[X]
Lebanon claims over 25 arrested for attack on UNIFIL convoy that wounded peacekeepers
[IsraelTimes] Lebanese president vows perpetrators ‘will receive their punishment’ as Hezbollah and its allies seek to distance themselves from assault by Iran-backed terror group’s supporters
Lebanese authorities said Saturday that more than 25 people had been arrested following an attack by Hezbollah supporters on a United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
convoy the day before that maimed two peacekeepers, including the force’s outgoing deputy commander.
UN and Lebanese officials have condemned Friday’s attack, which came as Hezbollah supporters blocked the road to the country’s only international airport for a second night over a decision barring two Iranian planes from landing there.
"More than 25 people have been arrested by Lebanese army intelligence," with another person detained by the security services, Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar told news hounds after an emergency security meeting Saturday.
"This does not mean these detainees carried out the attack... but the investigations will show who is responsible," he continued.
The army and security agencies would bolster measures to "maintain security and stability," Hajjar said, adding that violations would be treated "with all seriousness."
The UN Interim Force in Leb
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
(UNIFIL) has demanded an investigation after one of its vehicles was set on fire during the incident, which maimed outgoing deputy force commander Chok Bahadur Dhakal, a Nepalese national who was heading home after ending his mission.
UNIFIL deputy spokesperson Kandice Ardiel told AFP that a second Nepalese peacekeeper was also maimed and hospitalized.
On Saturday, Hezbollah supporters again demonstrated around Beirut airport, with the Lebanese army firing tear gas to disperse them. A politician from the terror group Hassan Fadlallah called on the army to hold those who fired at the protesters to account.
The Lebanese army and government "should have held immediate meetings to prevent the Israeli enemy from imposing its dictates on the airport and from continuing its occupation of Lebanese territory ... instead of using force against a peaceful sit-in on the airport road," Fadlallah added in a statement.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun vowed that "the attackers will receive their punishment," adding that "security forces will not be lenient with any party that tries to upset stability and civil peace," according to a statement from the presidency on X.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam strongly condemned the "criminal attack" and promised to arrest the perpetrators during a conversation with UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and UNIFIL Commander General Aroldo Lazaro.
’CIVIL PEACE’
In a meeting with Hajjar on Saturday, Salam emphasized the importance of maintaining security across the country, a statement from his office said. The premier was set to meet other "relevant ministers" later in the day.
The presidency’s statement said Aoun had stressed that the incident "cannot be allowed to be repeated," adding that the judiciary "has begun investigations on the ground."
The army said Friday that several areas around the airport had seen "demonstrations marked by acts of vandalism and festivities, including assaults on members of the armed forces and attacks against vehicles."
Videos circulating on social media showed demonstrators, some hooded and carrying Hezbollah flags, attacking a man in military garb and another in civilian clothes near the torched UNIFIL vehicle.
There was no immediate official comment from Hezbollah, which, together with its allies, appeared to be scrambling to distance themselves from Friday’s attack.
Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV said in a statement posted on its social media accounts that "unruly elements caused chaos with suspicious objectives on the Beirut airport road."
The Lebanese terror group’s ally, the Amal Movement, which is led by Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri
...perennial Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians...
, said: "The attack on UNIFIL is an attack on south Lebanon" and that "blocking roads anywhere is an assault on civil peace."
’ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE’
Several countries have condemned the incident, as did UN Secretary-General António Guterres
...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years...
"Such attacks are absolutely unacceptable... The safety and security of UN personnel and property must be respected at all times," said Stephane Dujarric, Guterres’s front man.
"Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law... and may constitute war crimes," the statement said, adding that "UNIFIL must be allowed unrestricted freedom of movement throughout Lebanon."
The French foreign ministry released a statement that "calls on the Lebanese security forces to guarantee the security of blue-helmet peacekeeping forces, and calls on Lebanon’s judicial authorities to shed all light on this unacceptable attack and to go after those responsible."
Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of using the Beirut airport to transfer weapons from Iran, claims Hezbollah and Lebanese officials have denied.
Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
said Saturday that it was ready for "constructive talks" with Lebanon on restoring Tehran-Beirut flights.
In a telephone call, the two countries’ foreign ministers discussed "how to resolve the problem of civil flights" and "confirmed their readiness to hold constructive talks in good faith," an Iranian foreign ministry statement said.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has a large popular base in Lebanon, though a year of hostilities with Israel and the ousting of its ally Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
in neighboring Syria have left the group weakened.
Lebanon’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said Thursday it had "temporarily rescheduled" some flights, including from Iran, until February 18 as it was implementing "additional security measures."
The date coincides with the deadline for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon and for Hezbollah to vacate positions there, under a ceasefire deal that began on November 27.
Beginning on October 8, 2023, Hezbollah-led forces attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis for months, with the group saying it did so to support Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
amid the war there.
Hezbollah eventually expanded its attacks to also target cities in central and northern Israel with rockets, in addition to the attacks on the border.
Some 60,000 Israeli residents were evacuated from northern towns on the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas
 ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
’s October 7 onslaught, amid fears Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack, and increase rocket fire by the terror group.
Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 46 civilians. In addition, 80 IDF soldiers and reservists died in cross-border skirmishes, attacks on Israel, and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
Two soldiers were killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria without any injuries.
The IDF estimates that some 3,500 Hezbollah operatives were killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, were also reported killed in Lebanon. |
...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
...Arabic term meaning 
[NAHARNET] Hezbollah said Sunday that it staged two separate rocket attacks on Israel's Kiryat Shmona and a third on the Shamir settlement further north, in response to the "massacre" in the southern town of Froun that killed three Lebanese Civil Defense members and wounded two others.