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UK to ban Hizbullah military wing at lastMove comes after Hizbullah caught training Iraqi insurgentsBy ICEJ News  The British government is finally adding the military wing of Hizbullah to its list of terrorist groups banned in the UK, after evidence surfaced that members of the armed Lebanese faction were training fellow Shi'ite militiamen in Iraq to attack British and US forces.The move would mean that Britain could prosecute people for being a member of an affilitated banned group, and that fundraising and other activities for the military wing would be prohibited, although the terrorist group's social and political work in Britain will be unaffected. Until now Britain, as with the wider European Union, has refused to blacklist Hizbullah as a terrorist organization, arguing that it enjoys political legitmacy since its members sit in the Lebanese parliament. Israeli officials insist, however, that drawing a distinction between the group's military and political 'wings' is artificial, since Hizbullah's goals are illegitimate: Islamizing Lebanon against the public's will and continuing its 'armed resistance' to destroy the Jewish state. Yet suddenly the United Kingdom is changing course, after the Iraqi government complained that Hizbullah instructors, possibly including veterans of the 2006 war with Israel, have been training Shi'ite insurgents who are fighting Iraqi and coalition troops, including British soldiers. According to two Shi'ite lawmakers and a top army officer, the training was being conducted at two camps - Deir and Kutaiban – east of Basra in southern Iraq until several months ago when they relocated to Iran. The Hizbullah personnel also participated in planning raids against US and British targets in Iraq, including attacks against the American compound in Karbala in January of 2007 in which five Americans were killed and a brazen daylight kidnapping of five British nationals from a Finance Ministry compound in Baghdad in May 2007. These five British hostages are still being held. The US military in Iraq has been very reticent about releasing information they have on Hizbullah operatives in the country, but various sources claim US and allied forces have made numerous arrests and detentions of Hizbullah members in recent years. According to sources close to Hizbullah in Lebanon, the terror militia's leader sheik Hassan Nasrallah devotes several hours a day to operations in Iraq, and has spoken about Iraqi "resistance" on numerous occasions. His brazen anti-American stand and the summer 2006 war with Israel have won Nasrallah admiration throughout the region, even among Sunni Muslims. Iran is also likely involved in the expansion of Hizbullah's activities into Iraq, since the group's Arab militiamen blend in easier with Iraq's Arab Shi'ite population better than Persian operatives from Iran. |
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