Wednesday, June 26, 2013

The Unending heroic tale of Nicholas Blanford and Hizbullah commanders: Hajj and Roni and the rest

"With Sunni-Shiite tensions higher than ever because of war in neighboring Syria, it didn't take much to spark deadly fighting in the Lebanese city of Sidon. Hezbollah quickly jumped in.  A two-day battle between Lebanese troops and followers of a radical Sunni cleric, one of the most severe in Lebanon since Syria's uprising began, has starkly illustrated its perilous instability. It also brought powerful Hezbollah fighters into the fray, pitting the militant group founded to fight Israel against fellow Lebanese.  Although the Lebanese Army's special forces units spearheaded the assault on a mosque and compound belonging to Sheikh Ahmad Assir, a Salafist cleric who had holed up there with 200 to 300 of his followers, it became evident today that they received some assistance from Hezbollah's battle-hardened fighters. Today we are doing surgery," says Haj, a local commander of Hezbollah forces in an area on the eastern edge of Abra ..." (thanks Basim)