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20051029

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Home Front: WoT

US jury convicts man on terror charges for stabbing and gravely wounding Salman Rushdie

2026-07-31

[IsraelTimes] Pro-Hezbollah assailant found guilty on all counts relating to 2022 attack that prosecutor says was ‘a chilling reminder of the global reach of Iranian terrorism’

A man was convicted Wednesday of federal terrorism charges in the 2022 stabbing of Salman Rushdie, the author who has faced a decades-old death threat over his novel "The Satanic Verses."

After just a couple of hours of deliberations, a jury found Hadi Matar guilty of all the charges against him, including engaging in an act of transnational terrorism.

Rushdie, who was about to speak on writers’ safety, was slashed 15 times on an amphitheater stage in 2022. He was gravely maimed and lost the sight in his right eye.

Prosecutors asserted that Matar was motivated by the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ’s 1989 call for Rushdie’s death because of "The Satanic Verses."

"His brutal attack on Mr. Rushdie during a peaceful speaking event is a chilling reminder of the global reach of Iranian terrorism," Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said in a statement after the verdict, adding that "justice has been done." Iran’s government has denied involvement in the attack.

MATAR’S DEFENSE: NO EVIDENCE OF HIS STATE OF MIND
Messages seeking comment on the verdict were sent to Matar’s attorneys and Rushdie’s assistant. During the trial, defense lawyer Nathaniel Barone said the government had no proof of what was in Matar’s head.

Matar himself declined to testify. Rushdie did, telling jurors: "I can’t say what his ambitions or his aim was, but the wounds were dispersed across my body."

Matar, 28, is already serving a 25-year New York state prison sentence on an attempted murder conviction in the stabbing. His federal sentencing is set for November 3, when he faces a potential life term.

Rushdie won Britannia’s prestigious Booker Prize for his 1981 novel "Midnight’s Children," about his native India. "The Satanic Verses," a novel of magical realism about the lives and dreams of two actors who survive a plane explosion, followed in 1988.

It drew critical acclaim in the United Kingdom but engendered protests around the Moslem world over what some believers saw as blasphemous suggestions about Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, particularly in a dream sequence. Over the ensuing years, at least 45 people were killed in riots over the book, a Japanese translator was stabbed to death, and an Italian translator and Norwegian publisher were attacked.

Rushdie, who was born into a Moslem family, has said the dream sequence was just that. But he went into hiding for years, gradually emerging after Iran’s government distanced itself in 1998 from Khomeini’s fatwa, or religious edict.

"For two decades or more, I led a public life without a hint of trouble," Rushdie testified at the trial in Buffalo, New York.

Yet the fatwa was never rescinded; indeed, Khomenei’s successor, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...>
, indicated in 2017 that it remained in effect. An Iranian foundation has offered a more than $3 million bounty for killing Rushdie.

PROSECUTORS: MATAR’S MESSAGES SHOWED HIM ZEROING IN ON RUSHDIE
Matar broached the fatwa with contacts in messaging apps in 2021 and 2022, according to exhibits shown in court. The messages showed Matar fuming that he felt Rushdie had attacked Islam and, by surviving, emboldened others to insult the faith. Matar alluded to a 2006 comment along those lines by the late Hezbollah terrorist group leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
, the messages showed.

Born in the US, Matar also holds citizenship in Leb
Leb

...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
, where Hezbollah is based. Prosecutors said that photos in Matar’s New Jersey bedroom and on his computer indicated his support for Hezbollah.

Matar "spent months planning and preparing to carry out what he hoped would be the execution of Salman Rushdie," US Attorney Michael DiGiacomo said in a statement Wednesday.

The messages showed Matar initially talked about wanting to "expose" Rushdie, then about taking his life. In a private note to himself, he wrote: "We need to kill him ASAP," Assistant US Attorney Timothy Lynch said in an opening statement on July 22. The prosecutor said Matar framed the planned killing as part of what he considered a jihad, or holy war.

By spring 2022, the electronic chats showed, Matar wrote that he had discerned where Rushdie lived and was tracking his public appearances, eventually pointing out his scheduled August 2022 talk at the Chautauqua Institution, a western New York arts and intellectual center.

As Rushdie was being introduced, his attacker climbed on stage behind him, then stabbed him as the audience gasped. Spectators and another speaker, Henry Reese, scrambled to aid Rushdie. Law enforcement officers, assigned to the event, arrested the attacker — soon identified as Matar — after civilians restrained him.

Rushdie published a 2024 memoir about the attack, then returned to fiction with last year’s "The Eleventh Hour." The author, who was knighted by Britannia’s late Queen Elizabeth II, received a Dayton Literary Peace Prize lifetime achievement award in November.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Lebanon arrests ‘high-level agent’ close to Hezbollah for allegedly spying for Israel

2026-07-15

[IsraelTimes] Judicial official says man handed Israel precise intelligence that led to the killing of four top security leaders and others; he was detained at airport trying to leave country

Lebanese authorities have arrested a man close to the Hezbollah terror group, accusing him of spying for Israel and of providing intel that led to the killing of commanders in the Iran-backed group, a judicial official told AFP on Tuesday.

It might even be true — who knows?

The official, who is following the investigation and requested anonymity, said "a high-level Israeli agent was arrested last week in Beirut."

He alleged that the suspect had been "involved in providing the Israeli side with precise information that led to the liquidation of Hezbollah officials, including four top-tier security leaders."

"He was very close to commanders in Hezbollah, and possessed a wide range of information due to his relationship with them," the official added.

According to the official, the man was detained last week at Beirut’s airport as he prepared to board a flight to Iraq.

The detainee hails from southern 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?...
, where Hezbollah holds sway, and has made several trips to Iraq, where his wife is from.

From there, according to the same official, he used to go to ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
"to meet with officers and agents linked to the Israeli Mosssd
Mosssd

...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end...
, and provide them with information about targets he was gathering data about in Beirut."

The official did not specify the identity of the Hezbollah leaders targeted by Israel nor the date of their deaths.

Scores of the group’s senior commanders have been killed in Israeli strikes since Hezbollah fired at Israel in support of Paleostinian terror group Hamas
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
after the October 7, 2023, massacre, and again when it drew Lebanon to the broader Middle East war in March of this year.

This includes former leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
, killed by Israel in a major strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September 2024.

Lebanon and Israel have officially been at war for decades, and Lebanese security services have arrested dozens of people on suspicion of working for Israel, many of whom were allegedly recruited online following the country’s economic collapse beginning in 2019.

In October, a judicial source told AFP that more than 30 people had been arrested on suspicion of providing Israel with precise information on Hezbollah facilities and the movements of its members during its previous war with Israel in 2023 and 2024.

People convicted of working for Israel have been sentenced to up to 25 years in prison in the past.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Alleged spy’s mysterious vanishing spotlights Israel’s intelligence grip in Lebanon

2026-06-12

[IsraelTimes] Khaled al-Aydi, said to be a Palestinian refugee from Syria with Ukrainian citizenship, was held by Hezbollah, then escaped and disappeared, apparently via Ukrainian embassy

As Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs last March and residents fled in panic, one man found his opportunity. Amid the chaos, he slipped out of his imprisonment in a Hezbollah cell and made his way to the green hills overlooking the Lebanese capital.

There, in the posh diplomatic quarter of Baabda, he disappeared inside the gates of the Ukrainian Embassy.

Where he is now is a mystery, tangled up in an ongoing spy game as Hezbollah attempts to root out Israeli intelligence operatives that have infiltrated the terror group.

The man identified by Lebanese officials as Khaled al-Aydi is said to be a Paleostinian refugee from Syria who also holds Ukrainian citizenship. He were tossed into the calaboose by Hezbollah in the Beirut suburbs and accused by Lebanese officials of being part of a thwarted Israeli intelligence plot to carry out bombings and liquidations.

Details of al-Aydi’s escape and a Lebanese military court’s case against him were provided by three judicial officials and two security bigshots in Leb
...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. A senior political official in Hezbollah also provided details.

Al-Aydi’s disappearance could have political implications for the Lebanese government, which has largely remained silent about the case.

If evidence were to emerge that al-Aydi escaped Lebanon with help from the government, it could inflame tensions with Hezbollah’s largely Shiite Moslem base. The government already faces scrutiny for directly negotiating with Israel, which has been engaged in fierce fighting with Hezbollah ever since the terror group started firing missiles and drones at northern Israel during the early days of the 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...
war.

The Ukrainian embassy asked Lebanese authorities in March to facilitate al-Aydi’s departure from the country after he escaped Hezbollah detention, according to a Lebanese government document obtained by The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. But Lebanon’s General Security agency refused, saying a judicial warrant for his arrest had been issued in September 2025, according to the document.

Israel’s Mosssd
...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end...
intelligence agency declined to comment. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry also declined comment.

A Ukrainian official with knowledge of the case said al-Aydi is not in the Ukrainian Embassy or its compound in Lebanon. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, would not say where al-Aydi is — and out of concern for the security of Ukraine’s embassy and its personnel, would not say whether al-Aydi was ever in the embassy, or whether Ukraine helped him escape.

ISRAEL’S INTELLIGENCE NETWORKS
Using human and high-tech surveillance, Israel has cultivated far-reaching intelligence networks in Lebanon. That has helped it carry out dramatic operations against Hezbollah.

In the most elaborate example, Israel infiltrated Hezbollah’s supply chain and sent the Iran-backed terror group thousands of booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies. Israel remotely detonated the devices in September 2024, killing at least 37 people. Days later, Israeli ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s killed Hezbollah’s longtime leader, His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
, while he was hiding in a heavily fortified bunker.

Even before that, Israel’s intelligence within Hezbollah allowed it to hit the group’s big shots and field commanders "with relative ease," said Nicholas Blanford, an expert on the terror group at the Atlantic Council.

Since the 2024 Israel-Hezbollah war, Hezbollah and Lebanese authorities have cracked down on alleged spy networks. About 50 people have been convicted and are serving sentences, while others remain under investigation, the judicial officials said.

"We were successful in detecting many spy networks, and the state was also successful in this matter," Hezbollah political official Wafiq Safa

...Leb security guy and a senior Hezbully. As head of Hezbollah's Liaison and Coordination Unit since the late 1980s, reporting directly to the group's Secretary-General, Safa heads the organization's security services and manages the group's relationships in Leba's pot o' perfidy that passes for politics. He is sometimes referred to as the Minister of Defense or Minister of the Interior of Hezbollah. Safa was a member of cell involved in facilitating the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings, alongside Ibrahim Aqil, before joining Hezbollah in 1984....
, said. But "the Israelis are always working to recruit young Lebanese people from all communities."

AL-AYDI DOESN’T FIT THE PROFILE OF OTHER ALLEGED SPIES
Many alleged spy networks have involved current or former Hezbollah members or individuals with family ties to the group.

Al-Aydi, in contrast, was an outsider. He had Ukrainian citizenship through his mother, according to the Lebanese government document AP obtained. It is not known how he was allegedly recruited by Israel.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians came to Lebanon for refuge during Syria’s 14-year civil war. But al-Aydi entered the country in August 2025 on a flight from Æthiopia, one of the Lebanese security officials said.

While Hezbollah began in the 1980s as a small guerrilla operation fighting Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon, it greatly expanded after its 2006 war with Israel, making it "easier for the Israelis to penetrate," Blanford said. The group’s entry into the Syrian civil war further exposed it, as recruitment standards were lowered, he said.

Lebanon’s economic crisis also aided Israel’s recruitment efforts, Blanford said.

