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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Hezbollah chief welcomes prisoners |
| 2008-07-17 |
| Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a rare public appearance, welcomed five Lebanese freed from captivity in Israel on Wednesday after his guerrilla group returned the bodies of two captured Israeli soldiers. Nasrallah, who moves in secret for security reasons, emerged briefly to embrace the ex-prisoners at a rally in Beirut and declared the exchange a victory for Hezbollah and Lebanon. "This people, this nation and this country, which gave a clear image today, cannot be defeated," he told the crowd before leaving to deliver a speech by video link from a safe location. A grim mood prevailed in Israel, where the prisoner swap was widely seen as a painful necessity two years after the capture of the two Israeli army reservists sparked a 34-day war in which about 1,200 people in Lebanon and 159 Israelis were killed. Among the released captives was Samir Qantar, who had been Israel's longest-serving Lebanese prisoner and whom Israelis revile for his part in a 1979 Palestinian guerrilla attack. The International Committee of the Red Cross brought the men to the border town of Naqoura. Wearing military fatigues, they marched down a red carpet flanked by a Hezbollah honour guard. Two Lebanese army helicopters then flew them to Beirut, where President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri kissed them at the airport. "Your return is a new victory," Suleiman declared. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #6 It's time to start killin muslims. Period. Any sick religion that would react to that situation (prisoner swap) the way they did deserve to be eradicated. Worse than Nazis. Oh and Isreal should be ashamed. |
| Posted by: Hellfish 2008-07-17 19:51 |
| #5 Hell, Hit is whole home town, they turned out to welcome the POS back, snuff 'em all, salt the earth. |
| Posted by: Rob06 2008-07-17 15:17 |
| #4 Hit him, and then hit the car swarm afterwards. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2008-07-17 14:02 |
| #3 It would seem that they mean it... His release and return to a jubilant hero's welcome in Lebanon drew condemnation in Israel, where security officials warned he was now a target for killing. "Every terrorist who committed an act of terror against Israel, especially someone like Kantar, who killed a little child and two other people, is a target," one official told AFP. Let's hope so. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-07-17 14:00 |
| #2 What a miserable excuse for a human being. Holding up a baby killer and some kind of hero is probably the most barbaric and inhumane act he could possibly engage in. If he had any common decency, he would put the man on trial in Lebanon for murder and put him right back in jail. War is one thing, killing a child and then killing the child's father in front of the remaining child is the act of an animal, not a human being. Nasrallah and Hezbollah are a band of insane maniacs. May God have mercy on their souls for they will surely face harsh judgment. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-07-17 12:23 |
| #1 Samir sez he still wants to be a martyr. Israel may try to accomodate him. Israel threatens to assassinate Quntar Bethlehem - Ma'an - An Israeli security source said on Thursday that a day after his release from Israeli prison, Samir Quntar is a target for assassination by Israeli forces. The Israeli Hebrew newspaper Yediot Ahronot quoted the source as saying, “Israel will get him, he will be assassinated and Mosad will not take too long to kill him.” When questioned on whether he saw the assassination threat as a breach of the agreement with Hezbollah he said, “there are no commitments regarding Quntar’s life, he is a damned killer and we will make him pay back soon.” Quntar was the most controversial of the prisoners freed on Wednesday as part of the swap between Hizbollah and Israel. He was held in Israeli prison from 1979 until 2008 for the killing of three Israeli civilians. Quntar is portrayed in the Israeli media as a monster and his release caused consternation amongst some sections of Israeli society. This assassination threat could be seen as an attempt to make up for what is seen widely as a victory for Hezbollah at the expense of Israel. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-07-17 10:37 |