Recent Appearances...

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Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Mohammad Raad	Mohammad Raad	Hizbullah	Syria-Lebanon-Iran	20060412	Link
	Mohammad Raad	Lebanese Hizbollah	Axis of Evil	20020820
	Mohammad Raad	Hezbollah	Syria-Lebanon	20031012

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Salam meets Berri in Ain el-Tineh, says his doors ''always open'' for Hezbollah

2025-06-03

[NAHARNET] Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Monday that his "doors are always open" for Hezbollah after he met with Parliament Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri
Nabih <q>Knobby</q> Berri

...perennial Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians...
in Ain el-Tineh, as the gap between Salam and Berri's ally Hezbollah seemed to widen over the group's disarmament.

"I am leaving plenty of room for cordiality with (Hezbollah MP) Hajj Mohammad Raad and my doors are always open for him and Hezbollah," Salam said.

Raad had recently criticized Salam for recently omitting the word "Resistance®" from the "Resistance® and Liberation Day" holiday in one of his statements, but said he would not respond to Salam's comments on Hezbollah's disarmament "to preserve what's left of cordiality."

Berri on Friday told local al-Joumhouria newspaper that "if Salam escalates, we will escalate and if he chooses to calm things down, we will calm them down," after Salam said in recent comments that the era of "exporting the Iranian revolution has ended" and that the state "will not remain silent over any arms outside the state's control".

In his interview with al-Joumhouria, Berri also urged the government to prioritize the construction of war-hit regions, saying it's the government's responsibility "whether it likes it or not."

Berri had met last Friday with President Joseph Aoun at the Baabda Palace, in talks he described as "excellent."

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Israeli strike in southern Lebanon’s Majdal Selm said to injure five people

2025-01-30

[IsraelTimes] No immediate comment from military; Beirut says 24 killed in Israeli strike Tuesday targeting what IDF said were Hezbollah vehicles moving weapons in violation of truce

Five people were maimed in an Israeli dronezap in the southern Lebanese town of Majdal Selm on Wednesday, the Lebanese health ministry said.

The Israel Defense Forces had no immediate comment on the matter.

In a separate Israeli Air Force strike Tuesday night, the IDF targeted what it said were vehicles belonging to the Hezbollah terror group that were being used to transfer weapons near southern 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?...
’s Nabatieh, which would constitute a ceasefire violation on the part of the terror group.

The Lebanese health ministry said 24 people were maimed in that strike, which came amid IDF warnings against civilians returning to villages in southern Lebanon, where Israel has said it will remain until February 18.

Israel had been due to withdraw by January 26, but said it could not do so as the Lebanese army had not yet deployed in those areas, and the US and Lebanon announced Sunday that the deadline had been extended.

Following the Tuesday strike, senior Hezbollah official Mohammad Raad said that the Lebanese people have a "sacred and legitimate right" to resist Israeli attacks, and said this right should be exercised at the time and place deemed necessary to protect the country’s security.

Under the November ceasefire brokered by the US, however, Hezbollah must pull back north of the Litani River — some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Israel — while Israel is entitled to strike threats it considers imminent, and to forward less imminent threats to a monitoring committee comprising representatives of Lebanon, Israel, La Belle France, the United States and UNIFIL.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Israel and Lebanon extend truce, with IDF troop withdrawal deadline moved to Feb. 18

2025-01-28

[IsraelTimes] Hezbollah said to call on Lebanese civilians to provoke clashes with IDF; Katz warns truce violators on northern or southern borders will ‘pay the full price’

Israel and 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?...
have agreed to extend the deadline for Israeli troops to depart southern Lebanon until February 18, after the 60-day deadline stipulated in a ceasefire agreement that halted the Israel-Hezbollah war in late November passed on Sunday and Israel requested more time.

Israel has said that it needs to stay longer because the Lebanese army has not deployed to all areas of southern Lebanon, as agreed, to ensure that terror group Hezbollah does not reestablish its presence there. The Lebanese army has said it cannot deploy until Israeli forces withdraw.

The White House said in a statement Sunday that "the arrangement between Lebanon and Israel, monitored by the United States, will continue to be in effect until February 18, 2025." It added that the respective governments "will also begin negotiations for the return of Lebanese prisoners captured after October 7, 2023."

Hezbollah began attacking Israel on October 8, 2023, with rocket and drones one day after its ally Hamas
Hamas

..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
attacked Israel in the south in a devastating onslaught.

US President Donald Trump
...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried....
’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff said in response to the announcement that "the Israeli government was great, they’re a great partner of the United States, they’re a principled ally for us, and they’ve done pretty good work over in Lebanon."

Speaking to news hounds he said that if the developments are any indication of the two sides’ ability to overcome "blips," there is reason to be positive about the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire holding further.

Announcement of the extension came the day the deadline passed for Israeli troops to withdraw from south Lebanon.

There was no specific comment from the Israeli government but Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on social media platform X that "we will continue to vigorously enforce the ceasefires in the north and south. Anyone who violates the rules or who threatens the IDF — will pay the full price."

Katz was referring as well to a ceasefire 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 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...
war that began last Sunday and that has also seen bumps along its path in the past few days.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati also confirmed the extension of the Lebanon ceasefire.

After talks with the US, Mikati said Monday the government would "continue implementing the ceasefire agreement until February 18, 2025."

However,
the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits...
Hezbollah has reportedly rejected the extension and is urging south Lebanese residents to continue confrontations with the IDF. Deadly festivities took place Sunday when hundreds of Lebanese marched on Israeli soldiers, many of them carrying Hezbollah banners, ignoring warning shots and calls to turn back. Lebanese health officials said Israeli soldiers killed 22 people in the violence.

The al-Akhbar outlet, considered a mouthpiece for Hezbollah, wrote Monday that "what happened yesterday will be completed today, with more popular crowds, from the people of the border villages...where people will not wait for permission to complete the process of removing the occupation forces from the last sites they still occupy."

Sources told the outlet that Hezbollah informed aligned Lebanese politician Mohammad Raad that it "does not participate in any internal or external communications regarding extending the 60-day period, and that it adheres to the text of the agreement and the necessity of the enemy’s withdrawal without any delay."

Hezbollah, badly weakened by Israel during the war, has put the onus on the Lebanese state to ensure the IDF’s withdrawal, describing Israel’s failure to leave southern Lebanon by the deadline as a violation of the agreement.

The ceasefire deal stipulates that Hezbollah pull back its forces north of the Litani River — about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border — and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south. The Lebanese military was to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdrew.

Israel’s military says its forces have continued to uncover and seize Hezbollah weapons in prohibited areas and that the Lebanese army is not keeping to its part of the deal.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Geagea calls on Hezbollah to send arms to Iran, sell them or give them to army

2025-01-15

[NAHARNET] Lebanese Forces
A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb...
leader Samir Geagea
....Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005....
has responded to the remarks that MP Mohammad Raad voiced Monday at the Baabda Palace, saying there was no ''exclusion'' in the designation of Nawaf Salam as premier.

''Where was the exclusion? It is known that the PM post belongs to the Sunnis in 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?...
and the two candidates for the post were from this sect and the MPs names their candidates without any pressures. The word exclusion can be said when a certain sect interferes in a post belonging to another sect,'' Geagea explained in an interview on al-Arabiya's al-Hadath channel.

''The structure of the Lebanese state reflects a consensus process, but it is not necessary to tackle every issue through consensus. What Raad said about coexistence is also out of context, seeing as exclusion can be true if PM-designate Nawaf Salam decides to form the new government without the Shiite sect,'' Geagea added.

Stressing that the unwritten 1943 National Pact stipulates the representation of the Christian and Moslem religious communities and not every sect belonging to them, the LF leader noted that Salam's designation would have violated the National Pact had no Moslem MP voted for him.

''The president and the premier must ask Hezbollah about the fate of its arms, to see if they want to send them to Iran, sell them or hand them over to the Lebanese Army, and then a new phase would begin, which would be in the interest of all Lebanese, specifically Hezbollah's environment, seeing as there can be no leniency with these arms,'' Geagea went on to say.

As for the deliberations that led to Salam's nomination, Geagea said the so-called Change MPs were behind the selection.

