Recent Appearances...

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Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Imad Mughniyeh	Imad Mughnieh	Hezbollah	Israel-Palestine			20040309
	Imad Mughniyah	Hezbollah	Iran			20030816
	Imad Mugniyeh	Hezbollah	Caribbean-Latin America			20040209
	Imad Mugniyah	Hezbollah	Iran	Lebanese	Deceased	20031014
		Killed by a carboom
	Imad Mughniyeh	Hizballah	Europe			20051226	Link
	Imad Mouniagh	Hezbollah	Caribbean-Latin America			20040209
	Imad Mughniyeh	Hezbollah	Syria-Lebanon-Iran	Lebanese	Deceased	20051207	Link
		Killed by a carbomb
	Imad Mughniyeh	Hizbullah	Syria-Lebanon-Iran			20010924
	Imad Mugniyeh	Hezbollah	Syria-Lebanon-Iran			20050629

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Getcher Score Card Here! Can't tell the Players Widoutcher Scorecard!

2024-10-21

[Axios] How Israel decimated Hamas and Hezbollah leadership in three months

One by one, Israel has tracked, targeted and eliminated the leadership of its greatest regional enemies in a sprawling decapitation operation with little precedent in modern history.

Why it matters: The killing of Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar this past week capped an astonishing three-month streak in which a succession of top Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, as well as several Iranian generals, were taken out by Israel.

The series of killings, a year after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, has dealt a crippling blow to the so-called "axis of resistance" Iran has been building, arming and funding for years.

While the death of Sinwar marked the most important symbolic victory, it was distinct in that it was not a targeted assassination — and not the product of a sophisticated operation or pinpoint secret intelligence.

Driving the news: One of Israel's top goals since the start of the war has been to kill the leaders of Hamas and any militants involved in the Oct. 7 attacks.

A special unit inside Israel's domestic intelligence service, the Shin Bet, was formed to do exactly that.

U.S. intelligence services and special operation units worked with the Israelis for months to hunt down Sinwar and his deputies, investing a huge amount of intelligence and operational resources.

Time and time again, the forces got close to Sinwar inside the Hamas tunnels in southern Gaza — but time and time again, he managed to evade them.

When Sinwar was finally caught, it was pure coincidence.

The Israel Defense Forces unit that closed in on the house he was hiding in didn't know the identity of the militants with whom they were exchanging fire.

The 19-year-old soldier who killed the most wanted man in the Middle East only discovered his historic accomplishment in hindsight.

Flashback: As the fighting with Hezbollah on the northern border escalated in the days after Oct. 7, Israel also started targeting senior commanders of the Iranian-backed Shia militia.

Israel took out several Hamas and Hezbollah commanders in the first six months of the war. But a major breakthrough came in mid-July with the killing of the commander of Hamas' military wing, Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike in southern Gaza.

It was the first time Israel had managed to kill one of the architects of the Oct. 7 attacks.

Two weeks later, Israel conducted an airstrike in Beirut and killed Hezbollah's top military commander, Fuad Shukr — the biggest blow to the militia since Israel's assassination of its previous military commander, Imad Mughniyeh, in 2008.

Another Israeli assassination was carried out less than a day later — this time in Tehran, where a bomb exploded in an Iranian government guesthouse and killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

In mid-September, Israel launched an unprecedented clandestine attack against Hezbollah — remotely detonating thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies.

The explosions left thousands of Hezbollah members killed or wounded, among them several senior officials.

Over the next few days, Israel carried out a series of unprecedented airstrikes that destroyed large parts of Hezbollah's rocket and missile arsenals and killed many of its senior and mid-level commanders, including its head of military operations, Ibrahim Aki, and a dozen of the elite Radwan Force's top commanders.

Zoom in: The attacks reached their height in late September with the assassination of Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah in his bunker with many of his senior deputies.

Among those killed were Hezbollah's southern front commander, Ali Karaki, and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander in Lebanon, Brigadier Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan.

It took less than a week for the IDF to assassinate Nasrallah's successor, Hashim Safi al-Din, in an airstrike on Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters.

The militia's head of intelligence, Hussein Hazimah, known as "Mortada," was also in that bunker. Neither of their bodies has been found to this day.

The big picture: The series of assassinations and other military operations in the region helped restore much of Israel's deterrence, which was shattered on Oct. 7.

Israeli officials say most of Hamas' and Hezbollah's military leadership has been eliminated, and much of the political leadership is dead or on the run.

Still, while the decapitations have made it far more difficult for Hamas and Hezbollah to function, the groups are far from destroyed or willing to surrender.

The final bit is a record of Jake Sullivan fretting that the stupid Israelis have no exit plan, which is not the same as them not telling him their thinking.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

IDF destroys major tunnel of elite Hezbollah force as it tackles underground network

2024-10-20

[IsraelTimes] The military is working to systematically demolish the web of shafts it says would be used in an Oct. 7-style attack on the north

A tunnel in southern Leb
...an Iranian satrapy until recently 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...
belonging to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force was recently demolished by combat engineers, the IDF said Saturday. The military described the underground passage as one of Radwan’s central tunnels in Lebanon, which included a command center, a weapons depot, rooms to reside in, scooter bikes, and other equipment. Next to the tunnel, the IDF said troops also located dozens of weapons and equipment belonging to Hezbollah.

Additionally, more than 50 other tunnel shafts and three other major tunnels were demolished by combat engineers under the 91st Division in southern Lebanon, the IDF said. According to the IDF, more than 100 tons of explosives were used to demolish the four tunnels.

Israeli forces have spent much of the past year destroying Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
’s vast underground network 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...
. They are now focused on dismantling tunnels and other hideouts belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Scarred by Hamas’s deadly massacre into Israel last year that sparked the war in Gaza, Israel says it aims to prevent similar atrocities across its northern border from ever being carried out.

The military has combed through the dense brush of southern Lebanon for the past two weeks, uncovering what it says are Hezbollah’s deep attack capabilities — highlighted by a tunnel system equipped with weapons caches and rocket launchers that pose a direct threat to nearby communities.

Israel’s war against the Iran-backed terror group stretches far inside Lebanon, and its ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s in recent weeks have killed more than 1,700 people, about a quarter of whom were women and kiddies, according to local health authorities. The IDF estimates that more than 1,500 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict so far.

But its ground campaign has centered on a narrow patch of land just along the border, where Hezbollah has had a longstanding presence, in violation of UN resolutions.

HEZBOLLAH HAS DEEP TIES TO SOUTHERN LEBANON
Hezbollah, which seeks Israel’s destruction, is the Arab world’s most significant paramilitary force. It began firing rockets into Israel a day after Hamas’s devastating onslaught on October 7, 2023. After nearly a year of tit-for-tat fighting with Hezbollah, and warnings it would not tolerate the terror group’s continued presence on the border, Israel launched its ground invasion into southern Lebanon on October 1 and has since sent thousands of troops into the rugged terrain.

Even as it continues to bolster its forces, Israel says its invasion consists of "limited, localized and targeted ground raids" that are meant to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure, so that tens of thousands of displaced Israelis can return home. The fighting also has uprooted more than 1 million Lebanese in the past month.

Many residents of southern Lebanon are supporters of the group and benefit from its social outreach. Though most fled the area months ago, they widely see the heavily armed Hezbollah as their defender.

That broad support has allowed Hezbollah to establish "a military infrastructure for itself" within the villages, said Eva J. Koulouriotis, a political analyst specializing in the Middle East and Islamic terror groups. The military says it has found weapons within homes and buildings in the villages.

A LAND OF TUNNELS
With Israel’s air power far outstripping Hezbollah’s defenses, the terror group has turned to underground tunnels as a way to elude Israeli drones and jets and prepare its attacks against Israeli communities. Experts say Hezbollah’s tunnels are not limited to the south.

"It’s a land of tunnels," said Tal Beeri, who studies Hezbollah as director of research at the Alma Research and Education Center, a think tank with a focus on northern Israel’s security.

Koulouriotis said tunnels stretch under the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah’s command and control are located and where it keeps a stockpile of strategic missiles. She said the group also maintains tunnels along the border with Syria, through which it smuggles weapons and other supplies 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...
into Lebanon.

Southern Lebanon is where Hezbollah maintains tunnels to store missiles — and from where it can launch them, Koulouriotis said. Some of the more than 50 Israelis killed by Hezbollah over the past year were hit by anti-tank missiles.

In contrast to the tunnels dug out by Hamas in the sandy coastal terrain of Gaza, Hezbollah’s tunnels in southern Lebanon were carved into solid rock, a feat that likely required time, money, machinery, and expertise.

An Israeli military official said that using prior intelligence, Israel had found "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds" of underground positions, many of which could hold about 10 operatives and were stocked with rations. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military rules, said troops were blowing up the tunnels or using cement to make them unusable.