Cases filed in Lebanon’s military court describe operatives being paid between $2,500 and $20,000 to provide intelligence on Hezbollah weapons depots and political offices. Many of the alleged agents were recruited by Israeli handlers through social media, judicial officials said.

One high-profile case was Mohammad Hadi Saleh, a singer and prominent religious performer within circles connected to Hezbollah. He was arrested in May 2025 and charged with providing the Mossad with maps and coordinates of key Hezbollah sites later struck in Israeli operations. He is in jail awaiting trial.

"It’s ironic that they (Hezbollah) were spending a lot of time accusing their opponents of being Israeli spies, and it turns out that the spies were actually from within the organization and its support base," said Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

Recruitment efforts continue. During the latest war, Israel has dropped leaflets over Lebanon with QR codes that, according to the Lebanese army, direct people to an Israeli military unit tasked with recruiting agents.

AL-AYDI IS THOUGHT TO HAVE FLED THE COUNTRY
Lebanon’s General Security said in October it had broken up a network planning bombings and liquidations in Lebanon, including an operation meant to target events for the one-year commemoration of Nasrallah’s death. Authorities discovered a cycle of violence rigged with explosives and a car modified to hold explosives, security and judicial officials said.

Al-Aydi and six others, all Lebanese, were charged. One of the six also escaped, and the others are in a Lebanese jail awaiting trial, the judicial officials said. Only al-Aydi was being held by Hezbollah, likely because he was seen as a high-value catch.

The military court alleges the operation was orchestrated by a Mossad handler living in Germany who communicated with others through encrypted applications. The court sent a summons to the Ukrainian embassy that went unanswered.

Safa said there was an unsuccessful attempt to smuggle al-Aydi out of Lebanon to Syria. He did not elaborate.

The two senior Lebanese security officials said al-Aydi is believed to have left the country. It was not clear whether he crossed into Syria, where officials said they had no information about him.

ALLEGED SPY’S DISAPPEARANCE RAISES POLITICAL TENSIONS
Relations between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah are at a low point. The government was angered by the terror group’s unilateral decision to enter another war with Israel, while Hezbollah is furious the government has chosen to negotiate a ceasefire and potentially wider security and political agreement directly with Israel.

Al-Aydi’s escape could exacerbate tensions and put the Lebanese state in a difficult situation.

If Lebanese authorities refused to let al-Aydi leave the country, the US and Ukraine were "well-positioned to exert significant pressure" to secure his release, Hage Ali said. On the other hand, if the state is seen to have let al-Aydi escape, it would face "public anger, predominantly among Lebanese Shia" sympathetic to Hezbollah, which could use that emotion to inflame internal tensions, he said.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Tasnim: Iran keeps multiple missiles on full alert in case of an Israeli attack, salvo aimed at Israel all shot down

2026-06-08

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] The Iranian Armed Forces have placed numerous missiles on full alert and approved a list of targets for strikes on Israel in the event of an attack from Tel Aviv.

That’s nice. Israel’s anti-missile defences keep improving. Also, are y’all quite, quite certain it was not Mossad who programmed the things this time round?

This was reported by the Iranian news agency Tasnim.

"In the event of Israel's retaliatory action against Iran, a significant number of Iranian missiles are fully prepared for immediate launch against a list of targets in Israel," a military source told the publication.

What percent of Iran’s missiles have gotten through since 10/7/2023? How steep is the trend of diminishing success?

“You shot your wad, guys, then the IDF spiked your guns. Stop wasting time.”

The White House chief also stated that he intends to call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ask him not to retaliate against Iran. He believes the Iranian strikes have harmed no one.

More from regnum.ru
Iran resumes attacks on Israel, IDF reports interception of all missiles
All missiles fired by Iran at Israel were intercepted. This was announced by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesperson's Office on June 7.

"The IDF has intercepted all missiles fired by Iran so far," the Telegram channel said.

Not even one got through? A pathetic effort by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The IDF noted that new Iranian missile launches toward Israel have been detected. The IDF's air defense system is intercepting the threat.

And no doubt the launch locations were noted for future action.

On June 7, the Iranian Aerospace Force launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel's Ramat David Air Base.

Following a series of Iranian missile launches against Israel, US President Donald Trump called on Tehran to return to the negotiating table to reach a deal. The American leader also stated that he was dissatisfied with the Israeli strikes on Beirut, but that an Iranian attack against Israel would not help the negotiating process, according to Trump.

The White House chief also stated that he intends to call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ask him not to retaliate against Iran. He believes the Iranian strikes have harmed no one.

Even more from regnum.ru
IRGC: Iran strikes Ramat David air base in Israel
On June 7, the Iranian Aerospace Force launched a ballistic missile strike on Israel's Ramat David Air Base, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced.

Launched is not hit, given that the IDF intercepted all of Iran’s missiles in this salvo, as reported above.

"In response to the regime's large-scale crimes in southern Lebanon and other parts of the country, the Ramat David airbase, from which the aggression was carried out, was attacked with ballistic missiles," the Fars news agency quotes the IRGC as saying.

In response to the attack on Sirik and Qeshm Islands, the Iranian Armed Forces launched missile strikes against US military bases in the Middle East on June 6.

Did America knock them all out of the air, too?

Earlier, US Central Command reported that US forces had struck Iranian radar facilities in Goruk and on Qeshm Island. Four Iranian drones launched toward the Strait of Hormuz were also shot down.

Ah. Highly probable, then. Especially as Iran is not claiming any hits at all.

On June 7, US President Donald Trump stated that the US and Iran were very close to reaching an agreement, with only "a couple of issues" remaining. The White House chief also asserted that the US would seize Iran's highly enriched uranium stockpiles regardless of the outcome of negotiations with the Islamic Republic.

On June 6, the American leader expressed his willingness to hold a personal meeting with Iran's new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, to reach an agreement between the United States and the Islamic Republic.

Sure. That’s the only way to discover whether the new guy is conscious and functioning or somewhere between deep coma and very dead, indeed.

