From: hernlem@chess.ncsu.EDU (Brad Hernlem)
Subject: Muslim guerrillas launch new attack on Israeli-held zone
Reply-To: hernlem@chess.ncsu.EDU (Brad Hernlem)
Organization: North Carolina State University
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 20:39:18 GMT

reposted from soc.culture.lebanon:

[ Article cross-posted without permission ]

	BEIRUT, Lebanon (UPI) -- Muslim guerrillas linked to the pro-Iranian
Hezbollah group again attacked a position of the pro-Israeli South
Lebanon Army militia early Saturday inside Israel's self-proclaimed 
``security zone'' in southern Lebanon.
	Meanwhile, Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said an Israeli
military buildup in the southern border zone only was part of a 
``psychological war'' and denied his group holds an Israeli airman
captured in 1986, the As Safir newspaper said Saturday.
	Muslim guerrillas attacked shortly after midnight an SLA post on the
Ali Al Taher hill at the edge of the border area, overlooking the market
town of Nabatiyeh, 33 miles south of Beirut.
	The guerrillas and SLA soldiers exchanged machine-gun fire and
rocket-propelled grenades, security sources said. One SLA militiaman was
slightly wounded.
	The Islamic Resistance Movement, the military arm of Hezbollah,
claimed responsibility for the attack Saturday and said the SLA
retaliated by raining artillery fire into the hills overlooking the
nearby village of Kfar Tibnit.
	It was the fourth such attack by Muslim guerrillas since Sunday, when
Israeli warplanes blasted Hezbollah positions in Ein El Tineh in
southwestern Bekaa Valley, killing four Hezbollah fighters and wounding
six others.
	The violence in southern Lebanon was fueled further when Muslim
fighters counterattacked by firing Soviet-made Katyusha rockets into
northern Israel and the security zone, prompting Israel to mass troops
and move tanks to the Lebanese border.
	The Hezbollah chief, in a lengthy interview with As Safir, said the
Israeli ground movements were aimed primarily at intimidating the Muslim
resistance guerrillas.
	``Such an intimidation does not affect us because it is clear that
those who want to launch a large military offensive do not call for
journalists to cover these reinforcements and do not dispatch a great
number of cannons and vehicles and just little of troops,'' Nasrallah
said.
	``This is all part of a psychological war and we believe that it will
not result in anything,'' he said.
	Nasrallah described threats made by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin against Hezbollah ``as an attempt to calm down the hard-line
Israeli parties.''
	The Hezbollah chief said Israel cannot launch a large offensive
similar to its 1982 invasion of Lebanon, in which it chased out the
Palestine Liberation Organization, ``because it will suffer considerable
political and human losses.''
	``They would rather continue the air strikes and probably resort to
limited incursions,'' the bearded official said. ``But even these
limited operations will be very costly and difficult for the Israelis.''
	Nasrallah also said his group was ready to swap ``Israeli and SLA
prisoners we are detaining for hostages and detainees held by Israel''
but accused Israel of creating a false issue by insisting information on
Ron Arad, an Israeli airman reported captured in 1986.
	``Complications are facing such a swap because of the issue of Ron
Arad,'' he told As Safir. ``Israel is pressing us for information on
him, knowing that he is not with us and we have no information on him.''
	Arad, who was captured when his plane was shot down over southern
Lebanon in 1986, is among six Israeli servicemen listed as missing in
action. Israeli military officials have said they believe Arad is the
only one still alive.
	Meanwhile, some 250 Lebanese prisoners, including 15 women, are held
at the Khiyam prison inside the Israeli-controlled security zone.
	Nasrallah said resistance remains the only option to achieve the
liberation of southern Lebanon. ``But we reject the method of sending
teams to launch attacks against enemy positions and then running away to
issue claims (of responsibility). This is a useless approach,'' he said.
	``We never fired those (Katyusha) rockets except in special cases
against attempts to advance or against massing of (Israeli) troops and
reinforcements,'' Nasrallah said.
	He also said his group retaliates against Israeli air and ground
attacks on Shiite villages that have killed civilians and destroyed
houses.
	``In such cases, no one can tell me the use of this weapon is
permitted and the use of that is not,'' Nasrallah said.
	While ``our people are able to take losses and make sacrifices, the
Jewish people cannot,'' he said. ``Those who come from Ukraine, Russia
or Ethiopia want to have a quiet life and therefore cannot take what our
people can take.
	``We have decided on a war of attrition against the enemy ... and
must strike where it hurts the enemy most if the pressure on us is to be
relaxed,'' Nasrallah said.