The group used tunnels during the monthlong 2006 Second Lebanon War, but the network has been expanded since, defying a United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
ceasefire resolution that compelled Lebanese and UN forces to keep Hezbollah out of the south.

In mid-August, Hezbollah released a video showing what appeared to be a cavernous underground tunnel large enough for trucks loaded with missiles to drive through. Hezbollah operatives were also seen riding cycle of violences inside the illuminated tunnel, named Imad-4 after the group’s late military commander, Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in Syria in 2008 in a kaboom blamed on Israel.

HEZBOLLAH’S TUNNELS COULD BE HINDERING ISRAEL’S MISSION
Israeli troops are pushing through southern Lebanon using tanks and engineering equipment, and air and ground forces have struck thousands of targets in the area since the invasion began.

The military recently said it found one cross-border tunnel that stretched just a few meters into Israel but did not have an opening. Israel also exposed a tunnel shaft that was located about 100 meters from a UN peacekeepers ’ post, although it wasn’t clear what the precise purpose of that tunnel was.

Israel says the tunnels are stocked with supplies and weapons and are outfitted with lighting, ventilation, and sometimes plumbing, indicating they could be used for long stays. It says it has arrested several Hezbollah terror operatives hiding inside, including three on Tuesday who were found armed. The Israeli military official said many Hezbollah operatives appear to have withdrawn from the area.

Lebanese military expert Naji Malaeb, a retired brigadier general, asserted that Hezbollah’s tunnels were preventing Israel from making major gains. He compared that achievement to the war in Gaza, where Hamas has used its tunnels to bedevil Israeli forces and stage insurgency-like attacks. Nevertheless, Israel has managed to largely dismantle Hamas’s fighting capabilities in Gaza.

Israeli authorities insist the mission in Lebanon is succeeding. The military assesses it has killed hundreds of Hezbollah operatives in the ground operation (and a total of 1,500 in the conflict), while 17 Israeli soldiers have been killed during that time.

Israel has encountered Hezbollah’s tunnels before. In 2018, Israel launched an operation to destroy attack tunnels that crossed into Israeli territory. Beeri said that six tunnels were discovered, including one that was 1 kilometer (1,000 yards) long and 80 meters (87 yards) deep, crossing some 50 meters into Israel.

AN OCTOBER 7-STYLE INVASION
For Israel, the tunnels are evidence that Hezbollah planned what it says would be a bloody offensive against communities in the north.

"Hezbollah has openly declared that it plans to carry out its own October 7 massacre on Israel’s northern border, on an even larger scale," IDF front man Rear. Adm. Daniel Hagari said the day troops entered Lebanon.

Former Hezbollah leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
, who was killed by Israel last month while in an underground bunker, had signaled in speeches that Hezbollah could launch an attack on northern Israel.

In May 2023, just months before Hamas’s massacre, Hezbollah staged a simulation of an incursion into northern Israel with rifle-toting gunnies on cycle of violences bursting through a mock border fence bedecked with Israeli flags.

Related: Another Times of Israel article has video of what more than 100 tons of explosives looks like when blowing up a Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force tunnel in south Lebanon.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

In first, Olmert confirms Israel killed Hezbollah chief Mughniyeh in Syria in 2008

2024-09-30

“He’s dead, Jim.”
“Dr. Quincy — how do you always know!?!”

[IsraelTimes] Former PM says bumper of car exploded in Damascus, killing arch-terrorist 16 years ago; lauds Nasrallah assassination as ‘important’ but unlikely to ‘change reality’

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert on Saturday confirmed for the first time that Israel was responsible for the death of Hezbollah global operations chief Imad Mughniyeh, who died in a bomb blast in Damascus in 2008.

“We haven’t talked about it until today,” Olmert said in an interview with Channel 13 news, “but it seems to me that by now we can admit it. After we eliminated the entire leadership of Hezbollah, we can admit that 16 years ago we eliminated the biggest, most abominable, most despicable mass murderer they ever had, who built the entire Hezbollah military wing.”

The former premier’s comments come after Israel on Friday assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an underground command HQ in Beirut.

In his Saturday night interview, Olmert lauded the “important” assassination of Nasrallah, who he said was “responsible for 20 years or more of endless wars, of endless injuries, of killing many Israelis.”

Asked about his approval of Mughniyeh’s assassination in 2008, during his term as prime minister, Olmert said, “In this case, it was an operation that took place in another country, not in the country where he lives, not in Lebanon, and there were all kinds of dramatic aspects about which I cannot speak.”

“What exploded was the bumper of the car we placed there so that when Mugniyeh passed, we could press the button and trap him,” he said without giving further details.

“There were endless ‘James Bond’ type operations, but I’ll tell you a secret, and I think it’s important to say, even amid the excitement of this evening,” Olmert said. “These operations are very important. They always have some dimension that stirs enthusiasm… but they usually do not change reality. They can create a resonance that can generate some kind of momentum, but let’s not overdo it.”

Mughniyeh was implicated in some of the Iran-backed terror group’s major attacks, including the 1992 bombing at the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 bombing of the AMIA building in the Argentinian capital, in which 85 people were killed.

The senior Hezbollah terrorist was also involved in the 1983 bombing at the US embassy in Beirut, the killing in 1985 of the CIA’s Lebanon chief William F. Buckley, and the 1996 bombing at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. In the years after the 2003 US invasion if Iraq, Mughniyeh was responsible for the arming and training of Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq who carried out deadly attacks on American troops — all of which put him at the top of the US’s wanted list.

International outlets have reported that Mughniyeh was assassinated in a joint Mossad-CIA operation that required special approval from then-US president George W. Bush, and a Showtime miniseries released last year included interviews with ex-Mossad and -CIA officials discussing the operation.

Israel has denied responsibility for killing Mughniyeh and the US has never admitted involvement in the operation. A US State Department spokesman said after the killing: “The world is a better place without this man in it. He was a coldblooded killer, a mass murderer, and a terrorist responsible for countless innocent lives lost.”

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

'Imad 4': Hezbollah video shows huge underground missile launching facility

2024-08-17

[An Nahar] Hezbollah on Friday released a video showing what appeared to be underground tunnels and large missile launchers, amid fears of all-out war between the Iran-backed group and Israel.

The release comes as negotiators seeking a 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...
ceasefire were to meet for a second day in Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
, and amid intensified diplomatic activity in 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...
seeking to avert a broader conflict.

The polished, four-and-a-half minute video shows what appear to be Hezbollah operatives moving through wide, illuminated tunnels hewn into rock, with cycle of violence

s and other vehicles, including a convoy of trucks.

Some trucks appear to be transporting missiles through the facility, which bears a sign reading "Imad 4", an apparent reference to top Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a 2008 Damascus boom-mobileing the group blamed on Israel.

Titled "Our mountains are our storehouses", the video shows a trapdoor opening and a missile launcher directed skyward.

A Hezbollah official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was speaking about military affairs, said the missiles in the video have a range of about 140 kilometers (86 miles), capable of reaching deep inside Israel.

Hezbollah "possesses precision and non-precision missiles along with weapons capabilities so that if Israel imposes a war on Lebanon, Israel will face a destiny and reality it didn't expect any day," its chief Sayyed
Sayyed

...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...>
is heard saying in the video -- an excerpt from a 2018 speech.

The group has traded near daily fire with the Israeli army in support of ally Hamas
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
since the Paleostinian murderous Moslem group's October 7 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.

But the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
in Tehran late last month, blamed on Israel, and an Israeli strike that killed a top Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, has sent diplomats scrambling to avert a wider conflict, after 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 Hezbollah vowed to retaliate.

"Targets are in our possession and the coordinates are in our hands, and these missiles are placed, deployed and focused on targets and in perfect secrecy," Nasrallah says in further audio excerpts subtitled in English and Hebrew.

Hezbollah's weapons, personnel, experience, and determination are "stronger than at any time since its launch in the region," he adds.

Hezbollah has expanded the size and quality of its arsenal since it last fought an all-out war with Israel in 2006.

Experts say the group has a wide range of unguided heavy artillery rockets, ballistic missiles, as well as anti-aircraft, anti-tank and anti-ship missiles.

They have also said Hezbollah likely has an extensive network of underground tunnels in south Lebanon, as well as in the eastern Bekaa valley near the border with Syria.

Mughniyeh is credited with developing Hezbollah's military capabilities, and the group considers him the architect of its "victory" over Israel in 2006.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Hezbollah targets Israeli soldiers with new 'Jihad Mughniyeh' missile

2024-05-14

[NEWARAB] Hezbollah announced that it targeted a group of Israeli soldiers on Sunday in the Shebaa border area using a new type of heavy rocket, named the "Jihad Mughniyeh" missile.

The rocket, an unguided tactical missile with a 120-kilogram warhead, was named after a Hezbollah soldier killed by Israel while fighting in Syria in 2015.

Jihad was the son of Imad Mughniyeh, one of the founders of Hezbollah who was accused by the US of carrying out the 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut. Imad Mughniyeh was killed in a joint CIA-Mossad operation involving boom-mobile on 12 February 2008, in Damascus, Syria.
"Can you hear me now?"
Since border festivities between Hezbollah and Israel started on 8 October, Hezbollah has rolled out new weaponry in phases.

Hezbollah leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah

...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
's has unveiled new types of weaponry during speeches, such as the Burkan missile which carries a payload of 300-500kg and can fly undetected under the Iron Dome.

The Israeli view, reported by the Times of Israel:

Four soldiers were wounded in northern Israel by anti-tank guided missile fire from Lebanon on Monday, as the country marked Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terror, the military and medical officials said.

The Israel Defense Forces said two anti-tank missiles had been launched at an area near Kibbutz Yiftah, resulting in the injury of four soldiers.

Ziv Hospital in Safed said the troops were brought to the medical center, where one of them was listed in moderate condition. The other three were lightly wounded.

The Hezbollah terror group claimed responsibility for the missile fire, saying it targeted a military position near Yiftah. Sirens had sounded in the community amid the attack.

Earlier Monday, two explosive-laden drones launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon struck an area near the northern community of Beit Hillel.

The IDF said the blasts sparked a fire that was extinguished a short while later.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Assassinated Hezbollah commander had role in raid that sparked 2006 war, fought in Syria

2024-01-09

[IsraelTimes] Wissam al-Tawil is most senior member of the Lebanese terror group to be killed amid border festivities with Israel; was close with former terror chief Mughniyeh, Iran’s Soleimani

The elite Hezbollah commander who was killed in an alleged Israeli ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
in southern 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...
Monday played a central role in some of the terror group’s most high-profile attacks, including a deadly 2006 cross-border raid that triggered the Second Lebanon War.

Wissam al-Tawil was described by the Iran-backed terror group as a "commander," while a senior source in Lebanon told the Rooters news agency that he was a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces and the most senior Hezbollah officer killed so far in the recent fighting along the border.

In Israel, unsourced reports in Hebrew media claimed that Tawil had recently become leader of the Radwan force, an elite unit within Hezbollah thought responsible for a number of skirmishes on the Israel-Lebanon border. However,
you can observe a lot just by watching...
Lebanon’s al-Meyadeen news outlet, considered closely linked to Hezbollah, said reports that Tawil was the commander of Radwan were false, without elaborating.

A security source told AFP that Tawil "had a leading role in managing Hezbollah’s operations in the south," near the Israeli border.

In a statement posted to Telegram, Hezbollah said that Tawil had "led" operations against Israeli forces along the restive frontier, which since the Hamas
Hamas

...the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
-led terror onslaught on October 7 has seen near-daily skirmishes and cross-border strikes from both sides.

Israeli officials have been demanding for weeks that the Radwan force withdraw from the border area to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by the fighting to return to their homes.

On Monday, Tawil was killed when an airstrike hit a car he was in, near his hometown of Khirbet Selm, some 10 kilometers (6 miles) from northern Israel.

The terror group said he joined Hezbollah in 1989, when he was 14 years old, rising through their ranks.

Tawil, whose two brothers were killed fighting with Hezbollah, participated in dozens of attacks against Israeli forces and their Lebanese allies during Israel’s 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon until it withdrew in 2000.

Years later, when Hezbollah joined the civil war in Syria in 2013, Tawil was in charge of coordinating between the Lebanese organization and the Syrian army in the battles against 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, according to the Hezbollah official. Tawil was a close aide to Hezbollah’s chief commander in Syria Mustafa Badreddine, who was killed in 2016, the official added.

During his long years with the Lebanese terror group, Tawil was close to Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah’s military chief from its founding in 1982 until he was killed in a bombing in the Syrian capital in 2008 attributed to Israel.

Additionally, Tawil had close links with Gen. Qassem Soleimani

, head of Iran’s Quds Force, who was killed in a US dronezap in Baghdad in 2020. Soleimani led the foreign operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and played a key role coordinating between Iran-backed groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

A senior source in Lebanon said Tawil’s death marked a big blow, given his experience including deployments with Hezbollah in Syria and Iraq.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Video Exclusive Scenes from Hezbollah's Op in Shebaa Farms

2023-10-11

[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] al-Manar TV broadcasts an illustrative video showing the details of the Islamic resistance attack on three Israeli posts in occupied Shebaa Farms and other important data about the targeted sites.