He stated that negotiations to resolve the crisis and the "nuclear issue" were progressing rapidly, and that the new Iranian leadership was directly involved.

The squirrel robots have been peeking through certain windows? Fun!

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Targeted killings haven’t improved Israel’s strategic regional position — experts

2026-05-29

Then they’ll just have to kill more, faster, to get inside the training loop.

[IsraelTimes] While multiple layers of leaders in Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah have been taken out, all three have managed to press on, while broader goals behind assassinations have gone unmet

Over the past two weeks, the Israel Defense Forces has killed both the leader of Hamas
Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
’s military wing and his replacement — the latest in a long string of assassinations aimed at senior members of Iran-backed terror groups.

They were identified as Mohammed Odeh and Izz al-Din al-Haddad, architects of the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Officials say their killings were part of broader efforts to pursue those behind the onslaught that triggered the war in 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...
But while assassinations may provide tangible achievements that leaders can brand as victories, they rarely address the underlying grievances that propel conflicts.

"The killing of military chiefs such as Odeh and Haddad points to Israel’s operational ability to reach Hamas’s military leadership," said Nasser Khdour of the nonprofit ACLED, which tracks reports of political violence and conflict worldwide. But, he added, "the killing of senior commanders is unlikely, on its own, to push Hamas toward disarmament or make it accept the complete removal of its role in Gaza’s security and governance."

AN AGE-OLD TACTIC
Israel has carried out dozens of assassinations throughout its history, but Paleostinian and Lebanese terror groups have often endured and grown even more powerful after the loss of top leaders.

Take Hezbollah, for example. An Israeli ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
killed its then-leader Abbas Musawi in southern Leb
...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
in 1992. Under His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
, his charismatic replacement, Hezbollah grew into the region’s most powerful gang and fought Israel to a bloody stalemate in 2006.

Nasrallah and nearly all of his deputies were killed in the 2024 war between Israel and Hezbollah. The Iran-backed group suffered other major losses that year, but resumed missile and drone attacks on Israel days after the start of the current war.

Hamas has lost one leader after another. Israel killed its founder and spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in a 2004 airstrike. Nearly all the architects of the group’s October 7 massacre have since been killed.

But the group remains in control of the nearly half of Gaza that the IDF doesn’t occupy and is still managing to recruit new members and maintain a tight grip on Paleostinian society, as no alternative to the terror group has been stood up.

While the US is seeking to install a technocratic Paleostinian government to replace Hamas, the plan hinges on the terror group agreeing to disarm, which it has shown little willingness to do.

So both Hamas and Hezbollah press on, fueled by the decades-old grievances stemming from the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict.

The United States has also resorted to assassinations against al-Qaeda and the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group, taking out the late Osama bin Laden
...... who was laid out deader than a mackerel, right next to the mackerel......
in a 2011 raid in Pakistain and ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019. Both groups have been vastly diminished, but only after years-long wars involving ground forces.

WHO COMES AFTER
Yossi Kuperwasser, the former head of Israel’s military intelligence research division, said in March that assassinations can be an effective tool but are not a "cure for all problems."

"These operations by themselves don’t dramatically change the ability of those organizations to cause damage and to carry out attacks," he acknowledged. "But it’s important for Israel to weaken its enemies."

In Gaza, Lebanon, and now Iran, he noted, Israel has taken out dozens of figures, reshaping the leadership structure in lasting ways.

Targeted killings were a key strategy in the early days of the 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...
war. Top military and political officials up to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...>
were killed in the war’s opening salvos. Khamenei has been replaced by his son, Mojtaba, who is seen as even less compromising.

Kuperwasser said that assassinations in Iran hadn’t transformed the theocracy but had changed it.

"Maybe there’s not ’regime change’ yet, but there is ’change in regime.’ The people are not the same people," he said.

US President Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
, for his part, insists that regime change has in fact taken place, citing multiple layers of Iran’s leadership that have been taken out.

And yet, the Islamic Theocratic Republic remains in power, with authority shifted to its less theocratic but more hardline Revolutionary Guard.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Alamo, Davy was counting their remaining cannon balls and not liking the results...
the goals of the operation pertaining to curbing Iran’s ability to threaten its neighbors have gone unmet.

KILLING LEADERS CAN ALSO BACKFIRE
In past instances, assassinations have served to radicalize followers or members of political movements and terror groups, elevating more extreme successors or turning slain leaders into deaders with enduring influence.

Northeastern University political scientist Max Abrahms said data from Afghanistan, Pakistain, Israel, and the Paleostinian territories show violence against civilians spikes after assassinations.

"Leadership decapitation is risky," he said. "When you take out a leader that prefers some degree of restraint and had influence over subordinates, then there’s a very good chance that, upon that person’s death, you’re going to see even more extreme tactics."

Targeted killings can create leadership vacuums and the potential for change, but only when coupled with a coherent political strategy, said Mohanad Hage Ali, deputy director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

"You can decapitate an organization or defeat it militarily, but if you don’t follow through politically, it doesn’t work. And it’s hard to see how this goes much further," he said.

Are y’all sure this has not had an impact on the organization?

IDF says ‘nearly a third’ of Hezbollah’s forces killed during years-long multi-front war

[IsraelTimes] IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin says the military has killed “nearly a third” of Hezbollah’s forces amid the multi-front war of recent years.

“We are striking with great intensity at all times. Our troops are operating in the forward defense line area and eliminating dozens of terrorists every week,” he says in a video statement from the Northern Command.

Defrin says the IDF has killed over 2,500 Hezbollah operatives since hostilities escalated amid the war with Iran. “Hezbollah has around 30,000 terrorists, of whom we have already eliminated nearly a third of its force,” he says.

He says that recently, the IDF struck “sector commanders and operational personnel, thereby inflicting significant blows to Hezbollah’s command-and-control capabilities.”

