Wasn't body count last year around 1.000 dead on Lebanese side and about 150 on Israeli?Originally Posted by tequila
Plus arguemnt could be made that last year's fighting led to political confrontation between Hezbollah and rest of government resulting in protests and couple of deaths.
Historic-Battles forum moderator
Posted on the Counterterrorism Blog, 1 Jun 07:
Video Threat to Lebanon from "Al-Qa'ida in Greater Syria"On May 25, 2007, copies of a new video recording were publicly distributed over password-protected Al-Qaida Internet websites after being authenticated by the pre-eminent Al-Fajr Media Center. The seven-minute recording contains a speech by a masked individual identifying himself only as the “military commander of Al-Qaida’s Committee in Al-Shams” (“Greater Syria”). This is the first known occasion that any individual or organization inside of Lebanon has explicitly identified themselves as part of the international Al-Qaida terrorist network....
AQ has opened up a new front. Damn. I wonder if we are going to let the Lebanese Army handle this alone. I've read we've been shipping ammo over to them.
It seems it doesn't matter how podunk or backwater your group is.
Say the magic word Al-Qaeda and you get news time.
I'm just surprised its taken this long for it to happen in this area.
This is an excellent observation. AQ has had a supporting Jihadist organization in Lebanon for some time called the Asabat al-Ansar in Southern Lebanon ... they have lost dozens of men, including their senior commander, fighting in Iraq. Somehow this minor group, Fatah-Al-Islam got associated with the words "Al Qaeda" because they are Sunni and militants... now theyare part of AQ Global? ... this works so well in AQ's global IO campaign... AQ may actually start supporting them and they may actually becaome what we say they are.
However a cautionary note: When AQ names a wing with the region behind it, it generally means that they are taking aim at the regime there. Syria now has bigger problems than Israel if AQ plans to operate in that region and with all of those new Saudi "tourists" coming in and out of Iraq with combat experience they may be asking us and the Israelis for assistance with their Salafist problems soon enough. For Israel this is another bad sign of what happens when you don't back the devils you know... as if Hizballah and HAMAS teach them that lesson.
Putting Foot to Al Qaeda Ass Since 1993
You're right. I was only thinking of the March 14 vs March 8 political confrontation.
As far as Fatah al-Islam is concerned, it's instructive sometimes to listen to bin Laden's own words:
All that we have mentioned has made it easy for us to provoke and bait this administration. All that we have to do is to send two mujahidin to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaida, in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note ...
The Jamestown Foundation's Terrorism Focus, 12 Jun 07:
Are Outside Actors Funding Sunni Islamist Groups in Lebanon's Camps?
...Since the emergence of Fatah al-Islam as an armed jihadi threat earlier this spring, Lebanon's Sunni-led March 14 coalition has been forced to answer charges from the Hezbollah-led opposition and others that it—as well as its Saudi and Jordanian allies—has been funding Sunni Islamist groups like Fatah al-Islam in an effort to counter the strength of Hezbollah's weapons and manpower. Links between Fatah al-Islam and the Syrian regime that emerged following the recent clashes made those accusations easier to counter; with respect to the armed groups in Ain al-Helweh, however, the accusations have been both more frequent and harder to disprove....
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks