Rockets Land in Hezbollah Stronghold in Beirut

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, gives a televised speech from an unknown location, May 25, 2013

Lebanese security officials say two rockets have hit a Beirut neighborhood that is a stronghold of Hezbollah militants.

Reports say the rockets landed in the southern part of the Lebanese capital Sunday, wounding at least three people. It was not clear who was responsible for firing them.

The rocket attacks came a day after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed his group will not stand by while the neighboring government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is attacked.

Nasrallah said in a speech Saturday that Hezbollah is fighting in Syria to protect Lebanon from the threat of radical Islamists.  It was the first time Nasrallah has publicly confirmed Hezbollah's fighting presence in Syria.

The speech was given as Syrian troops and Hezbollah fighters carried out the heaviest barrage of gunfire in a week-long battle to re-take the strategic town of Qusair from rebel fighters.

from VOA News
May 26, 2013

A policeman inspects damaged cars after two rockets hit houses and parked cars in Beirut suburbs May 26, 2013 (Reuters / Mohammed Azakir)

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Hezbollah says ready to receive "game-changing weapons" from Syria

BEIRUT, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese Hezbollah's chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel Thursday that his militia is ready to receive "game-changing weapons" from Syria.
"Israel bombed Syria in order to say that continuing to back the resistance (against Israel) and supply it with military aid will lead to the downfall of the regime," Nasrallah said in a televised speech, referring to Israel's airstrike on Syrian military facilities early Sunday.

"Israel knows that the source of strength of the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine is Syria, that's why it wants to remove it from the equation and to besiege the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine," he said.

"Syria's first response was the decision to grant the resistance 'game-changing' weapons which it had never acquired in the past," he said.

On the recent Israeli attacks on military targets in and near Damascus, the Hezbollah chief said "The objective (of the attacks) is to harm the capabilities of Syria and its army and to remove it from the equation of the conflict with the enemy."

"Syria does not have a peace treaty with Israel, but there is a truce agreement and everyone knows what Syria has offered to resistance movements, especially the Palestinian resistance," he said.

from XINHUA
Editor: Bi Mingxin
2013-05-10 03:08:27

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Iraq frees Hezbollah commander who helped mold Shia terror groups

By Thomas Joscelyn & Bill Roggio - LWJ - November 16, 2012

Iraq has freed Musa Ali Daduq, the senior Hezbollah commander who was tasked by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) to mold Shia terror groups into a Hezbollah-like entity. Daqduq was involved in the murder of five US soldiers in 2007. The US government transferred Daqduq to Iraqi custody in December 2011.

Daqduq was freed by Iraqi authorities last night and transferred to Lebanon, his lawyer told Reuters.

"There was no reason for his detention. Last night the decision was made to release him. He is out now and arrived in Beirut two hours ago," Daqduq's lawyer told Reuters. "There are no charges against him in Iraq. His detention was political, not legal."

Daqduq's release from Iraqi custody has been foreshadowed for months. In May, an Iraqi court ordered him to be released from custody, but Daqduq remained in prison while his case was appealed. In June, the US requested that Iraq extradite Daqduq so he could be tried in an American federal court. In August, an Iraqi court blocked his extradition to the US.

When the US transferred Daqduq to Iraqi custody last December, White House National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said that Iraqi officials assured the US they would prosecute Daqduq.

At the time of Daqduq's release from US custody, American officials said that they feared the Iraqi government would be pressured by Iran and Shia political parties to free him outright. The US Department of Justice had planned to prosecute Daqduq in a US court, but Republican Senators opposed the transfer of the terrorist to US soil for prosecution. Some wanted Daqduq to be tried by a military court at Guantanamo Bay, but the Obama administration has refused to allow the transfer of terrorists to the prison and instead has sought to close it.


Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/11/iraq_frees_hezbollah.php#ixzz2CTpaETVd

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Beirut Car Bomb Kills 8, Including Intel Chief

Soldiers inspect damage at scene of the explosion in the mostly Christian neighborhood of Achrafiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, October 19, 2012. (Jeff Nuemann/VOA)

BEIRUT — A huge car bomb detonated on a residential street in Beirut at Friday rush hour, killing at least eight people including the nation's intelligence chief.

Scores were wounded in the heavy damage of the largely Christian district, many of whose residents support opponents of President Bashar al-Assad in neighboring Syria.

Pan-Arab and Lebanese media reported that Wissam al-Hassan, who was in charge of a top intelligence unit, was killed and likely targeted. He led an investigation into a recent bomb plot that resulted in the arrest of a pro-Syrian Lebanese politician. He also led the probe that implicated Syria and the Hezbollah faction in the killing of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

No one took immediate responsibility for the blast and Syria condemned the bombing.

from VOANews
by Jeff Neumann
October 19, 2012

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