“Hezbollah is battered and weakened and is in a survival war for its continued existence, this is the reality on the ground,” Defrin adds.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

In Independence Day address, Netanyahu says Israel ‘stronger than ever,’ Iran’s ‘axis of evil fighting for survival’; hails security zones in Lebanon, Syria

2026-04-22

[IsraelTimes] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is "stronger than ever," hailing its "fight against the forces of evil" and military achievements in a video address screened at the Independence Day state ceremony in Jerusalem.

"Israel is stronger than ever, and together with the United States, we are leading the fight against the forces of evil in the world," Netanyahu says.

He says enemies have risen up in every generation to try to destroy the Jewish people, but says that in what he calls the "generation of revival," Israel rises up "against our enemies."

"The Iranian axis of evil, which plotted to destroy us, is now fighting for its very survival. In the War of Revival, we smashed major parts of [Iran’s axis].

"War of Revival" is the official name approved by the Israeli cabinet last year for Israel’s war against Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
in Gazoo. The adoption of that name has sparked anger and concern from critics who view it as a rebranding effort by Netanyahu and his government to evade responsibility for the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre. He makes no mention of the Hamas massacre in his address.

"We have launched two bold operations to remove an existential threat from above us," Netanyahu goes on, referring to the danger posed by Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

He says Israel brought ties with the US under President Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
to "unprecedented heights."

"We dealt a heavy blow to Iran’s regime of terror, harming its ability to endanger us. We strengthened Israel’s position as a regional power. We forged new alliances and opened the door to expanding the circle of peace," he says, crediting Israel’s soldiers and citizens, as well as "the courageous decisions we made," with such feats.

"In the War of Revival, in [Operation] Rising Lion and [Operation] Roaring Lion, we made major achievements," he reiterates, referring to the two campaigns against Iran.

Of Gaza, he says, "we have returned all of our hostages" from Hamas captivity, "every last one of them," without differentiating between those who were returned alive versus those whose bodies were returned after they were killed in captivity. He says Israel continues to tackle Hamas, "in order to ensure that Gaza will no longer threaten Israel."

He also hails Israel’s military actions in Leb
...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
and Syria, including the establishment of security zones in both those countries. In Lebanon, he says, Israel blew up Hezbollah’s beepers and killed its leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
, "and created a deep security zone that pushes the threat away from residents of the North. In Syria as well, we established a security zone... and we are protecting our Druze brothers," he continues.

"We are pressing forward on all fronts," Netanyahu says, moving on to address advancements in the economic, transport, science and technology, innovation and settlement fields.

"With God’s help, we will complete the victory, strengthen our state, and secure our future," he concludes.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

IDF says it raided hospital used by Hezbollah in terror group’s Bint Jbeil stronghold

2026-04-13

[IsraelTimes] ‘Fierce clashes’ reported as army advances in southern Lebanese town; military says troops killed Hezbollah gunman responsible for killing soldier last week

The Israeli military advanced into the southern Leb
Leb

...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
town of Bint Jbeil, a Hezbollah stronghold, on Sunday, Lebanese media reported, as the army said it raided a hospital in the area where terror operatives had been holed up.

Lebanon’s official news agency reported "fierce festivities" between the Israeli military and Hezbollah in Bint Jbeil. In recent days, the Israel Defense Forces encircled Bint Jbeil as it worked to clear the town of terror operatives and the group’s infrastructure.

Bint Jbeil is considered a symbol of Hezbollah. During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, the IDF battled the terror group in the town but failed to capture it fully. Earlier, in May 2000, after the IDF withdrew from southern Lebanon following an 18-year occupation, then-Hezbollah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
delivered a victory speech in Bint Jbeil, where he infamously described Israel as "weaker than a spider web."

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported Sunday morning that Israeli troops "are still trying to infiltrate and take control of the remaining neighborhoods in the city of Bint Jbeil."

The NNA added that the IDF shelled the outskirts of the town and its entrances with artillery.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, said on Sunday that it had launched rockets at Israeli soldiers on the outskirts of the town. Last week, the terror group said it had used light arms and RPG fire against Israeli soldiers who were advancing in the town.

The IDF said it raided a hospital in Bint Jbeil where armed Hezbollah operatives had been holed up, killing some 20 button men and seizing weapons in the process.

Last week, troops of the Givati Brigade detected Hezbollah military activity at the Bint Jbeil Governmental Hospital.

The IDF said that in recent days, it identified several terror operatives who had been carrying out surveillance from within the hospital, and who then opened fire on Israeli troops.

"Within a short time, the troops eliminated the terrorists. In addition, approximately 20 turbans were targeted and eliminated in the hospital area to remove an immediate threat," the IDF said.

The military said the soldiers then raided the medical center, where they located a cache of weapons belonging to Hezbollah.

"The Hezbollah terror organization systematically and continuously used the hospital compound and its immediate surroundings for the military purposes of the terror organization, in severe violation of international law," the IDF said.

The IDF has previously warned that Hezbollah has been making use of medical facilities and ambulances for military purposes.

"Prior to the operation, the IDF clarified to the relevant authorities in Lebanon that all military activities in hospitals in Lebanon must cease, and published these warnings through various means. Despite this, the Hezbollah terrorist organization continued to use the hospital for military activity," the military said.

On Thursday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir toured the outskirts of Bint Jbeil amid the ongoing operation.

Meanwhile,
...back at the shouting match, Bart was wondering if fisticuffs would be appropriate at this point...
the NNA reported that five people were killed in an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Qana, and six people were killed in a strike on Maaroub, near Tyre.

The IDF did not immediately issue a comment on those strikes, but said that overnight, the Israeli Air Force struck a primed Hezbollah rocket launcher in southern Lebanon.

According to the IDF, the launcher in the Jouaiya area was ready for an attack on Israel, and was destroyed before Hezbollah could use it.

Hezbollah continued its attacks on northern Israel on Sunday, with some 20 rockets and at least one drone crossing the border.

