Israel Matzav

Their only enemy is the Jews

A senior Hezbullah commander was assassinated in Beirut around midnight on Tuesday night, and the Shiite terror organization is blaming the Jews.

A previously unknown group, Ahrar al-Sunna Baalbek brigade, claimed responsibility for the attack in a message on Twitter. The group's name suggested it had Lebanese Sunni Muslim links.

Al-Laqqis was on his way home when he was killed, the official Hezbollah television station Al-Manar said. It gave no detail of the operation but said "the accusation is directed at the enemy, Israel.”

Hezbollah described Laqqis, who will be buried in the Bekaa Valley town of Baalbek later in the day, as "one of the leaders of the Islamic resistance" against Israel who had been frequently targeted by the Jewish state.

He had been with Hezbollah since its first days in the 1980s, when it was set up with Iranian support to fight Israeli troops occupying south Lebanon, and his son was killed in the 2006 war, Hezbollah said in a statement.

"The Israeli enemy tried to get to our martyr brother several times, in more than one location, but these attempts failed until this repugnant assassination," it said.

Israel would "bear full responsibility and all the consequences for this heinous crime", it said.
But Israel denied involvement. "This has strictly nothing to do with Israel," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.

"Hezbollah has made a fool of itself in the past with these automatic and groundless accusations against Israel ... If they are looking for explanations as to what is happening to them, they should examine their own actions."

Hezbullah does indeed have its own set of enemies in Lebanon. But to admit that would mean admitting to failing to subjugate the Lebanese people and would deprive them of blaming the enemy everyone loves to hate. 

Labels: Hezbullah, Lebanon

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:22 PM