Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Is all-out Israel-Hezbollah war inevitable?

2024-06-10

[NAHARNET] Israeli leaders have increased their warnings to Hezbollah as cross-border violence escalates by the day, but experts believe that the risk of all-out war remains limited.

- Is the violence intensifying? -

Hezbollah says it is fighting in support of its ally Hamas
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
, which is battling Israel in an eight-month-old war in the 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 an 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...
Strip triggered by the Paleostinian group's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah has made intensive use of drones in recent days to attack Israeli military positions, triggering significant forest fires in northern Israel.

On Thursday evening, Hezbollah used anti-aircraft missiles against Israeli warplanes for the first time.

"There has been a real escalation in recent weeks, with a much higher number of rocket launches," said Michael Horowitz, a geopolitical analyst for Le Beck International, a Middle East-based security consultancy, adding that the number had tripled in May compared with January.

"Hezbollah is also making use of effective new weapons, notably 'kamikaze' drones, while expanding its operational area to new towns," Horowitz said.

However,
alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk...
the group has refrained from striking deep inside Israel, and its chief MSayyed
MSayyed

...Arabic term meaning your/his lordship. Groveling in His Exalted Presence is encouraged...
His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
has repeatedly warned that Hezbollah has used only a fraction of its powerful arsenal.

Israel has intensified its strikes targeting Hezbollah inside Leb
...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. 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? It is the 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. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
, both close to the border and in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon where Hezbollah has a network of bases and tunnels.

After eight months of violence there have been at least 455 people killed in Lebanon, including around 90 civilians and nearly 300 Hezbollah fighters, more than the losses it suffered during its last war with Israel in 2006.

On the Israeli side, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

IDF hits Hezbollah air defenses in northeast Lebanon after terror group downs drone

2024-04-07

[IsraelTimes] Military says it hit compound and additional infrastructure in Baalbek region, known to be a Hezbollah stronghold

The Israeql Defense Forces said Sunday that it carried out ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s against sites belonging to Hezbollah’s air defense unit in northeastern ~~Lebanon~~ Hezbollahstan
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. ...
’s Baalbek overnight, after the terror group shot down a military drone.

The targets included a compound and three additional infrastructures relating to Hezbollah’s air defenses in the Baalbek District, the IDF said.

A source close to the terror group told AFP that the strikes hit two areas in the region: Janta an arid, a mountainous region close to the border with Syria, and Sifri, which is in the center of the Bekaa Valley.

A source in Lebanon’s Civil Defense Department said there were no casualties from the strikes.

Baalbek, an area identified in the past as a Hezbollah stronghold, is nearly 100 kilometers from the Israeli border. The overnight strike marked the fifth time amid the war in the 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 an iron fist by Hamaswith 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...
Strip that Israel struck Hezbollah positions in the Baalbek area.

The IDF said the strikes came in response to the terror group shooting down a military drone over southern Lebanon on Saturday with a surface-to-air missile.

Hezbollah initially said it downed an Elbit Hermes 450, but later claimed it was a Hermes 900 model. Both drones are used by the IDF for surveillance and attacks.

The IDF said the incident was under further investigation.

In February, Hezbollah managed to shoot down a Hermes 450 drone, prompting IDF strikes deep in Lebanon for the first time in years.

Additional Hezbollah sites were targeted on Saturday night in Ayta ash-Shab and Odaisseh, the military added.

Tensions in the region have been high since an alleged Israeli strike in Damascus on Monday killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members, among them a senior Quds Force commander, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi. Iran
"Iran

...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites....
has vowed Dire Revenge.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah has said it supports Iran’s right to "punish" Israel, and in televised remarks on Friday, its leader, His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...
, said the response was coming.

Nasrallah warned Friday his group had not yet used its "main weapons" in nearly six months of cross-border exchanges with Israel, which began a day after the Gaza war began with Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw,’s October 7 attack.

