Hezbollah attacks Israel; Seven Israeli troops killed, two captured in major assault

Israeli troops move into South Lebanon


In a major attack on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, Hezbollah launched a major attack that killed 7 Israeli soldiers, left 11 civilians wounded and 2 wounded IDF soldiers captured as hostages.

This morning, Hezbollah launched dozens of Katyusha rockets and mortar bombs at the Israeli town of Shlomi and at Israeli positions in the Golan.

Four troops killed when their tank exploded on a mmine planted by Hezbollah in pursuit of the kidnappers, three were shot down during the raid itself.

The two kidnapped soldiers are reported to be Druze.

This afternoon, Iran's proxy Hezbollah began shelling Israeli posts on Mt Dov and the Shabaa Farms and the Israeli air force went into action, striking the Hezbollah positions. Five more Katyusha rockets were fired by Hezbollah over Mt Meron in Israel.

Israeli troops have crossed the border and the air force is bombing bridges and Hezbollah command posts in south Lebanon in an attempt to block the escape path of the Hezbollah raiders with their Israeli hostages.

"It is an act of war by the state of Lebanon against the state of Israel in its sovereign territory," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said of Hezbollah's action, threatening a "very painful and far-reaching" response.

Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese government, and was supposed to be disarmed by Lebanon according to a UN resolution...but needless to say, that never happened.

Hezbollah Chief Sheik Nazrullah was obviously happy about the results of the attack. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, he warned Israel that the Hizbullah would only release the captives in exchange for security prisoners.

"Our operation succeeded, we have results and honor," the sheikh declared. "We kept our promise to kidnap soldiers [to secure] the release of prisoners, and therefore are calling the attack 'Operation Promise Fulfilled.'"

The sheikh warned Israel not to try a rescue operation. "If Israel wants to retrieve [the soldiers] through military action, it's deluding itself," he said. "If the goal of this military operation is to free them, it won't work," Nasrallah said.

Nazrullah indicated that his group "might" release details on the kidnapped soldiers. "Maybe we'll release details in later announcements."

He also couldn't resist tweaking Olmert, Israeli Cheif of Staff Dan Halutz and Israeli defense minister Amir Peretz, calling them `green' and `inexperienced' and suggesting that they go to former Israeli leaders for help...

The result is that Israeli is now fighting on two fronts and forced to stage incursions into two territories evacuated by its troops and used as terrorist bases. But Lebanese differs from the Hamas front in Gaza in that Hizballah has 12,000 rockets and missiles trained on Israel, within range of Israel’s northern cities from Nahariya to Haifa and Hadera in central Israel.

Another difference is that Syria and perhaps even its new ally Iran are almost certain to become directly involved on the ground against the IDF.

Like the Shalit kidnapping, the turmoil in Iraq (and perhaps even North Korea's sabre rattling), Hezbollah's attack is designed to distract the world from Iran's stonewalling on the incentive package and buy more time for the mullahs to beef up their military and perfect their nukes, IMO. Both Hamas, Syria, the Iraqi Shia militias and Hezbollah are now Iranian pieces on the chess board.

The US today acknowledged this by blaming Syria and Iran today for the violence on the Lebanese border. National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a diplomatic trip to Paris, had been in direct contact with the parties in the region "with the purpose of holding Hezbollah accountable for its action."

"We also hold Syria and Iran - which directly support Hezbollah - responsible for this attack and for the ensuing violence," Jones said.

Stay tuned...