Lebanon: A dozen Israeli Air Force jets buzzed Beirut

[Paparock]

Lebanon: A dozen Israeli Air Force jets buzzed Beirut

A dozen IAF warplanes entered Lebanese airspace on Monday, flying at will over Beirut and elsewhere in the country, the Lebanese army said. An army statement said that "12 enemy Israeli warplanes" violated Lebanese airspace before noon, four flying over the Mediterranean off the coastal city of Byblos in the north and then headed toward the eastern province of Hermel.

Eight other Israeli warplanes reportedly flew over the southern town of Rmeish, then headed north to Beirut, the Chouf mountains, southeast of the capital, and Hermel before heading back to the "occupied territories (as the Lebanese Army refers to the state Israel)" the statement said. The Israeli forays lasted about an hour.

There was no comment from the Israeli army, which typically does not comment on its sorties in Lebanon and elsewhere. IAF jets frequently fly over south Lebanon in what Israel describes as reconnaissance missions. The over-flights have drawn groundfire from Lebanese troops on at least two occasions since a UN-brokered cease-fire concluded the Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hizbullah guerrillas in August 2006.

[tropit]

Most probably in response to the report about the UNIFIL/Hezbollah encounter

[joejd12]

Most probably in response to the report about the UNIFIL/Hezbollah encounter


i find it much more likely its some sort of behind the scenes kind of thing to discourage lebanon from taking some sort of action...

probably our government has learned about something that involves lebanon and wants to shift them over to our side (or at least the other option from the one they wanted to take) by pointing out our military superiority....

[odie072]

Most probably in response to the report about the UNIFIL/Hezbollah encounter

I must have missed this one. I've searched and cannot find anything. What encounter??

odie072

[haamimhagolan]

I must have missed this one. I've searched and cannot find anything. What encounter??

odie072


The UNIFIL-Hezbollah encounter is described in the Haaretz article below:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/978398.html

To quote from the pertinent passage:
Israeli anger reached boiling point over a week ago after the release of a new report by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with regard to another Lebanon-related Security Council resolution, 1559. The report briefly mentioned an incident at the beginning of March in which UNIFIL soldiers encountered unidentified armed men, and included no additional details.

A day after the release of the report, Haaretz revealed that the incident described in the report had actually been a clash between UNIFIL and armed Hezbollah activists. The latter, driving a truck full of explosives, threatened the Italian UNIFIL battalion with weapons. Instead of using force as required by their mandate, the UN soldiers abandoned the site. A UN source told Haaretz that senior officials in UNIFIL and in the UN Secretariat brought heavy pressure to bear to have the incident erased from the report or at least to blur it.

When the incident was made public, UNIFIL was forced to admit that it had indeed occurred and to request Lebanon's assistance in investigating it. UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane said that during the incident, which took place near the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon, five armed men had threatened UNIFIL troops.

[dzone]

The UNIFIL-Hezbollah encounter is described in the Haaretz article below:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/978398.html

To quote from the pertinent passage:
Haaretz, always there to put critics on Jewish society !:cool: