HIZB’ALLAH PREPARING TO DRIVE
OUT UNIFIL?
By Stan Goodenough
February 04, 2007
Is the Iranian-backed, Syrian-assisted Hizb’allah planning to drive the new UN Interim
Force in Lebanon UNIFIL from that country as it successfully drove out US and French peace-keeping troops two decades ago?
The possibility has been raised following a report in Jane’s Defence Weekly last week
that suspected Hizb’allah terrorists had been spotted planting a series of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against
Spanish UNIFIL troops.
While Hizb’allah accepted UNIFIL’s deployment in order to secure the August 14
UN-imposed ceasefire it sought after bleeding Israel last year, the Islamist organization is expected to now try and force
that “peace keeping” force to leave their land.
UNIFIL has not succeeded – some say it has not even tried – to prevent Hizb’allah
from rearming itself to pre-war levels in flagrant and uncaring breach of the ceasefire. Weapons convoys have been reported
almost ceaselessly entering Lebanon from Syria
since fighting came to an end.
Despite this suspected complicity on the part of the UN men, the terror group appears determined
to bite the hand that feeds it.
Initial signs may be relatively small, but Hizb'allah believes it can increase popular support
if it rids its land of infidel "occupiers."
Observers recall that terrorists believed to belong to, or sympathize with, Hizb'allah carried
out near-simultaneous “suicide” truck bombings against US Marines and French paratroopers in Beirut.
In all 242 Americans and 63 French were killed in the attacks, which lead directly to the
withdrawal of US forces from Lebanon.