"We have not employed our main weapons yet, nor have we used our main forces," Nasrallah said in the televised speech marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day — an annual day of pro-Paleostinian rallies held by Iran and its allies.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Hamas official targeted in Lebanon ‘escaped’ Israeli strike — security source

2024-03-26

[IsraelTimes] A Hamas
Hamas

...one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
official allegedly targeted in an Israeli dronezap yesterday "escaped" the attempted liquidation, according to a Lebanese security source.

Leb
...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. 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? It is the 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. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
’s official National News Agency says yesterday’s strike near the village of Souairi in the Bekaa Valley killed a Syrian civilian in his vehicle.

The security source, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
, tells AFP that the Hamas official was traveling along the same road.

"A Hamas official was targeted by the Israeli drone attack on Sunday but escaped," says the source, without naming the official.

The strike in the Souairi area, near Lebanon’s border with Syria, was the first alleged Israeli attack there in nearly six months of fighting.

Another security source says yesterday’s pre-dawn Israeli strikes maimed four people, including a Hezbollah member, in Baalbek, further north in the Bekaa Valley.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Israel kills Hezbollah commander with airstrike on car carrying him through streets of Lebanon

2024-02-27

[NYPOST] The Israel Defense Forces says it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in an ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
that targeted a car driving down the streets of southern Leb
Leb

...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. 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? It is the 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. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
on Monday.Video of the strike shows the car carrying Hezbollah’s Hajir chief Hassan Hussein Salami driving through the village of Majadel as an IDF aircraft locks in on the vehicle.

A bomb is quickly dropped on the car, which erupts into flames and crashes into a nearby building before stopping.

A vehicle that was driving on the other side of the road and was right next to the car carrying Salami when the airstrike hit avoided the blast and sped away.

The IDF said Salami belonged to the terror group’s Nasser unit and had been in charge of numerous attacks carried out against the Jewish state along the northern border, including the recent missile attacks targeting two military bases.

Hezbollah officials confirmed Salami’s death on Monday, but the Iran-backed terror group did not identify him as a commander.

Along with the strike that killed Salami, Israeli warplanes killed at least two Hezbollah members in the Bekaa Valley on Monday, the deepest attack into Lebanon since hostilities surged with the terror group over 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 an 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...
"Its aggression on Baalbek or any other areas will not remain without response," Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah said of the attacks during a televised funeral of a fellow murderous Moslem.

Following the warning, Hezbollah launched 60 Katyusha rockets aimed at Israel’s army headquarters in the Golan Heights, one of the most intense attacks so far.

The IDF did not report any injuries as a result of the barrage in Golan Heights.

The Times of Israel adds:

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah on Monday fired a barrage of 60 Katyusha rockets at the Golan Heights. Footage circulating on social media shows several rockets impacting and exploding near a bus carrying passengers, who quickly disembarked to take cover.

Salami’s rank is equivalent to a brigade commander. The IDF said Salami was the commander of a regional unit in Hezbollah and oversaw attacks on IDF troops and Israeli communities in northern Israel. Recent actions that Salami was involved in included anti-tank missile attacks on Kiryat Shmona and on the base of the 769th "Hiram" Regional Brigade, according to the IDF.

Later, the IDF said it struck further Hezbollah targets in southern Leb, including the site from which the barrage of rockets was launched. Sites targeted by fighter jets in Ayta ash-Shab included buildings used by the terror group, the IDF said. The rocket launch site from which Hezbollah fired some 60 rockets at the Golan was located in the village of Kawkaba, and it too was struck by a fighter jet.

The IDF said a tank also shelled a building used by Hezbollah in Kafr Kila earlier in the day.

Earlier Monday, Hezbollah downed an Israeli Air Force drone, an Elbit Hermes 450 model, over the Nabatieh area in southern Lebanon with a surface-to-air missile. The drones are used by the IAF for surveillance and attacks.

In response to the incident, the IDF said it launched the strikes on Hezbollah’s air defense unit near Baalbek.

The Israeli Air Force also struck the downed aircraft in the Nabatieh area, The Times of Israel learned. Such actions are taken to prevent sensitive tech from falling into the hands of the enemy.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Report: Crashed Hezbollah truck estimated to have carried Iranian anti-tank missiles

2023-08-13

[IsraelTimes] Israel’s public broadcaster quotes Middle Eastern security officials saying attempted smuggling via Syria was orchastrated by Tehran-backed terror group’s 4400 unit

Several days after a Hezbollah truck carrying ammunition overturned near Beirut, killing two people and sparking festivities with residents of a local Christian town, security sources were reportedly estimating that the vehicle had been transporting anti-tank missiles sent from Iran.

The violence erupted

like lava from a volcano on Wednesday evening after the accident in the town of Kahale, located in the mountains east of the Lebanese capital, on the road linking it to the Bekaa Valley bordering Syria.

Kahale mayor Abboud Abi Khalil has told AFP that residents surrounded the truck demanding to know what was inside before Hezbollah members escorting it opened fire and killed one of them.

The powerful Iran-backed Shiite terror group said one of its members, Ahmad Ali Kassas, was shot in ensuing festivities and later died of his wounds.

The Lebanese army said Thursday that it had seized munitions from the overturned truck, adding that "the cargo of the truck has been transported to a military center, and an investigation has been opened by the competent judicial authorities."

On Saturday, Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported that security officials from an unidentified Middle Eastern country were estimating that the cargo was Iranian anti-tank missiles, sent by the Islamic Theocratic Republic to its Lebanese proxy terror group.

The report noted that the weapons had been transported "in a completely civilian terrain and in a dangerous manner," and that the incident had caused "embarrassment" for Hezbollah, which has tried to downplay the incident.

Kan added that the security sources said the attempted arms smuggling was orchestrated by Hezbollah’s 4400 unit,

... Hezbollah’s Unit 4400 and the Quds Force Unit 190 are responsible for the logistics of storing Iranian armament in Syria — and clearly Unit 4400 is in charge of the same in Lebanon...

among other bodies and officials involved in many similar attempts to pass munitions from Iran
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...
via Syria.

Hezbollah is the only Lebanese faction that kept its weapons after the end of the 1975-1990 civil war. It is considered a terrorist organization by many Western governments.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Deadly blast at Palestinian terror group base in Lebanon; Israel denies involvement

2023-06-01

[IsraelTimes] 5 dead in large explosion at PFLP-General Command site in the Bekaa Valley near Syrian border; Lebanese security source says old rocket went kaboom! at arms depot

Such accidents are filed on Page 2: WoT Background. Page 1 is only for deliberate acts.

Five members of a Paleostinian terror group in Leb
Leb

...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
were killed in a mysterious blast blamed on Israel on Wednesday morning, Arabic-language media reported. Israeli officials denied any involvement and a Lebanese security source said the earth-shattering kaboom was accidental.

According to reports by Al Jazeera and other networks, the blast occurred at a base belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine — General Command (PFLP-GC), near the town of Qousaya in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, near the border with Syria.

PFLP-GC accused Israel of carrying out a strike at the base. Images posted to social media showed a crater, a damaged building, and a damaged car, apparently as a result of the earth-shattering kaboom.

Israeli officials, however, said that the Israel Defense Forces did not carry out any strike in the area.

“Wudn’t us. Work accident, looks like. When they’re colourblind the red and green wires look the same, donchaknow.”

A Lebanese security source who spoke to AFP said the blast was accidental. "An old rocket went kaboom! in an arms depot on the base and five fighters were killed," the source said.

Oh dear. That’s really pathetic — worse than a colourblind bomb maker mixing up the red and green wires.

PFLP-GC front man Anwar Raja said Israel had carried out "overnight raids" on the Qusaya base.

"Five fighters were killed" and 10 maimed, he told AFP, adding that "for now we do not have more detailed information on the operation."

In past cases when Israel reportedly carried out strikes in the Bekaa Valley, it appeared to have acted in order to stop the transfer of advanced arms 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 the Hezbollah terror group, via Syria.

The IDF reportedly struck a PFLP-GC base in the Bekaa Valley in 2019.