Hezbollah announced on Sunday it had targeted three Israeli posts in occupied Shebaa Farms, Radar, Zibdin and Ruweissat al-Alam, in a clear message of solidarity with Paleostinian people and resistance in their Operation al-Aqsa storm against the Israeli occupation.

Hezbollah Media Relations declared that Units of Martyred Commander Imad Mughniyeh hit the Israeli posts using a significant number of artillery shells and guided missiles, and resulting in direct hits on these sites.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Israeli strike on Damascus targeted Iranian and Syrian drone experts — report

2023-02-23

[IsraelTimes] Rooters quotes sources saying weekend attack on residential neighborhood in Syrian capital targeted meeting of officials involved with manufacturing drones, missiles

The scene of an alleged Israeli ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
in the Kafar Sousah neighborhood of Syria's capital, Damascus, early February 19, 2023. (Social media)
An airstrike in Damascus over the weekend that was attributed to Israel targeted a meeting of Syrian and Iranian experts in producing drones, according to a report Wednesday.

Syria has said five people were killed and 15 maimed in the attack on Saturday night. The Israeli military has not commented on the strike, per its policy of not generally commenting on air raids in Syria. Israeli officials have previously said the IDF does not target civilians and seeks to avoid damage to residential areas as much as possible.

Citing an unnamed source close to the Syrian government, Rooters said the strike hit the meeting of experts in a residential neighborhood of Damascus.

"The strike hit the center where they were meeting as well as an apartment in a residential building. One Syrian engineer and one Iranian official — not high-ranking — were killed," the source said.

According to a second source quoted in the report, the gathering was held "in an Iranian military installation in the basement of a residential building inside a security compound." The source said that among those killed was a civil engineer in the Syrian army who worked at the Scientific Studies and Research Center, which has been linked to Syria’s chemical weapons
...have not been used since WWI except for in Iraq, by the late, unlamented Saddam Hussein and in Syria, but really, honest, not by the Syrian government. And in Germany in WWII, but that was against civilians. Lots of them, just one of many reasons Hitler's also late and unlamented except among devout Moslems...
program.

An additional source said an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps engineer involved with Iranian missile development was seriously hurt in the strike and sent to a hospital in Tehran for treatment.

A fourth source who spoke with Rooters said the target of the attack was part of an IRGC-led covert guided-missile manufacturing program, while a fifth source reported Iranian officials and members of ~~Lebanon~~ Hezbollahstan
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. ...
’s

Hezbollah terror group were targets.

Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the strike on Sunday, but did not mention any Iranian casualties.

It was also denounced by Russia, which like Iran
Iran

...They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
is a key backer of the Syrian regime in the over decade-long civil war, as a "flagrant violation" of international law.

Israel’s need to coordinate with Russia — which largely controls Syrian airspace — to carry out strikes has been cited as a chief reason for Jerusalem’s reluctance to supply Kyiv with weaponry amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Israel has found itself at odds with Russia as it increasingly supported Ukraine while seeking to maintain freedom of movement in Syria’s skies.

"We strongly urge the Israeli side to stop armed provocations against the Syrian Arab Republic and refrain from steps that are fraught with dangerous consequences for the entire region," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Sunday, according to Rooters.

Syrian state media has reported the strike in Kafar Sousah killed four civilians and one soldier, and maimed another 15 civilians, along with inflicting heavy damage on a number of residential buildings in the area.

Imad Mughniyeh, a notorious Hezbollah terror chief, was allegedly assassinated by Israel in a 2008 bombing in Kafar Sousah, close to where Saturday night’s strike took place.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Israel's attempt to check Iranian expansion in Syria

2022-11-28

[ARABNEWS] The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps announced on Wednesday the death of Col. Daoud Jafari, who was a senior adviser to the Iranian Air Force in Syria. According to Iranian media, Israelis killed him in a blast near Damascus.

The killing indicates Israel's elaborate plan to counter any Iranian military presence in Syria and is an attempt to diminish Iranian military capabilities, which pose a threat to Israel's national security.

Israel appears to be expanding its tactics by assassinations of Iranian individuals and ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
<del>Arclight</del> airstrike

...KABOOM!...
s against Iranian militias in Syria.

The liquidation of Col. Jafari was carefully planned and carried out by attaching an explosive to his vehicle. This operation required a new kind of logistical preparation and intelligence on the ground.

It is worth noting that the killing took place near the town of Sayyidah Zaynab (Sitt Zaynab), south of the capital Damascus. This town was turned into the headquarters of Iranian militias during the Syrian war.

Despite the significant military presence, Israel managed to infiltrate Iran's security in order to carry out the liquidation.

However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat...
what happened raises questions. How was Israel able to build intelligence "sleeper cells" in the most fortified areas that are the command center for Iranian gunnies and their non-Syrian loyalists?

Moreover, has the Syrian regime become so weak that it cannot protect its Iranian allies on its own soil?

This inability to respond to Israeli military operations has diminished support for the Assad regime in the eyes of its remaining Syrian loyalists.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes against Iranian militias in Syria in recent years, especially Lebanese Hezbollah, which is considered Tehran's arm in the region.

It seems that the killing of the Iranian general in Syria is a continuation of the aerial bombing operations targeting the Iranian military headquarters in Syria, but in a more complex and thorough manner.

Israel has previously targeted people associated with Iran, but with airstrikes, not explosives on the ground.

On March 19, 2015, Israel orchestrated the liquidation of Samir Kuntar, a senior Hezbollah member who was killed in Damascus after Israeli warplanes bombed an apartment building where Kuntar was staying at the time.

Another example is the liquidation of Jihad Imad Mughniyeh, the leader of Lebanese Hezbollah, and son of Imad Mughniyeh, one of the party's senior military commanders. He was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his convoy in Quneitra, southwestern Syria, on Jan. 18, 2018. It is clear that the liquidation of Col. Jafari cannot be separated from recent Israeli operations in Iranian territory.

On June 12, Iranian media close to the Revolutionary Guards reported that Ali Kamani and Mohammed Abdous, two members of the Revolutionary Guards air space unit, were killed in the cities of Khamen and Semnan. Kamani and Abdous had worked on developing and producing weapons for Lebanese Hezbollah. 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...
blamed Israel for both killings.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Speculation Hezbollah official targeted in car on Syria-Leb border was Mustafa Mughniyeh

2020-04-16

Follow up to this story from yesterday.

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

Speculation that the Hezbollah official targeted earlier in his car on the Syria-Lebanon border was Mustafa Mughniyeh. Imad Mughniyeh’s other son, (who reportedly has a command role on the Golan). These unconfirmed claims add that he survived the strike. https://t.co/bCTUGaqTIW
— Tony Badran (@AcrossTheBay) April 15, 2020

#UPDATE: Possible drone/IED struck a vehicle on the Syrian-Lebanese border (in Jdeidat Yabous via @AuroraIntel) a few hours ago. Additional reports say a possible warning strike also hit nearby so occupants could evacuate the vehicle.

Picture of vehicle from @putintintin1. pic.twitter.com/zJyVB7ErCl
— ELINT News (@ELINTNews) April 15, 2020

The Times of Israel adds:

Initial reports said a number of Hezbollah bad boyz were potted in the strike on a civilian vehicle transporting weaponry from Syria to 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...
. But later reporting indicated that though several people were maimed, none were killed.

Arab media reports said the occupants of the car included a senior Hezbollah operative by the name of Imad Karimi.

Link

Afghanistan

Iranian media: CIA agent behind Soleimani killing shot down in Afghanistan

2020-01-29

[Jpost] Taliban claims CIA agents were onboard downed plane but won’t verify who

Iranian media outlets claim “many CIA” officers were killed in a plane crash on Monday. The Taliban initially asserted large numbers of Americans were killed, while Russian media and Iranian media then said a senior CIA officer responsible for killing IRGC general Qasem Soleimani was on board. The claim has been greeted with skepticism.

Michael D’Andrea’s name began to appear in Farsi media in the wake of the Soleimani killing when articles at Mehr News and Radio Farda claimed he was involved in planning the US operation. Later on January 27, his name appeared again in rumors after the plane crash.

There are many who might have an interest in spreading conspiracies about the Taliban downing high-ranking US intelligence officers. Nevertheless, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency ran with the story, quoting Russian sources that said the “assassin of Soleimani was on the plane and [was] killed in the crash.” It claims that D’Andrea “is the most prominent figure in the US CIA in the Middle East. He has been in charge of operations in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.”