''We secured the votes of 35 MPs for MP (Fouad) Makhzoumi, whereas some Change MPs secured 17 votes for Nawaf Salam and refused to vote for Makhzoumi. In the face of that situation and for the sake of Lebanon, we chose to endorse Judge Salam, and had it not been for this move, (caretaker PM Najib) Mikati would have become premier anew,'' Geagea explained.

Noting that recovering the money of depositors is one of the priorities of the Lebanese Forces, Geagea said the first topic that he will discuss with the new premier will be the case of the Beirut port explosion and ''the need to resume investigations with all due transparency.''

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Nawaf Salam named PM with sweeping 84 votes as Hezbollah decries ''exclusion'' — Naharnet

2025-01-14

[NAHARNET] Prominent Lebanese diplomat and judge Nawaf Salam was named PM-designate on Monday after he won sweeping support from legislators, as Hezbollah accused some parties of "staging an ambush aimed at disintegration, partitioning, elimination and exclusion."

They noticed.

The Presidency, which issued a decree naming Salam as PM-designate, said the latter received 84 votes as caretaker PM Najib Mikati received only nine votes and 35 MPs refrained from naming anyone.

Salam is currently serving as the head of the International Court of Justice and his nomination was made by Western-backed groups as well as independents in the Lebanese parliament. Salam is backed by Saudi Arabia and western countries.

Monday's nomination of Salam during binding consultations with President Joseph Aoun is a major blow to Hezbollah, which is also a powerful political party, after its militant wing was weakened by a 14-month war with Israel.

Salam will have a difficult mission ahead of him, as Lebanon truce with Israel that ended the nearly Israel-Hezbollah war. Salam will also have to work on getting the small nation out of its historic five-year economic meltdown.

Salam's nomination and last week's selection of the country's army commander Aoun as president is likely to lead to flow of funds from Western and oil-rich Arab nations to Lebanon to help in the reconstruction process.

Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc meanwhile voiced regret over the manner in which Salam was nominated.

''Our meeting with the president was to express our regret over those who want to harm the presidential tenure's consensual start,'' the head of the bloc, MP Mohammad Raad, said after the bloc's meeting with Aoun.

According to media reports, the bloc asked for the postponement of its meeting with Aoun until Tuesday before eventually reversing its decision.

''Once again some are staging an ambush aimed at disintegration, partitioning, elimination and exclusion, in a deliberate and spiteful manner,'' Raad decried.

''We made a positive step upon the election of the president and we were hoping to meet the hand that had always boasted about being extended, but it suddenly was severed,'' the MP added.

''It is our right to demand a government to respect the National Pact, and any government that contradicts with coexistence has no legitimacy. We will monitor and carry on with all due calm and wisdom and we will watch their actions for removing the occupier from our land, returning the captives, reconstruction and the correct implementation of 1701 in a manner that preserves national unity,'' Raad went on to say.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Hezbollah, Amal Message in Lebanon: Here We Are!

2025-01-13

[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.COM.LB] Shortly after late Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah was martyred on September 27 during the Last brutal Israeli aggression on Lebanon, some local parties in Lebanon — who are known for their foreign affiliations — rushed to talk about the so-called ''Lebanon post-Hezbollah''.

Back then, late Hezbollah Media Relations Officer Hajj Mohammad Afif, who was later martyred in an Israeli strike on Beirut last November, said his well-known remarks addressing such malicious ambitions: ''Too early!''.

Whoever watched the 13th parliamentary session aimed at electing a new Lebanese president following a two-year vacuum on Thursday, knows very well what martyr Hajj Afif meant with such words.

As things got clearer, with Lebanese Army Commander General Joseph Aoun emerging as the front runner for the presidency, Hezbollah and its strong ally Amal Movement were keen to deliver a clear message.

Lawmakers of the nationalist duo (nearly 30 MPs) voted blank ballots in the first round of Thursday's session, forcing a second round of the vote.

LEBANON PARLIAMENT BALLOT COUNT
Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri, the Leader of Amal Movement, adjourned the session for more discussions, and set a timing for the second round.

A break of two hours between the two rounds witnessed a meeting between General Aoun, Head of Hezbollah's Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc Hajj Mohammad Raad and Amal MP Ali Hasan Khalil.