The PFLP-GC — not to be confused with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine, from which it split in 1968 — was responsible for a number of vicious terror attacks in Israel in the 1970s and 1980s, including one against a school bus in northern Israel that killed nine children and three adults.

The PFLP-GC largely went underground in the late 1980s, working behind the scenes with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group, but it reemerged in 2011 with the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, fighting alongside Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Hezbollah deploys air defense systems in Syria's Qalamoun mountains

2021-12-30

[JPost] See "Targets". Make sure you stand close...
While the IDF’s aerial superiority has worsened, the military believes that it still has the ability to carry out operations over Lebanon and Syria.

Hezbollah is reportedly deploying air defense systems in Syria, where it would be able to defend against Israeli airstrikes there as well as in Lebanon.

According to the Alma Research Center, the group is deploying the systems to the Qalmoun Mountains region northwest of Damascus, which borders Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, home to Hezbollah’s logistical and operational rear base.

The group is believed to have the SA8 low-altitude, short-range tactical surface-to-air missile system, SA17, and SA22 man-portable air defense missile systems in its arsenal in order to defend against Israeli airstrikes.

Hezbollah has fired on Israeli platforms using its air defenses, most recently in February of last year, when an Israeli drone was fired on by antiaircraft fire during routine operations over Lebanese territory. It was not hit and continued on its mission. In October 2019 an SA8 surface-to-air missile was fired at an Israeli drone but also missed its mark.

The report comes as military officials warned that the Israel Air Force’s freedom of operation in Lebanese skies has been compromised over the past year after air defense systems were deployed in the area.

In addition to deploying the batteries to Syria, Maj. (ret.) Tal Beeri, head of the research department at the Alma Center, told The Jerusalem Post that Hezbollah has also deployed SA8 batteries in south Lebanon.

According to Beeri, these systems can "theoretically" pose a threat to Israeli jets operating over Lebanon.

In addition to its independent air-defense system, Beeri said, it is possible that Hezbollah operatives have trained on Iran’s Bavar-373. The Iranian system is based on Russia’s SA-300 air-defense system that can supposedly simultaneously engage up to six targets up to 250 km. away with 12 missiles.

Iran says the system can target jet bombers and fighters, stealth aircraft and drones, as well as cruise and ballistic missiles.

"It is possible that Hezbollah has trained on it, and, in all probability, we estimate that there have been attempts to transfer it to the group," Beeri said.

In October, Israel’s defense establishment said that it had identified growing Iranian efforts to improve its air defenses in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and other locations, in an attempt to disrupt Israel’s "war between the wars" campaign and bring down an Israeli aircraft.

The Iranian systems have helped Syria improve its capabilities, shorten its response time to attacks and destroy more munitions fired by the Jewish state.

While the IDF’s aerial superiority has worsened, the military believes that it still has the ability to carry out operations over Lebanon and Syria despite the threat posed by Iranian and Hezbollah air-defense systems.

Tensions with both Lebanon and Syria remain high, with 31 rockets being fired from Lebanon (by both Palestinian operatives and Hezbollah) and two long-range rockets fired from Syria over the past year. In response, the IDF fired munitions from fighter planes and some 200 artillery shells.

Hezbollah has also violated Israeli airspace, sending 74 drones into Israel over the past year, down from 94 drones in 2020.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Lebanon seizes dangerous fertiliser in country's east

2021-09-19

[AlAhram] Lebanese security forces raided a fertiliser warehouse in the eastern Bekaa Valley, considered a hub for smuggling operations between Leb
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers, a practice dating back to the heady human sacrifice days of Baal Moloch. In 2020 Hezbollahblew up a considerable portion of Beirut and many of its inhabitants when its ammonium nitrate faci8lity exploded. They blamed it on... somebody else. It wasn't them though. Trust them on that...
and Syria

Lebanese authorities have seized 20 tonnes of ammonium nitrate -- the same chemical behind a deadly explosion last year at Beirut's port -- in the eastern Bekaa Valley, state media reported on Saturday.

Ammonium nitrate is an odourless crystalline substance commonly used as a fertiliser that has been the cause of numerous industrial explosions over the decades.

At least 214 people were killed and some 6,500 others maimed on August 4, 2020 when a shipment of the chemical carelessly stocked at the Beirut port for years ignited and caused a massive blast.

On Saturday, the National News Agency (NNA) said security forces raided a fertiliser warehouse in the eastern Bekaa Valley, considered a hub for smuggling operations between Lebanon and Syria.

Authorities seized 20 tonnes of the dangerous chemical stored inside a truck parked at the warehouse, the NNA said, adding the material was transported to a "safe place".

Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, who visited the Bekaa Valley on Saturday, called on security forces to conduct a sweep of the area.

"We must do our best to move these materials to a safer place away from exposure to heat and sun" to avoid a "catastrophe", the NNA quoted him as saying.

The company that owns the ammonium nitrate said that the fertiliser was intended for agricultural use.

"One of our employees informed the relevant authorities that we have ammonium nitrate, so they raided the warehouses on Friday," one of the company heads told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The name of the firm that owns the fertiliser has not been made public pending investigations.

"We have been working in the feed and fertiliser industry for 40 years," the company official added.

When combined with fuel oils, ammonium nitrate creates a potent explosive widely used in the construction industry, but also by Death Eater groups for improvised explosives.

Lebanese authorities are still investigating the circumstances in which hundreds of tonnes of the chemical ended up in the Beirut port for years, before the monster explosion that levelled swathes of the city.

An Nahar adds:

Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi on Saturday inspected a truck carrying 20 tons of ammonium nitrate in the Bidnayel Plain in the Bekaa after it had been seized in Baalbek, the National News Agency said. Mawlawi said security forces moved the dangerous material from Baalbek to the empty plain to protect public safety.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Deep State Hates America First Policy

2019-10-27

[Townhall] After the longest war in the history of our country, it is time for our troops to return home. In 2001, the United States responded to the horrific terrorist attacks of 9/11 by sending our military to Afghanistan on a mission to destroy Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. We were successful in destroying their terrorist camps, killing and capturing Al-Qaeda leaders, and forcing Bin Laden out of the country.

Amazingly, our military is still in Afghanistan, although the Taliban control over half of the country. Of course, President Trump and his supporters want to bring these troops home, but he is facing enormous resistance within the government, including the Defense Department.

During the war in Afghanistan, the administration of President George W. Bush invaded Iraq in 2003 to remove Saddam Hussein from power. It was believed that he harbored weapons of mass destruction; however, none were ever discovered.

Not true. We had contemporaneous reports and personal witness here at Rantburg of troops harmed by huge storage bunkers full of leaking barrels of insecticides, far, far beyond the needs of the farmers and gardeners in Iraq over many years. There was the nuclear thingy, buried under that researcher’s rosebushes, waiting to be put back to work, and of course other bunkers full of barrels of yellowcake, waiting to be refined. Not to mention whatever it was that was burnt in the canals for weeks before the 2003 invasion, and the endless convoy going back and forth tio the Bekaa Valley, followed by one of Saddam Hussein’s dutiful daughters and family going into exile. It wasn’t just Daddy’s gold she was hiding for him. But the New York Times, et al, had their narrative, and President Bush’s team lacked Donald Trump’s gleeful combativeness and Twitter account.

Eventually, Hussein was captured and executed, and, fortunately, Bin Laden was also killed in Pakistan in 2011 after a daring Navy Seal Team 6 mission.

After many twists and turns in Iraq, the terrorist group ISIS was largely destroyed, the country was stabilized, and most of our military forces departed. Today, the United States maintains 5,000 troops in the country.

While some military presence in the region is worthwhile to monitor terrorist strongholds, it does not have the same type of importance for our economy. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, this region of the world was incredibly important to our economy. Today, while it is still critical to Europe and other areas of the world, it is not as vital to the United States. Fortunately, our country does not "need" their oil, we are energy independent for the first time in many decades.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Israel preparing diplomatic ground for possible action against Hezbollah

2019-09-10

Preparing the diplomatic ground for possible action against Hezbollah's precision missile program in Lebanon, Israel's mission at the UN informed the Security Council on Monday that Hezbollah is operating a facility for the production of these missiles in the Bekaa Valley.

According to a statement issued by Israel's mission at the UN, "The IDF has provided valuable information on Hezbollah's precision missile program in Lebanon, which has helped Israel advance its case in recent letters to the Security Council."

In a letter to the Security Council on Monday, Israel noted that Hezbollah "operates a site intended for the production and conversion of precision missiles near the town of Nabi Chit in the Bekaa Valley, with Iranian sponsorship, including financial and logistical support."

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Pompeo said to warn Lebanon that Israel could strike Hezbollah missile factory

2019-09-09

[IsraelTimes] Arabic newspaper quotes US secretary of state telling Lebanese FM that facility should be dismantled or Israel will ’destroy it in the coming days’.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Leb that Israel could soon destroy an alleged precision-guided missile factory used by the Hezbollah terror group if it was not swiftly dismantled, according to an Arabic newspaper report Friday.

Citing unnamed Israeli sources, the London-based Asharq al-Awsat said Pompeo sent a letter to Lebanese President Michel Aoun

...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
concerning a Hezbollah compound in Leb’s Bekaa Valley, apparently referring to a facility identified by the Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday.

The paper reported that Pompeo relayed the message through Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, who it said is considered to have close ties with Hezbollah leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...
"Leb should immediately dismantle the second factory, otherwise Israel will attack and destroy it in the coming days," Pompeo was quoted telling Bassil.

The report said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the issue during a meeting in London on Thursday with US Defense Secretary Mark Esper and noted the premier was accompanied by the commander of the Israeli Air Force and the head of the IDF’s Operations Directorate.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Israel said to strike base of Palestinian terror group deep inside Lebanon

2019-08-27

[IsraelTimes] Reports say bombing targeted the Hezbollah-allied PFLP ‐ General Command in the Bekaa Valley near Syria border; no comment from IDF.

Arabic media claimed early Monday morning that Israeli aircraft had carried out an ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
<del>Arclight</del> airstrike

...KABOOM!...
on a base belonging to a Paleostinian terrorist group deep inside Leb, amid a dramatic spike in tensions.

The reported strikes came just hours after Hezbollah leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...
vowed to shoot down any Israeli aircraft violating Lebanese airspace.

The reports said the strikes hit a base belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine ‐ General Command (PFLP-GC), a Syria-based terrorist group that fights alongside Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad.

The base is located in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Leb, near the border with Syria.

Videos posted on social media showed explosions accompanied by heavy anti-aircraft fire.

A front man for the group told the Saudi-owned al-Hadath news channel that the "Israeli bombing in the Bekaa did not achieve its objectives," but gave no further details.

There was no comment from the IDF. In past cases where Israel reportedly carried out strikes in the Bekaa Valley, it appeared to be to stop the transfer of advanced arms 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 a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
to Hezbollah, via Syria.

The PFLP-GC ‐ not to be confused with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine, from which it split in 1968 ‐ was responsible for a number of vicious terror attacks in Israel in the 1970s and 1980s, including one against a school bus in northern Israel, which killed nine children and three adults.

The PFLP-GC largely went underground in the late 1980s, working behind the scenes with the Leb-based Hezbollah terror group, but it reemerged in 2011 with the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.

The reported strike follows the bombing of an Iran-linked base in Syria on Saturday that Israel said foiled a plot to launch kamikaze drones into Israel, a drone attack on a Hezbollah office in Beirut and an attack on an Iran-linked militia in Iraq, both on Sunday.

An Nahar adds:

Israel carried out night raids on Monday at military positions of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) in the Eastern Mountain Range opposite the Bekaa town of Qusaya

It has positions in the eastern region of Bekaa, as well as in Al-Naaemeh just south of Beirut.

Qusaya is only about five kilometers (three miles) from the Syrian border.

Link

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