Hezbollah Conducts Major Exercise

Jerusalem – Hezbollah has conducted a major military exercise along the Lebanese border with Israel over the past week.

Lebanese sources said the exercise included thousands of Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon who simulated a mobilization of forces to attack Israel. The sources said the Lebanese Army and Israel monitored the exercise, but did not intervene.

“Both our enemies and our allies know that the resistance forces are ready to contend with every attack by the Israeli enemy,” Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said.

Mr. Nasrallah said Hezbollah now has more than 33,000 rockets and missiles.

A United Nations report, quoting Israel, said Hezbollah has established an air defense unit and tripled its arsenal of C-802 cruise missiles.

The three-day Hezbollah maneuver was conducted over the weekend in the wake of an Israeli military exercise near the Lebanese border. The sources said the Hezbollah exercise, deemed a success, focused on reconnaissance, intelligence and rapid mobilization.

“In response to what the enemy is doing, this maneuver by the Islamic resistance [Hezbollah] was part of its work and its commitment to always defend Lebanon, its sovereignty and its people,” Hassan Izzedin, a senior Hezbollah official in southern Lebanon, told a Lebanese television station on Monday.

Earlier, the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese newspaper, Al Akhbar, reported the exercise was the largest by the Iranian-sponsored militia.

The newspaper said Hezbollah combatants did not wear uniforms or carry weapons.

Another pro-Hezbollah daily, A-Safir, also reported the exercise.

A-Safir said Hezbollah conducted its first “unusual movement” since the war with Israel in mid-2006.

Lebanese sources said the exercise was commanded by Nasrallah and took place south of the Litani River near the Israeli border. The sources said the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, with 13,500 troops and authorized to block Hezbollah, did not intervene.

Neither Israel nor Lebanon confirmed the Hezbollah exercise. But over the weekend, both countries were reported on high alert along their border.

“It was, let’s say, a simulation probably, in an operation room, on the desk, probably they did such a thing,” Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora told Associated Press television. “This has been confirmed by all the sources.”

©The Bulletin 2007