Israeli-Hezbollah conflict

Kyo wrote:IDF vehicle comes under fire on Lebanon border, 15 Israeli soldiers killed

nemrod wrote:

Kyo wrote:IDF vehicle comes under fire on Lebanon border, 15 Israeli soldiers killed

The evidence offered by this photo showing few hummers completly crushed, burnt  



implies the figure of deaths and casualities must be high, nevertheless, Israel dare to claim that only two deaths, and few are slightly injured   . If you take a look of this photo, it is impossible to be injured other than badly, or died. It is hard to believe that the figure of causualties does not overpass 10. Saying that only few casualties occured is ridiculous. Hizbollah, asserts that in the group of 9 vehicles, many were hit, and, it seems they were hit from short distance.

Furthermore, Israelis assert too that Hizbollah used anti-tank missiles, and especially Kornet. Kornet against a poor an unarmored vehicles ?  Whereas simple rpg-7, or Rpg-29 are largelly enough. Do israelis dream of Kornet ? Are they lack of psychologists ? Do they lack of hankies ? Do they lack of diapers ?
The reality, in Israel, politics as military staff are all completly terraced. If they dare to continue the war, Hizbollah this time has not only very efficients anti tanks missiles, but also anti-aircrafts hardwares, that could complicated seriously the task of Israel air force, accustomed to bomb a defenseless civilians, as poor palestinian entity.
Hizbollah showed in this operation they can reach every objectives that they want, everywhere, against every army in the world, including Israel army, US Army, Saudi Army, or Jordan Army, or turkish army.

Furthermore, Israelis assert too that Hizbollah used anti-tank missiles, and especially Kornet. Kornet against a poor an unarmored vehicles ?  Whereas simple rpg-7, or Rpg-29 are largelly enough. Do israelis dream of Kornet ? Are they lack of psychologists ? Do they lack of hankies ? Do they lack of diapers ?

CIA tested 25 bombs before helping Mossad kill top Hezbollah figure – report
Published time: January 31, 2015 10:16

The US helped Mossad assassinate a top Hezbollah figure in Syria in 2008 by lending bomb expertise and surveillance on the ground, Washington Post reported. The joint operation marked CIA’s post-9/11 drift toward modern-day drone killings.

The death of Imad Mughniyah on February 2008 was initially pinned on the Israelis. Hezbollah’s international operations chief, he was suspected of having a hand in many terrorist attacks, including the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy and the 1994 attack on a Jewish community center, both in Argentina.

The suspicion that the CIA may have been involved in the assassination arose on several occasions. But now the newspaper Washington Post reports that this indeed was the case, citing five former US intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The US was instrumental in killing Mughniyah, who was among other things suspected of planning the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut, the newspaper said. The CIA provided the bomb, which was planted in a spare tire on the Hezbollah official’s car. An American spotter team in Damascus tracked him down and gave a signal to Mossad agents in Tel Aviv that they could remotely trigger the explosive device.

“The way it was set up, the US could object and call it off, but it could not execute,” a former US official told the Post.

The bomb itself was reportedly built by Americans after a series of testing at a CIA facility in North Carolina. The charge was shaped to ensure that no collateral damage would happen – a pledge that the agency allegedly made to US lawmakers during a secret briefing in the lead-up to the operation.

“We probably blew up 25 bombs to make sure we got it right,” the former official said.



The newspaper calls the killing of Mughniyah the most high-risk action by US intelligence in recent years, after the assassination of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011. It also marked a significant shift in how America targeted its enemies triggered by the September 2001 terrorist attacks.

The Bush administration secured approval from the attorney general, the director of national intelligence, the national security adviser and the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department to carry out the operation, one former official said. Getting them to sign off on it required a legal justification, which was that Mughniyah “was a continuing threat to Americans” due to his organizing of attacks against American troops by Iraqi militias.

“The decision was we had to have absolute confirmation that it was self-defense,” the official told The Post.

The assertion apparently was enough to override a Reagan-era prohibition on US intelligence agencies carrying out assassinations established by Executive Order 12333 and to team up with the Israelis to kill Mughniyah in the Syrian capital, far from any battlefield. The same reasoning was later used by Bush and Obama administrations to deliver hundreds of drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen and even kill American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki without a trial in 2011.

A man walks past a graffiti, denouncing strikes by US drones in Yemen, painted on a wall in Sanaa, November 13, 2014. (Reuters/Khaled Abdullah)A man walks past a graffiti, denouncing strikes by US drones in Yemen, painted on a wall in Sanaa, November 13, 2014. (Reuters/Khaled Abdullah)

The Post says that the US determination to kill Mughniyah was voiced to Israelis as early as in 2002. At a secret meeting with the chief of Israeli military intelligence service senior officials from US military’s elite Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) suggested to discuss such an operation.

“When we said we would be willing to explore opportunities to target him, they practically fell out of their chairs,” a former US official described the reaction of the Israelis to the suggestion.

JSOC envisioned a commando raid rather than a clandestine bombing attack and wanted Israeli support for evacuation.

Eventually the mission to kill Mughniyah became a long term CIA-Mossad effort with at least a year spent on studying the target’s habits to establish a plan for the attack. At one moment the team reportedly had a chance to kill both him and Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Quds Force, when they met in Damascus, but the Bush administration didn’t give the agents the authority to kill the Iranian.

After the news of Mughniyah’s death broke, the US hailed it.

“The world is a better place without this man in it. He was a coldblooded killer, a mass murderer and a terrorist responsible for countless innocent lives lost,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at the time.

Moscow concerned over situation following Israel’s attack in Lebanon — foreign ministry

The Russian Foreign Ministry called on the parties "to demonstrate utter restraint and strictly comply with international law"

MOSCOW, August 26. /TASS/. Moscow is concerned over the escalation of the Middle East conflict following an Israeli drone attack on the Hezbollah press center in Lebanon, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
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"Moscow is seriously concerned over the recurrent escalation of tensions in this region," the foreign ministry said. "The Russian side has repeatedly stressed the danger of such actions amidst the highly tense atmosphere in the region and warned that they might trigger a large-scale armed conflict with unpredictable consequences."

"Once again, we call on the parties to demonstrate utter restraint and strictly comply with international law, including the corresponding resolutions of the United Nations Security Council," the ministry added.

The incident occurred on August 25, the ministry recalled. "The Lebanese are set to conduct a thorough probe into the incident, including a technical examination of the spy drone and fragments of the combat unmanned aerial vehicle they have got hold of," the ministry noted. "Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri have already come out with official statements describing the incident as an act of aggression against Lebanon, which violates its sovereignty, infringes upon international law and threatens regional security. The Israeli side has given no comments following the incident."

Moreover, late on August 26 Israel delivered airstrikes on the positions of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, a radical group, in Lebanon. "The situation is aggravated by Israel’s random strikes at targets in neighboring Syria that are said to be meant against the 'Iranian threat'. The latest such attack on a military facility near Damascus took place this weekend," the ministry added.