Local reports indicated that during the meeting General Aoun offered some guarantees to the nationalist duo regarding implications of the ceasefire agreement with the Israeli enemy in areas south of the Litani River, plans for reconstruction and government restructuring.

The Parliament then convened for the second round, that led to the election of General Aoun who obtained 99 votes after Hezbollah and Amal lawmakers voted in his favor.

Despite claims of alleged ''weakened Hezbollah sway'' in the national decisions, the scene on Thursday has indicated that the Lebanese resistance party, along with Amal Movement, remain the major players and decision makers.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Why did Israel target Nasrallah's special negotiator in Beirut strike?

2024-10-12

[Ynet] Wafiq Safa is under U.S. sanctions for exploiting Lebanese ports, border crossings to facilitate Hezbollah terrorists’ travel; known as Beirut Airport strongman overseeing weapons arrival from Iran that is stored in great amounts at the airport

IDF carried out two airstrikes on central Beirut on Thursday, targeting areas outside Hezbollah's stronghold the Dahieh, for the third time in the war. According to some reports, the attacks were an attempt to assassinate Hezbollah's Liaison and Coordination Unit head Wafiq Safa, a close ally of slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah who was killed in an Israeli attack last month.

Lebanese health officials said 18 people were killed and 92 injured in the strikes. Safa's fate was unknown, security sources told Sky News Arabic while other sources said he survived the attempt on his life.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department's website, Safa exploits Lebanese ports and border crossings to facilitate Hezbollah terrorists’ travel. The site adds that, together with senior Hezbollah member Mohammad Raad, Safa was involved in attempting to secure foreign citizenships for 100 Hezbollah operatives who were to be sent on "long missions" in Western or Arab countries.

Safa is a well-known figure in Beirut and his position in Hezbollah gave him incredible power. He was known as the man who was actually in charge of Beirut's Rafic Al Hariri International Airport, the main gateway into Lebanon.

An airport employee told the newspaper Safa maintained close ties with customs control. "Wafiq Safa is always showing up at customs,” one whistleblower claimed, citing close relationships with the customs managers. “I feel like if we don’t do what they say, our families will be in danger.”

According to an investigative report in the UK's Telegraph newspaper last June, Hezbollah was hiding a significant weapons stockpile at the airport. Officials there said the terror group receives weapons on flights from Iran that are then stored. According to the same sources, Hezbollah stores huge amounts of Iranian weapons, missiles and explosives inside the civilian airport.

“This is extremely serious, mysterious large boxes arriving on direct flights from Iran are a sign that things got worse. When they started to come through the airport, my friends and I were scared because we knew that there was something strange going on,” one source at the airport said.

The paper reported that a Lebanese official rejected the claims and Transport Minister Ali Hamie called the information incorrect. He has invited media and ambassadors to visit the airport to see for themselves. Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he would be suing the publication.

As a member of Nasrallah's close circle, Safa was part of the negotiation committee Hezbollah established in 2000 during the kidnapping of three IDF soldiers on Mount Dov – Benyamin Avraham, Adi Avitan, and Omar Sawaid. The three bodies were returned to Israel in 2004 in a prisoner exchange deal.

He also participated in negotiations for the return of soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were kidnapped by the terror group shortly before the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

Report: Wafiq Safa in critical condition after Beirut strike

Not dead yet, just resting. Sepsis should kick in soon.

[AnNahar] Hezbollah senior leader Wafiq Safa was seriously injured and is in critical condition following the deadly Israeli airstrikes that targeted two buildings in Beirut’s Noueiri and Bourj Abi Haidar areas, sources told Sky News Arabia on Friday.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Raad says war's course to become clear within days

2024-07-21

[An Nahar] Hezbollah’s top politician Mohammad Raad on Friday noted that the "course" of his group’s conflict with Israel will become clear "within a few days," in an apparent reference to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the U.S.
"We're waiting to see if Biden or Blinken will actually help us out"
"Let us be patient for a few days to see the prospects and the atmosphere that we will move forward in. We will not hesitate or give up our resistant choice and we will not weaken in the face of the arrogance of tyranny and occupation," Raad added.

"In the end the enemy will be forced to accept its situation and its major disappointment and failure," Raad went on to say.

