Hezbollah threatened Israel on Tuesday with a series of “showcase” attacks on its own soil and in the southern Lebanon security zone, to prevent the proposed Middle East peace conference from taking place this month or to disrupt it if it does.
Leaders of the pro-Iranian, Shi’ite fundamentalist militia told a news conference in Beirut that Hezbollah has the active support and encouragement of the Teheran government for its undertaking.
Hezbollah already seems to have joined battle against the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army.
The SLA imposed curfews on Shi’ite villages just north of the security zone Tuesday, firing automatic weapons at farmers who showed their faces out of doors.
The SLA, a mainly Lebanese Christian force supported and equipped by Israel, is furious over a Katyusha rocket barrage from the vicinity of the villages Monday. The barrage followed six hours of shelling by SLA artillery.
The shelling, which reportedly caused severe damage to homes, was retaliation for the death of one SLA soldier and the wounding of two others by roadside bombs that exploded in the security zone Sunday. Hezbollah took credit for planting them.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
