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Pictures of Hezbollah Tunnels in Lebanon
http://counterterrorismblog.org/
By CTB Special Correspondent

Editor's Note: "Karim" is a special correspondent for the Counterterrorism Blog in Lebanon who posted on August 28, July 24, and September 6. He submitted pictures of Hezbollah tunnels found by Israeli soldiers upon entry into Lebanon. I don't know if these have already been published elsewhere on an English-language site (a quick search turned up none of these pictures). Here is an excerpt from an August 28 Reuters report on the tunnels:

Hizbollah's fortified underground structures proved a major stumbling block for the 34-day Israeli offensive that ended in a truce on Aug. 14. At least a dozen commandos died storming them, and guerrillas used them to shell northern Israel from cover. Footage of the site showed tunnels high enough to walk in, with ventilation and lighting systems, bathrooms, painted walls and reinforced ceilings. Hatches to the outside were screened by trees and shrubs. A mortar launcher was shown tucked, half concealed, in an open-air trench nearby. Lieutenant-Colonel Ghassan Alyan, the Israeli mission commander, said the underground network covered an area of 2 square km (0.8 square miles). "Dozens of command bunkers were built inside the network, divided into two or three rooms each," he told Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. "They enabled the terrorists to come out of the bunkers, fire mortars at Israel, and re-enter the bunkers without being discovered by anyone." Israeli television said the military believed there were about 10 more similar networks in southern Lebanon.





More pictures on continuation page

Read More » http://counterterrorismblog.org/2006/09/pictures_of_hezbollah_tunnels.php#007812

Claims That Two Leaders of Al Qaeda in Iraq Taken Out (updated)
By Andrew Cochran

First piece of good news from Iraq: "Iraq's Interior Ministry says its forces have killed a senior figure of the Al Qaeda militant group in Baghdad. The ministry described the slain militant, Abu Jaafar al-Liby, as the number-two leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, behind Abu Ayyub al-Masri who succeeded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killed by US forces this year." I would caution that the Interior Ministry sometimes exaggerates its successes and the rankings of those terrorists killed and captured.

And another leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq has been captured: U.S. forces captured the leader of the assassination, kidnapping and bomb making cells in Baghdad. The man, not identified by U.S. forces by name, is described as a "personal associate" of the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir (or "Abu Ayyoub al-Masri" according to the U.S. military there). The Iraqi Defense Ministry describes the captured man as the fourth-ranking leader of al Qaeda in Iraq and named him as Thamer Mohsen al- Jibouri, a.k.a. Abu Ayman. The Ministry said he was arrested in the same area in which Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed.

UPDATE: Here is the official DOD press release on the capture, and you can watch video of the announcement here. The release notes, "During the past two weeks, more than 150 focused operations resulted in 66 terrorists killed and 830 terror suspects detained."

More on these events later as we obtain more confirmation of the killing claimed by the Iraqis.

September 14, 2006 09:33 AM Link TrackBack (1) Print

Nasrallah is fast losing popularity even in its own ranks
By Olivier Guitta

Indeed a recent poll shows that the majority of Lebanese do not think that Hezbollah won the war over Israel. While one could have expected the reversal of fortune of Nasrallah's movement among Christians and Sunnis what's the most surprising is that he is attacked by two major figures in the Shia community.

The first one is a very well respected Sayeed Ali Al Amin ( a descendant of the prophet like Nasrallah is) who has been very vocal attacking Nasrallah for his illegal war against israel. His views are now little by little being followed in the Shia community.

The second one is none other than President of the parliament and spokesman for Nasrallah during the war Nabih Berry, the head of the Amal movement the rival Shia movement to Hezbollah which was near extinction. Amal is now getting traction among Shias and their views are much more moderate than Hezbollah's.

It looks like that for the first time Nasrallah inded committed a major mistake...

September 13, 2006 06:45 PM
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