The cross-border violence since October has killed 516 people in Leb
Leb

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Raad says Hezbollah escalating to 'preserve deterrence equation'

2024-05-20

[An Nahar] The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammad Raad, said Sunday that his group is "reassured" over the course of its conflict with Israel.

"The resistance is escalating its operations against the Israeli enemy to a certain level in order to preserve the deterrence equation," Raad said.

Hezbollah is doing this "so that the enemy does not fantasize that it has become capable and prepared to pounce on Leb
Leb

Link

-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Operation prevent the next pandemic: Biden admin. announces new treaty with 50 countries to identify next killer pathogens, Mpox in DRC and NKor research are poss. suspects

2024-04-17

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] President Joe Biden's administration will help 50 countries identify and respond to infectious diseases, with the goal of preventing pandemics like the COVID-19 outbreak.

Federal officials will work with the countries to develop better testing, surveillance, communication and preparedness for such outbreaks in those countries in order to help 'effectively respond to biological threats wherever they emerge.'
"Most likely before any Presidential Debates can occur"
The announcement about the strategy comes as countries have struggled to meet a worldwide accord on responses to future pandemics.

The program will rely on the State Department, the CDC, HHS, and the Agency for International Development, or USAID - to help countries refine their infectious disease response.

The White House on Tuesday will release a website with the names of the countries that are participating in the program.

President Joe Biden 's former Covid advisor has admitted the pandemic may have been borne out of a laboratory leak in Wuhan.

Biden officials are seeking to get 100 countries signed onto the program by the end of the year.

The 50 countries involved is up from 19.

The U.S. has devoting billions of dollars to the effort. Biden, a Democrat, is asking for $1.2 billion for global health safety efforts in his yearly budget proposal to Congress.

Meanwhile, four years after the coronavirus pandemic, the prospects of a pandemic treaty signed by all 194 of the World Health Organization's members are flailing.

The cooperation among the 50 countries 'to ensure they are better able to prevent, detect, and respond to global health security threats.'

Over the next five years, the United States will work with these 50 partners 'to build, further strengthen, and sustain a level of demonstrated capacity in at least five [global health security] areas.’

The Biden Administration oversaw much of the Covid vaccine rollout, which saved millions of American lives. But Covid-19 will not be the last of the administration's public health hurdles.

Bird flu is on the rise nationwide, infecting poultry and cows after the virus was able to jump from the former to the latter. The second person ever to be infected with avian flu was reported earlier this month after catching it from a cow.

New mutant strain of monkeypox with 'pandemic potential' is discovered in Congo village - as health officials call for 'urgent measures' to contain it

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A mutant strain of monkeypox

…calling it that proves that someone, somewhere is raaaaaaacis….

with 'pandemic potential' has been found in a town in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The virus is a descendent of the deadlier clade 1 mpox strain, but has evolved to become even more infectious and better at evading tests than its predecessor.

The concerning discovery was made in Kamituga – a poor, densely populated gold mining town that is feared to be ripe for an explosive outbreak. So far there have been 108 cases.

'Without intervention, this localised Kamituga outbreak harbors the potential to spread nationally and internationally,' the authors wrote.

'Given the recent history of mpox outbreaks in DRC, we advocate for swift action by endemic countries and the international community to avert another global mpox outbreak,' they add.

The researchers are concerned that the 'highly mobile' population of Kamituga could be the perfect breeding ground for the new virus.

Miners and sex workers frequently travel to and from the town for work from neighboring countries like Rwanda and Burundi.

And 'many people with mpox symptoms remain in the community and do not seek care', the authors wrote.

The pre-print warns that the 'local healthcare infrastructure is ill-equipped to handle a large-scale epidemic'

The experts have called for the roll out of vaccines and drugs and for heightened surveillance and contact tracing measures to be deployed in the area.

Mpox caused an international epidemic in 2022 when it spread to more than 100 countries and killed hundreds of people - including 58 Americans.

That outbreak was caused by the more mild clade 2 strain, which is rarely fatal.

The outbreak that worried health officials then was primarily concentrated within the gay and bisexual male community.

It is not yet clear whether the genesis of the outbreak in the DRC was driven by sexual contact.

For the past year, the DRC has been struggling to contain a deadlier version of the virus known as 'clade 1', which kills up to 10 per cent of those infected.

