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Hezbollah Stages Mass Military Drill
Monday.
According to the report, the exercise was three days long and spanned thousands of the Islamic resistance movement`s fighters.
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was said to have commanded the drill personally.
According to the sources quoted by Al-Akhbar, one of the exercise`s main objectives was to convey to the Zionist regime the "big surprises" Sayyed Nasrallah had threatened to unleash if Israel attacks Lebanon.
The exercise, the report said, was meant to deter occupation regime from launching another assault against Lebanon, and increase Hezbollah`s readiness.
Hezbollah resistance fighters gathered south of the Litani River for an "exercise of defensive nature against an overall Israeli strike", and which set to prove that the scope of Hezbollah`s missiles could cover the entire territory of Israeli settlements.
The drill included the mass deployment of fighters, including thousands of infantry fighters, anti-tank missile units, anti-aircraft missile units, the engineering unit and the movement`s star units of rocket launchers.
The drill reportedly took into account the Israeli army`s deployment near the Palestine-Lebanon border, as well as the deployment of UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) and Lebanese forces in southern Lebanon.
UNIFIL "was amazed by the covert action of Hezbollah, which was able to keep the drill under wraps right up to its start."
"The Israeli Air Force followed the exercise with "unprecedented activity along the border," added the report.
"We hope the enemy, like our friends, will understand Hezbollah`s willingness to stop any Israeli threat," said Sayyed Nasrallah at the drill`s conclusion.
Hezbollah conducted the drill while aware of the mass intelligence activity in the area, both by Israel and by other nations," Al-Akhbar siad.
Monday`s report marked the first time Hezbollah, with its highly secretive military wing, revealed such exercises through a close newspaper.
Hezbollah officials declined to comment. However, a Hezbollah legislator, Hassan Fadlallah, said it was only "natural`` that the group be fully ready to confront any possible Israeli attack.
"Clearly, we will not let Israel carry out aggression against Lebanon and we sit still,`` he told Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. television, referring to the increased Israeli military flights over southern Lebanon in recent days.
The maneuvers came a few days after Israel held major military exercises in the north of the occupied territories near the Lebanese border.
The Israeli action was interpreted by some Lebanese media as preparation by the Zionist regime for a possible new war with Hezbollah.
Hezbollah`s drills could be an attempt to counter the Israeli exercises.
"A state of Israeli alertness is countered by extraordinary movement by the resistance (Hezbollah),`` read a front-page headline Monday in As-Safir, another newspaper close to Hezbollah.
It quoted witnesses in southern Lebanon as saying they observed "unusual movement`` by Hezbollah for the first time since last year`s war, but gave no further details.
There was no immediate comment from officials of the UN peacekeeping force, which has 13,500 soldiers who patrol a buffer zone near the border with the occupation regime with the help of 15,000 Lebanese troops.
But As-Safir quoted Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano, the commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon as warning Lebanese leaders he met in Beirut last week that the tension in the south and a deepening political crisis in the country might prompt European countries "to withdraw from UNIFIL within less than four months.``
Commenting on the reported Hezbollah maneuvers, a Lebanese security official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity in line with government regulations, said Lebanese forces in south Lebanon "did not register any armed presence south of the Litani.``
Al-Akhbar said Hezbollah`s maneuvers were carried out all along the border with the occupation regime "in extreme secrecy without any show of arms.``
Nasrallah said last week his resistance group has grown stronger since last summer`s war as Israel has weakened. He said his fighters did not want war but "will not allow anyone to attack our villages, people and country.``
The Lebanese army command has in the last few days issued statements noting increased Israeli overflights in southern Lebanon in violation of the cease-fire resolution.
Hezbollah conducted largest military exercise while aware of the mass intelligence activity in the area, both by Israel and by other nations.
Alalam.ir