According to the IDF, the rockets were either intercepted or struck open areas. There were no reports of injuries in the attacks.

One Hezbollah drone launched from Lebanon was shot down over the Kiryat Shmona area, the military said, after sirens had sounded in the northern city and nearby towns in the Galilee Panhandle.

IDF: TROOPS KILLED HEZBOLLAH GUNMAN RESPONSIBLE FOR KILLING SOLDIER
Also on Sunday, the IDF said troops killed a Hezbollah gunman responsible for killing Israeli soldier Staff Sgt. Touvel Yosef Lifshiz in southern Lebanon last week.

On Tuesday afternoon, troops of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion exchanged fire with two Hezbollah operatives in a building.

During the shootout, Lifshiz and one of the Hezbollah button men were killed, while the second terror operative managed to hide.

Two days later, the Golani soldiers returned to the site of the battle and identified an armed Hezbollah operative hiding under the rubble inside the building.

"The troops engaged and eliminated the terrorist with close-range fire," the military said, adding that he was confirmed to have been the second gunman.

In addition, the IDF said, the soldiers located the body of the first operative killed in the initial exchange of fire.

Lebanon’s health ministry says Israeli attacks have killed over 1,800 people since hostilities escalated on March 2, in a toll that does not differentiate between fighters and civilians. According to IDF tallies released Friday, more than 1,400 Hezbollah operatives have been killed over the same period.

Twelve IDF soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon amid the renewed fighting against Hezbollah, two non-combatants were killed by Hezbollah rockets, and an Israeli civilian was mistakenly killed in the north by Israeli artillery shelling.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

How Iran’s IRGC rebuilt Lebanon’s Hezbollah to be ready for war

2026-03-22

[IsraelTimes] Iranian advisers filled the gaps in Hezbollah’s decimated leadership, shifted terror group from a hierarchical command to small decentralized units

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) rebuilt Hezbollah’s military command after it was mauled by Israel in 2024, plugging gaps with Iranian officers before restructuring the Lebanese group and laying plans for the war it is now waging in support of Tehran, two people familiar with these IRGC activities said.

The overhaul was the first of its kind for Hezbollah, a Shi’ite Moslem terror group founded by the IRGC in 1982, pointing to a hands-on approach after the blows of the 2024 war, including the killing of its leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
and other top commanders.

Iran’s investment paid off, getting Hezbollah back on its feet in time to enter the war in the Middle East on Tehran’s side after it was attacked by the United States and Israel.

Rooters reported earlier in March that Hezbollah had seen another war as inevitable and spent months readying itself. This article sheds light on the IRGC’s role in these preparations, based on accounts from six sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, as well as an expert on Hezbollah.

The IRGC, deeply involved in Hezbollah since it was established, sent officers to retrain its fighters and oversee rearmament, the two sources familiar with IRGC activities said.

They said IRGC officers also reshaped Hezbollah command structures that had been breached by Israeli intelligence — a factor that had helped Israel kill many Hezbollah leaders.

An Israeli military spokesperson said on March 12 that Hezbollah remains a relevant and dangerous force despite the damage Israel has inflicted on it over the last three years.

Hezbollah has fired hundreds of missiles at Israel since it entered the regional war on March 2, prompting an Israeli offensive that has killed more than 1,000 people in Leb
Leb

...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel...
. Hezbollah fighters are battling Israeli soldiers who have established a buffer zone in the south.

The Lebanese figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants and Israel says it has killed some 600 Hezbollah operatives.

It has yet to be seen how Hezbollah, its power still below the peak levels seen a few years ago, would fare in the event of a full-scale Israeli invasion.

Hezbollah’s media office, Iran’s foreign ministry and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Netanyahu said in January that Hezbollah was making efforts to rearm and rebuild its infrastructure with Iranian support.

SCRAPPING HIERARCHY
The two sources said IRGC officers tasked with helping Hezbollah recover arrived shortly after a ceasefire in November 2024, and set to work even as Israel continued to strike.

One of them said the deployment involved about 100 officers.

Changes implemented at their behest included replacing a hierarchical command structure with a decentralised one, comprising small units with limited knowledge of each other’s operations, helping to preserve operational secrecy.

They said IRGC officers also drew up plans for missile attacks against Israel that would be launched simultaneously from 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...
and Lebanon — a scenario executed for the first time on March 11.

A senior Lebanese security source said Iranian commanders had helped Hezbollah rehabilitate and reorganize their military cadres. The source said he believed the Iranians were helping Hezbollah pace the current conflict rather than being involved in the detail of picking targets.

Another source briefed on the matter said the IRGC sent officers to Lebanon in 2024 to conduct a post-war audit of Hezbollah and took direct supervision of its military wing.

An additional two sources said the IRGC had embedded special advisers with Hezbollah last year to help it direct military affairs.

Andreas Krieg, a lecturer at the security studies department of King’s College London, said the IRGC "has basically reorganized Hezbollah as a far more flat system," contrasting this with the political hierarchy that had emerged around Nasrallah before his death.

"That decentralized model that they’ve now implemented is also a bit more like what Hezbollah looked like in the 1980s — very small cells," said Krieg, who has researched the group for 15 years. He described this as a "mosaic defence" that is also being used by the IRGC in Iran.

LEBANON ASKED IRGC TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY
The IRGC’s efforts were going on at the same time as Lebanon’s government and its US-backed military were seeking to advance a process to disarm the group, underscoring a huge complication facing that objective.

Lebanon estimates that around 100 to 150 Iranian nationals in the country have ties to the Iranian government that go beyond normal diplomatic functions, including links to the IRGC, a Lebanese official told Rooters.

The official said the government asked those people to leave Lebanon in early March.

The two sources familiar with IRGC activities said Guards officers were among more than 150 Iranians who left Beirut on a flight to Russia on March 7.

