UNIFIL finds Katyusha rockets in south Lebanon

By ICEJ News

26 Jun 2009

The United Nations forces stationed in South Lebanon to enforce UN Resolution 1701 have been getting more aggressive lately and this week discovered a cache of 20 Katyusha rockets that were ready for launch, most likely by Hizbullah. Israel believes that most of Hizbullah’s arsenal in the border area has been stored in homes and mosques inside villages to protect it from the UN inspections and IAF strikes in the event of war with Israel. Israel also is concerned that Hizbullah remains anxious to avenge the assassination of their terror chief Imad Mughiyah in Damascus in February 2008. Terror attacks planned against Israeli embassies and other targets in Europe and the America’s have been recently thwarted, leading some security officials to worry that Hizbullah might launch missiles or other cross-border strikes on the North instead, in part to prove that they are still relevant after failing to gain ground in Lebanon’s recent parliamenta ry elections. The terror group’s failure to rebuild homes and infrastructure damaged during the Second Lebanon War in 2006 is believed to have contributed to Hizbullah’s disappointing showing in the early June national elections in Lebanon, and there have also been reports that the Shiite terror militia is having trouble finding new recruits to fill its ranks. Meanwhile, the new Lebanese parliament on Thursday (June 25) re-elected Hizbullah ally Nabih Berri for a fifth consecutive term as speaker. The move "consolidates national unity and preserves civil peace," said majority leader Saad Hariri, who is expected to be named prime minister on Saturday.

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