An Israeli soldier stands behind a mobile artillery battery firing into southern Lebanon minutes before a U.N. drafted cease-fire went into effect, August 14, 2006.
JERUSALEM, April 6 (UPI) -- A leading figure in the al-Qaida terrorist group said Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah is tacitly protecting Israelis by not attacking.
Salah al-Karawi, a leading al-Qaida operative, told a militant Web forum that Hezbollah and the Lebanese military have acted as "bodyguards" for Israel, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports.
"They don't allow us to act, but they don't strike Israel themselves," he said. Haaretz describes the operative as a document forger who is tasked with establishing al-Qaida cells across the world.
He went on to say that al-Qaida fighters would launch their own attacks against Israel from Lebanese soil in order to liberate the Palestinians from Israeli "occupation."
"Our organization must confront the traitors in Lebanon -- Hezbollah, the Lebanese army, (U.N. peacekeepers) -- and all those who protect southern Lebanon for Israel's sake," he added.
Hezbollah and Israel fought a bruising 34-day war in 2006. A U.N.-backed cease-fire agreement reminds Israel of its obligation to respect Lebanese sovereignty while calling on Hezbollah to disarm.
Hezbollah in 2009 won assurances from Lebanese lawmakers that it could keep its weapons in face of a persistent Israeli threat. Israel, for its part, is accused of launching daily military flights over Lebanese territory.
0 comments:
Post a Comment