IRGC members were also among the roughly 500 people killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon in the 15 months between the 2024 ceasefire and the eruption of the new war. Israel said it was hitting Hezbollah efforts to rearm in violation of the ceasefire.

Around a dozen more have been killed in Israeli attacks since the war erupted, including in a strike on a Beirut hotel on March 8, they said.

The IRGC has been closely involved in Hezbollah since its men established the group in the eastern Bekaa Valley to export Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and fight Israeli forces that had invaded Lebanon in 1982.

Qassem Soleimani

, the top IRGC general who was killed in 2020 by a US dronezap, had worked alongside Nasrallah during Hezbollah’s 2006 war with Israel. When Israeli ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s killed Nasrallah in a bunker in Beirut’s southern suburbs, an Iranian general was among those who died alongside him.

Link

Arabia

Kuwait says 10 Hezbollah operatives nabbed for alleged plot to attack ‘vital installations’

2026-03-19

[IsraelTimes] Announcement marks second time this week that the Gulf state has arrested a cell affiliated with the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group

Kuwait arrested 10 holy warriors affiliated with the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah terror group on Wednesday, who were accused of plotting terrorist actions against vital infrastructure, the interior ministry said.

This was the second Hezbollah-affiliated cell to be arrested in Kuwait this week, as the Gulf faced daily Iranian attacks during the Middle East war, which has seen Tehran-backed groups including Hezbollah join the conflict.

"The State Security Agency has successfully thwarted a plot for a terrorist operation targeting vital installations," the interior ministry said.

"Ten citizens, members of a terrorist group affiliated with the banned Hezbollah terrorist organization were apprehended," it added.

The ministry shared a video of seized items including Hezbollah flags, small drones and pictures of Iran’s slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...>
and Hezbollah’s former leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
, killed in an Israeli attack.

On Monday, Kuwait’s interior ministry said it arrested 16 people — 14 Kuwaitis and two Lebanese nationals — affiliated with Hezbollah who had planned a "sabotage plot."

The ministry said the group had sought to recruit individuals and that it seized a number of weapons, camera drones and morse code communication devices.

Hezbollah denied that any of its members were among the 16 arrested.

In previous years, Leb
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?...
has faced tensions with Gulf states including Kuwait, which have expressed concern about Hezbollah’s influence on the Mediterranean country.

About one-third of Kuwait’s local population belongs to the Shia branch of Islam, as do most Iranians.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.

Link

Home Front: WoT

US announces new sanctions targeting Hezbollah-linked gold exchange

2026-02-11

[IsraelTimes] US Treasury Department says Jood SARL ‘masquerades as a non-governmental organization’ and is used to ensure terror group’s cash flow from Iran

The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions against a gold exchange it said facilitates Iranian financial support to the Hezbollah terror group in Leb
...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
The Treasury Department said the targeted gold exchange was part of al-Qard al-Hassan, a Hezbollah financial institution already under US sanctions whose branches were bombed by Israel in 2024 strikes.

"Hezbollah is a threat to peace and stability in the Middle East," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

"Treasury will work to cut these forces of Evil off from the global financial system to give Lebanon a chance to be peaceful and prosperous again."

The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the gold exchange, Jood SARL, which it said "masquerades as a non-governmental organization" and is used to ensure Hezbollah’s cash flow from Iran.

It also said it was imposing sanctions on a number of individuals or entities, including Russian national Andrey Viktorovich Borisov, for working on Hezbollah’s finances, as well as Lebanon’s Mohammed Nayef Maged. It said it will also sanction several shipping companies. The sanctions freeze any assets in the United States and make financial transactions with the listed entities a crime.

Lebanon sits on one of the largest gold reserves in the Middle East. Its government is weighing whether it can use that stockpile to restore a crippled economy as the price of the precious metal has spiked.

Israel struck a major blow against Hezbollah in 2024, killing its longtime leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
and other brass hats after the terror group began attacking Israel on October 8, 2023, a day after fellow Iran-backed terror group Hamas
Hamas

..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
invaded southern Israel, sparking the war in Gazoo.

A US-brokered ceasefire with Hezbollah came in November 2024 after two months of open conflict in Lebanon, including an IDF ground operation in the country’s south in a bid to enable the safe return of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel displaced by the terror group’s near-daily attacks.

The ceasefire required both Israel and Hezbollah to vacate southern Lebanon, to be replaced by the Lebanese military. Israel has withdrawn from all but five strategic posts along the border.

Since the ceasefire, the IDF said it has killed over 400 Hezbollah operatives and members of allied terror groups in strikes, hit hundreds of Hezbollah sites, and conducted over 1,200 raids and other small operations in southern Lebanon.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

So noble: Lebanese escaping Syria now rely on Hezbollah for safety

2026-02-07

[AnNahar] "They drove us out at gunpoint," says Lebanese citizen Zeinab Qataya, who fled her adopted home in Syria after the fall of Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
and returned to her country to live in a camp built by Hezbollah.

The construction of the Imam Ali Housing Compound has proved controversial, but Lebanese and Syrian families pushed out of villages just over the border in Syria say they now rely on the Iran-backed movement for safety.

Hezbollah has acknowledged intervening in Syria's civil war on Assad's behalf starting in 2013 from their foothold in the Qusayr area, home to border villages like Zeita where thousands of Lebanese Shiites have lived for decades.

The murderous Moslem group was driven out of Syria during the campaign that toppled Assad, but it still holds sway in this pocket of northeast Leb
...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
, whose government has since vowed to disarm them.

"They burned our homes," says Qataya, a 56-year-old who fled Zeita for the Hezbollah-run compound.

"What matters to us is... being able to return home safely."

- IMAGES OF MARTYRS -
More than half a million Syrian refugees returned to their country from Lebanon after an Islamist coalition's victory over Assad in 2024.

The residents of the Imam Ali Housing Compound, meanwhile, were coming the other way.

