict is controversial.
Now, "Israel can attack Lebanon because it knows there
will be no reactions at the national level," said Charara.
In Syria, meanwhile, fighting raged in flashpoints across
the country Tuesday, with Hezbollah joining troops battling rebels on key
fronts, chiefly around Damascus and Aleppo.
In the northern province of Aleppo, Islamist rebels took
control of key regime positions around Azizeh village, according to the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, killing at least 18 troops.
Azizeh is strategically located southeast of Aleppo city,
once Syria's commercial capital, where the army has been pressing an advance in
recent weeks.
An estimated 140,000 people have been killed since the March
2011 start of Syria's uprising, which began as peaceful protests calling for
democratic reform but escalated into a civil war after regime forces repeatedly
fired on demonstrators.
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