The new mutant strain - named 'clade 1b' - appears to be just as deadly. Of the 108 cases, there have been two deaths.

It is believed to have emerged sometime between July and September 2023 in animals and jumped to animals.

As it spread in Kamituga it acquired new mutations that helped it spread - especially among sex workers.

Nearly 30 percent of cases were among sex workers, suggesting the virus spreads in a similar way to the one that caused the 2022 outbreak.

Some 85 per cent of people had genital lesions, while 10 per cent were hospitalized.

The research was led by Congolese scientists in collaboration with experts across Africa, Europe, the US and Canada.

The findings were discussed by the ministers of health of 12 countries at a meeting convened by the Africa Centres for Disease Control last week, The Telegraph reports.

North Korea is producing viruses and bacteria for germ warfare programme and already has an arsenal capable of causing chaos and terror in the region, US report claims
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] North Korea is producing viruses and bacteria for their germ warfare programme that already has an arsenal capable of causing chaos and terror in the region, according to a US report.

In their latest assessment of Pyongyang's weapons of mass destruction, the US said the mysterious state ruled by Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has developed sprays and 'poison pens' which can spread deadly diseases.

The weapons are said to be designed to spread germs such as smallpox and anthrax which some experts believe is more dangerous than Kim Jong-un's nuclear weapons programme.

The report by the US State Department, which monitors foreign governments’ compliance with arms control obligations, said: 'The United States assesses that the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] has a dedicated, national level offensive BW [biological weapons] programme.

How many decades have they worked on these projects without developing something they dared to actually use?

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Family of three killed in Israel strike on Houla

2024-03-07

[An Nahar] A family of three, a father, his wife and their son were killed Tuesday in an Israeli strike on a house in the southern border village of Houla.

The National News Agency said the three killed were civilians but Hezbollah later announced the death of the father, Hassan Hussein, and his 25-year-old son, Ali Hussein, "on the road to Jerusalem" -- the phrase used for Hezbollah fighters killed by Israel.

Hussein, his wife, Ruwaida Mustafa, and their son were killed in a raid on a three-storey house in Houla, NNA said.

"Search operations and the removal of rubble are continuing," it added.

Shortly after the deadly strike, Hezbollah said it launched "dozens of rockets" at the Israeli kibbutz of Kfar Blum, six kilometers from the nearest border point.

The group also said it "targeted a building" in the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona and another building in Avivim.

It said it acted "in response to the Israeli aggression against the villages of the south and the homes of civilians," among them the strike on the house in Houla.

Hezbollah also said it carried out several attacks on Israeli military positions on the border on Tuesday.

On Monday, a missile fired from 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...
killed a foreign worker in Israel, according to the army, and three Hezbollah-affiliated paramedics were killed in an Israeli raid on southern Lebanon, according to the group.

NNA had also reported on Monday evening that Israeli air raids targeted the border town of Bint Jbeil, but no casualties were reported.

It came as U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said a diplomatic solution was key to ending nearly five months of intensifying hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel.

"A diplomatic solution is the only way to end the current hostilities" and achieve "a lasting fair security arrangement between Lebanon and Israel", he said, adding "a temporary ceasefire is not enough".

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said there will be no let-up in Israeli action against Hezbollah even if 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 is secured.

On Tuesday, the chief of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, Mohammad Raad, was quoted by NNA as saying: "We do not wish for war but we are ready to face it."

"We have not used all of our weapons, nor the weapons of open conflict. We have not deployed all of our arsenal, and the enemy knows it," he said.

Link

Africa North

200 additional Africa Corps soldiers appear to be about to land in Ouagadougou aboard an Il-62 from Moscow

2024-01-27

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

The 200 additional Africa Corps soldiers appear to be about to land in Ouagadougou aboard an Il-62 from Moscow.

RA-86559 :
24 Jan 2024 Moscow (CKL) - Latakia
26 Jan 2024 Latakia - Ouagadougou pic.twitter.com/OHEjB6Hryu
— Benjamin Pittet (@COUPSURE) January 26, 2024

Africa Corps being that private military/semi-mercenary thing the Russian army created out of the former Wagner Group after killing off the leadership.

Link

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