"The compound houses between 700 and 1,000 people," said a Hezbollah official accompanying an AFP team in a guided tour of the camp in the Hermel area.

"They are mostly Lebanese, with some Syrians," all coming from border villages the group controlled before Assad's fall, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
The Lebanese nationals living in Syria had retained their citizenship, but made the area around Qusayr their home, living and working alongside local Sunni residents.

In the dry mountain winds, children returned from a Shiite religious celebration in Hermel and ran past the camp's store and barber shop to their ad hoc school.

The walls of the local mosque had images of slain Iranian generals, including renowned covert operations commander Qassem Suleimani
, glued on them.

Portraits of killed Hezbollah chief Sayyed
Sayyed

...Arabic term meaning your/his lordship. Groveling in His Exalted Presence is encouraged...
His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
and current leader Sheikh Naim Qassem

... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies...
hung from housing units.

Hezbollah played a key role in Syria's 13-year civil war, fighting alongside Assad's forces.

When it first established itself in Qusayr, thousands of Syrians were forced to flee, but it hastily retreated from the country after Assad's ouster.

The border in the area is porous and poorly demarcated, which contributed to Lebanese nationals settling in Syria and facilitated the smuggling for which the region is known.

- IRANIAN DONATIONS -
In the compound, few residents were willing to speak to journalists, viewing them with suspicion.

Under Assad, Syria was part of Iran's "axis of resistance" against Israel and enabled the transfer of weapons and money from 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...
to Hezbollah

The new authorities in Damascus have rejected Iranian influence and attempted to cut off the pipeline to the Lebanese movement.

Much of the Hermel compound's funding comes from private donations from Iran, the Hezbollah member said.

According to the group's al-Nour radio, the complex comprises 228 housing units.

When it was built last year, some media outlets critical of Hezbollah accused it of using the compound to harbor officials from the Assad government.

"We are not harboring regime remnants here," said Ali al-Masri, an official in the Hermel municipality, calling the allegations "utter nonsense" and insisting that most in the camp were civilians.

In January, Lebanon's military said that it carried out a raid after "some media outlets and news websites circulated information about the harboring of wanted individuals and the presence of weapons inside a compound" in Hermel.

The raid, it said, "did not result in any arrests or seizures".

- 'LIVING HAPPILY' -
According to the U.N., around 115,000 people have entered Lebanon from Syria since the fall of Assad, many of them since the sectarian massacres that targeted the Alawite minority on the Syrian coast in March.

Around a million Syrian refugees who previously fled the civil war remain in Lebanon.

Khodr Ghurab, a 62-year-old van driver, said he was displaced from Zeita on December 8, the day Islamist-led rebels reached Damascus and Assad fled to Russia.

Ghurab, a father of four, accused the Lebanese state of not helping them, "as if we were not Lebanese".

"In Syria, education and transport were free... we were living happily."

Link

Home Front: WoT

NYC Council probing pro-terror event, speaker vows ‘zero tolerance,’ after ToI report

2026-01-29

[IsraelTimes] Group hosting event that sold merchandise for Hamas and Hezbollah has received $265,000 in discretionary funds from local lawmakers, may have future donations blocked, report says

Lawyers for New York City are investigating an event that sold merchandise in support of terrorist groups, a spokesperson at the New York City Council said last week.

Vendors sold keychains, stickers and pins in support of US-designated terrorist groups during a fundraiser at the Moslem American Society youth center in Brooklyn last week, in an incident first reported by The Times of Israel.

The merchandise had the logos of Hamas
Hamas

..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
, Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine, and images of the late terrorist leaders Yahya Sinwar of Hamas and His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
of Hezbollah.

The US State Department has designated all three groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Other items said "Death to the IDF" and "Let’s go bomb Tel Aviv," showed Leila Khaled a PFLP member who helped hijack a plane in 1969, or had inverted red triangles, a Hamas symbol.

The New York Post reported that the Moslem American Society’s New York branch has received $265,000 in discretionary funds from the New York City Council since 2023. Council members are granted budgets for discretionary funds, which they allocate to nonprofits of their choosing to fill local needs.

The Moslem American Society of New York is a nonprofit that had revenue of $781,000 in grants last year.

A spokesperson for New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin told The New York Post that the council will block $80,000 in additional funds to the society pending an investigation by city lawyers, and may ban future funding to the group.

"The City Council has zero tolerance for violations of our standards," the spokesperson said. "Funding to this organization is being paused pending a comprehensive internal review. Any nonprofit found to be supporting organizations that threaten the United States government is unacceptable and incompatible with City Council funding."

Soon after taking the council’s helm last month, Menin, its first Jewish speaker, laid out a plan for combating antisemitism in the city. Jews are targeted in hate crimes in the city more than all other groups combined, and the election of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a longtime anti-Israel activist, has raised concerns about community safety.

The fundraiser took place at the Moslem American Society Youth Center in Brooklyn, according to the social media posts. Organizers billed the event, called Thrift4Sudan
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
, as an exhibit and pop-up store, and said the proceeds would "go to Sudan."

Also at the event was a placard showing a masked figure alongside the quote, "Whomever wants to snatch our weapons, we will snatch their soul, God willing," a rough translation of a statement by the late spokesperson for the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
terror group, Abu Hamza.

A video showing the items was posted by Pal-Awda, a hardline anti-Zionist activist group that caused an uproar by chanting for Hamas outside a Queens synagogue earlier this month. The youth center posted a video showing the display from another angle.

The event organizers advertised that six vendors had participated. One of the vendors sells the pins for terrorist groups and items that call for violence against Israel, and says that the proceeds are donated to families in 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...
. Some of the organizers’ social media posts about the event have been taken down since the initial Times of Israel report.

The activists have previously sold the pro-terror items in city parks.

The center and the Moslem American Society did not respond to requests for comment.

Days before the event, a speaker at the youth center said his "life mission" was to fight against the US government and the US army "to the last breath."

Link

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