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Stand Alongside Hizballah, Lebanon's Army Tells Troops

[Guardian-UK] Clancy Chassay - An internal Lebanese army statement, circulated among forces in the past week, has called for troops to stand "alongside your resistance and your people who astonished the world with its steadfastness and destroyed the prestige of the so-called invincible army after it was defeated." The circular will fuel the concerns of Israel, the U.S., and the UN Security Council that the Lebanese army is incapable of securing the south of the country, adding increased urgency to the calls for a multinational force to be swiftly deployed. According to sources close to the army command, there has been a tacit agreement between Hizballah and the army that those fighters who hail from the south will return to their villages and all arms will be put out of sight. Suggestions from Washington that the Lebanese army should forcibly disarm Hizballah have been met with alarm by the army command. One defense analyst said that, in the south, the army often acted as a subordinate to Hizballah's military apparatus. "All intelligence gathered by the army is put at the disposal of Hizballah, but Hizballah does not offer the same transparency to the army," he said. "In a sense, military intelligence in the south is operating on Hizballah's behalf."
2006-08-21 01:00:00
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