Saturday August 19,2006
Hezbollah, Syria, Continue to Smuggle Arms Through BaalBeq,Lebannon

Isreali commandos attacked a Hezbollah - Syrian arms smuggling operation early Saturday morning. An Israeli officer was killed and two soldiers were wounded. The operation killed three Hezbollah gunmen who were working on the smuggling of re-supplies to Hezbollah units in Southern Lebanon. Israel's spokesman, Mark Regev said that the operation was carried out
based on real intelligence that there was a direct violation of the cease fire by Hezbollah. Under the terms of the cease fire , Hezbollah must disarm and not be re-supplied.
IDF sources reported that the operation was carried out successfully.










Hezbollah Searches near cornfield
where IDF troops were extracted early Saturday.

The Israeli army said the commandos blew up a bridge used to smuggle weapons from Syria and Iran to Hezbollah. There's speculation that Israel hoped to kidnap a senior Hezbollah official to use as a bargaining chip to win the release of two captured Israeli soldiers.












IDF troops return to Israel and unload weapons, Saturday 8/19/06

DEBKA file's militry sources add: Iran and Syria have used the halt in Israeli attacks since last Monday, Aug. 14, to send over Hizballah fresh weapons supplies including rockets in direct violation of the UN ceasefire and 1701 resolution imposing an arms embargo. No monitoring system is in place on the Lebanese-Syrian border.
Also since the truce, a group of Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers, including generals, has arrived to set up a forward command on the Syrian side of the Lebanese border. They have told Hizballah to start reconstituting its southern Nasser Brigade which was damaged by Israeli forces and also serves the group as its short-range rocket unit. more- www.debka.com

Running From ResponsibilityAugust 20, 2006: The ceasefire deal is coming apart more quickly than originally expected. The European nations, which had originally promised combat troops, and a willingness to enforce the ceasefire in southern Lebanon (that is, disarm Hizbollah) are rapidly backpedaling. France, which had talked about leading the peacekeepers, and providing thousands of troops, when the ceasefire was being pushed through the UN, now offers 200 troops, and wants no part of leading the operation. This is angering the UN, because everyone admits that only the well trained, and fairly incorruptible, European soldiers stand a chance of being able to disarm Hizbollah and assure peace in Lebanon. At the moment, most of the nations offering troops are Moslem. These soldiers would not crack down on Hizbollah, and would assure another round of fighting between Israel and the terrorists. The UN wants 3,500 peacekeepers in place by August 28th, and all 15,000 by late November. So far, it appears that this will not happen. The UN continues to appeal for troops, and condemn Israeli efforts to enforce the ceasefire conditions (that Hizbollah not rearm and reoccupy bases in southern Lebanon.) As in the past, the UN will pass resolutions demanding action, but will do nothing, except criticize Israel for defending itself. http://www.strategypage.com