9-Dec-11: Up north, it's continuing to grow hotter

At the scene of today's attack on French
UNIFIL soldiers [Image Source]

We noted here a week and a half ago that the terrorists who occupy southern Lebanon are raising the stakes - something that is always deliberate and calculated. [And to see why, check the end of this blog entry.] This morning, five French soldiers deployed as part of the UNIFIL presence up there, were injured by a roadside bomb in the Bourj al-Shamali area, near the port city of Tyre, the third such attack this year (so far). 

The Washington Post says “UNIFIL’s forensic and investigation teams are at the location of the explosion, working in close cooperation with their counterparts of the Lebanese Army to determine all the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident”. UNIFIL has been deployed in the area since 1978. Their task is to monitor the Lebanese border with Israel and - since the war of 2006 - to monitor a zone south of the Litani River where Hezbollah is banned from keeping weapons. Anyone with eyes and brains knows the attacks on UNIFIL soldiers are carried out by Hezbollah, and anyone who reads the news knows weapons are deployed deeply and extensively in the entire south-of-Litani region.

About those previous roadside bomb attacks:

• In May 2011, a convoy of Italian soldiers was hit, killing one, wounding six. 
• In July 2011, a convoy carrying French soldiers was hit, wounding five. 
• And in the most deadly of the recent attacks, a bomb was fired at a UNIFIL armored personnel carrier in June 2007, just near the Israeli border (where the Hezbollah are forbidden to have any weaponry - hah). It killed six Spanish peacekeepers.

The wire services laconically state time and time again that "no group has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks". But everyone understands it's the Hezbollah jihadists, acting on orders from their masters in Beirut and Teheran. 

Here's a Lebanese comment on the rising religious/military fervor in Hezbollah circles:

"Anyone monitoring Hezbollah’s rhetoric over the last several days could not but notice a spike in its apocalyptic pitch. Perhaps it was the religious occasion of Ashura, but more likely, it was the result of the tense regional situation, namely the increased paranoia in Tehran. Convinced that an attack against them is imminent, the Iranians are now preparing for war and publicly declaring that Hezbollah, and thus Lebanon, will be their first line of defense. That is why in his most recent speeches, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has been preparing the Shia community in advance for the ruin that awaits them as a consequence... The group’s first and foremost task is to be Iran’s long arm. The Iranians are now making this fact known explicitly. Two weeks ago, Yahya Rahim Safavi, former commander of the Revolutionary Guards and military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Guide, Ali Khamenei, declared  that in case of an Israeli attack on Iran, the Iranian retaliation will come from Lebanon, “because all the Zionist cities are within the range of our ally Hezbollah's Katyushas.” In other words, the order has been given and Hezbollah is up to bat." [More]

Clear enough?