JUST NU: Israel anfaller Libanon [2006]

Iran on Friday denied US allegations that it is supporting Hizbullah's war against Israel, and Iranians who wanted to fight for the Lebanese group complained their government was stopping them from leaving the country.

Israel Defense Forces troops killed 26 Hezbollah gunmen in clashes in the southern Lebanon town of Bint Jbail. No IDF troops were hurt in the opreation, an army spokesperson said.

The IDF believes that at least 200 Hezbollah operatives have been killed since the fighting began more than two weeks ago, a military source said Friday.

Armed strength

Its strength is disputed, and has been variously estimated as "several thousand" [74] and "several thousand supporters and a few hundred terrorist operatives."[75] The latter is unlikely, however, given that military parades by Hezbollah in Beruit have illustrated more than 20 marching columns of armed militants with 50 men a piece.

The military wing of Hizbollah is considered to be the most capable non-state armed group in the Middle East. Any Hizbullah member receiving military training, has probably recieved it from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). The increasingly sophisticated methods used by Hizbollah members indicates that they are trained using Israeli and US military manuals; the emphasis of this training is on the tactics of attrition, mobility, intelligence gathering and night-time manoeuvres [76].

"---Ze'ev Schiff, the most respected military analyst in Israel commented: "Israel is far from a decisive victory and its main objectives have not been achieved."

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There has been, in the view of some military analysts, a mismatch between the major air campaign and the minor ground campaign.

The air attacks have copied the tactics of the US air force in both Gulf Wars but have not been followed up with the other half of the so-called "Powell doctrine" - the massive use of forces on the ground.

This is unlike the situation in 1978 when Israeli forces went right up to the Litani River some 20km (12.4 miles) to the north - or 1982 when they went to Beirut. Perhaps the memories of those days have affected current thinking.---"

"---"In fact … there is more of a rapprochement between the Sunni and Shia," according to Jean Francois Seznec, a Gulf specialist at Columbia University, who noted that Shia Hezbollah and Iran both support Sunni Hamas in the Palestinian territories and that Sunnis in Syria could be expected to rally behind the Alawi Assad regime if Damascus, which also supports Hezbollah, is drawn into the current conflict.

"[T]he real split here is between the Sunni autocrats and their very own citizens," wrote Fuller in an article for Global Viewpoint. "These Sunni regimes are terrified that Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and even Sunni Hamas are all creating inspirational models of independent mass resistance against reigning U.S. and Israeli power in the region."

That Sunni leaders now feel compelled to follow public opinion was made evident by several developments this past week, beginning with Egypt's rejection of Washington's proposal to hold Wednesday's emergency international conference on Lebanon at Sharm al-Sheik. As a result, the conference, at which Rice was found herself completely isolated in rejecting calls for an immediate cease-fire, was held in Rome instead.

Tuesday's angry and unusually harsh denunciation by Saudi Arabia of what it called "unremitting Israeli aggression," which also warned Washington in particular of unpredictable "repercussions befalling the region, including wars and conflict that will spare no one" if a cease-fire is not quickly achieved, was also taken as a major reversal of its previous views.---"