The Taliban was quoted as saying they had shot down the plane. Tasnim refers to D’Andrea as “Ayatollah Mike” and “the Prince of Darkness,” relying on old US newspaper clippings. Press TV of Iran has also included the report, claiming top CIA officers were killed and repeating rumors about D’Andrea. But the original reports from the Taliban only spoke of a plane being shot down and some CIA members allegedly being on it. The US says an American E-11A plane was shot down in Ghazni province. Ghazni is around 900 km. from the Iranian border.

Linking its downing to the Soleimani killing would be a major development and appear to show that Iran is active in Afghanistan with the Taliban, a claim that has been made in the past. Iran watches US movements in Afghanistan carefully and has met with the Taliban recently. Iran has also tried to down US drones that stray near Iran’s border.

The US has dropped a record number of bombs on the Taliban in the last year, as it also tried to push them toward the peace table.

Many social-media users are interested in the claim that D’Andrea may have been on the plane. One of the first users to report the claim noted that D’Andrea “masterminded the murder of Imad Mughniyeh, former Hezbollah chief of staff, back in 2008.” However, others have pointed out that while this could be big news, it could be disinformation, or designed merely to create the appearance that Iran had responded to the Soleimani killing. Iran has promised “hard revenge” against the US. Some Iranians on social media who support the regime in Tehran have been celebrating the downing of the plane.

Related: Business Insider story and fotos.

Related: Middle East Monitor - CIA chief ‘behind Soleimani’s assassination’ killed in downed plane in Afghanistan

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Soleimani always got away, until this time he met his end (obit-analysis)

2020-01-03

[JPost's take] Hajj Qasem, the "shadow commander," Israel's "most dangerous enemy," has been killed in Iraq alongside his key disciple Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. An airstrike near or at Baghdad International Airport targeted a motorcade with the men in it just days after their followers stormed the US Embassy compound and scrawled "Soleimani is our leader" on its walls. US President Donald Trump approved the airstrike. The Pentagon confirmed the US killed the Iranian Quds Force leader. The US said Iran was responsible for killing 608 US troops during the Iraq war.

The unthinkable has happened. The man behind Iran's drive for regional hegemony, who commanded the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has been targeted. Unlike all the previous times when he got away, this time, he has met his end.

Reports emerged after four in the morning, Iraqi time. A mysterious airstrike near the airport had led to rumors of its closure hours earlier. Two flights were inbound at the time. A Pegasus and Iraq airways flight. Three or four rockets impacted near the airport. US helicopters were reported buzzing in the distance.

It appears a cryptic tweet from US Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced the US policy to begin pre-emptive strikes against Iranian adversaries or their proxies. "To Iran and its proxy militias: We will not accept the continued attacks against our personnel and forces in the region. Attacks against us will be met with responses in the time, manner and place of our choosing. We urge the Iranian regime to end malign activities."

It is not known if the US acted alone or who else may be responsible for the airstrike. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had called Middle East leaders in the last days to firm up support and discuss strategy. He called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in Saudi Arabia. He also phoned Iraqi leaders and Qatar. He warned Muhandis as well as Qais Khazali, a Shi'ite militia leader the US had sanctioned. He then warned the leaders of the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Units, Hadi al-Amiri and Faleh al-Fayed.

Muhandis was responsible for the attack on US forces at K-1 on December 27 that resulted in a US contractor death. He has been responsible for attacks on Americans since the 1980s. Qais Khazali has also been responsible for attacks, and was held at Camp Cropper in 2007. But it is Muhandis who was always the head of the powerful Iranian support for a network of militias in the region that helped guide this policy. Muhandis was key to supporting Hezbollah and worked closely with Imad Mughniyeh of Hezbollah in the past. Mughniyeh was killed in 2008.

It is difficult to estimate Iran's response but the regime will want to respond not only to this attack but also the initial US attack on December 29 that killed two dozen members of Kataib Hezbollah. That series of five airstrikes in Iraq and Syria is now overshadowed but it was important because it showed the US would act against Iran's attacks. Since May of 2019, Iran has been attacking not only the US but also Israel, Saudi Arabia and oil tankers in the region. It downed a US drone and sent proxies inn Iraq to fire rockets at least 12 times at US bases. These rocket attacks targeted key facilities including the Green Zone, Camp Taji, Assad and Balad base and Qayarrah. Iran also fired rockets at Israel in January, September and November of 2019. It attacked Iran's Abqaiq facility in September with a drone swarm. It also sent Kataib Hezbollah to attack Saudi Arabia in May and to establish bases and arms trafficking networks across Iraq. In Syria Iran built a new base called Imam Ali at the Syrian border with Iraq.

Link

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