Thanks to callmejoe for pointing to this link:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3523024,00.html
“Nasrallah: Zionists control media”
SNIPPET: “Hizbullah holds memorial service for assassinated top commander; Nasrallah tells crowd via satellite, ‘we see unprecedented Zionist and American infiltration of the media; can Israel disappear? A thousand times, yes’”
Roee Nahmias
Latest Update: 03.24.08, 16:27 / Israel News
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Hizbullah marks 40-day anniversary of Mugniyah killing: Thousands of Hizbullah supporters made their way to southern Beirut Monday in order to take part in a rally in the honor of Hizbullah’s top commander, Imad Mugniyah, assassinated in Damascus in February.
Speaking via satellite, Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah told the crowd “we found in our enemy nothing but concern and fear of Mugniyah’s spirit, blood, revenge, way, and pledge.
“We are celebrating 40 days to the death of the martyr commander. These are festive days for Muslims and Christians,” he said.
“Can Israel disappear? A thousand times, yes.””
http://www.memri.org/syria.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/syria/
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1205420766095&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
JPost.com » Middle East » Article
Mar 24, 2008 17:24 | Updated Mar 25, 2008 4:01
“’Syrian silence on Mughniyeh sign of tension with Hizbullah’”
By HERB KEINON AND YAAKOV KATZ
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Syria’s reticence in blaming Israel for killing arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, despite Hizbullah’s claims of having “100 percent proof” that Israel was involved, indicates that the issue is causing some friction between Syria and the Lebanese guerrilla group, according to assessments in Jerusalem.
Last month, Syria announced that it was launching an investigation into Mughniyeh’s assassination, but has so far not released any findings. This has raised eyebrows in Jerusalem, especially since Hizbullah’s Deputy Secretary-General Naim Kassem categorically blamed Israel over the weekend for the February car-bombing.”
after “a Tet” comes . . .?
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=48933§ionid=351020203
Iraq unrest casus belli for Lebanon war?
Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:37:56
The Israeli media accuses Hezbollah of involvement in fighting with US troops in southern Iraq amid fierce clashes in Basra.
Two Israeli right-wing newspapers reported that Hezbollah fighters joined Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army who are battling ‘for control of Basra and its oil resources’.
Heavy fighting broke out between Mahdi Army forces and Iraqi security members in Basra on Tuesday after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched a crackdown on “armed groups” in Iraq.
The report alleged that “the Iraqi [Hezbollah] draws on its Lebanese command for orders, fighters, arms and cash”.
The publication of report could be a scenario by the US and Israel to make case for waging another war against Lebanon, an Arab political analyst told Press TV, on condition of anonymity due to sensitivity of the issue.
Since Israel has found Hezbollah a powerful enemy, through making such accusation, Israel could involve the US in a possible attack on Lebanon or pave the way for US military intervention in the country, he added.
The report came after analysts warned that Israel is planning another Lebanon war and the US deployed more warships to the Mediterranean Sea.
Last Tuesday an Israeli warship violated Lebanese waters but was intercepted by a UNIFIL ship.
Syria has also deployed more troops to its border with Lebanon amid speculation that “Israel might attack the country and Lebanon if Hezbollah retaliated for in Damascus assassination of its senior commander Imad Mugniyah.”
In summer 2006, Israel fought a 33-day war with Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah but the recently published Winograd Report admitted that the war was a total failure for the regime.
SB/RE
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ig4DBkxmf96SfOK2LTosCaMle9nQ
Sadr militia battle troops in four Iraqi cities
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Moqtada al-Sadr’s militiamen Tuesday battled troops in four Iraqi cities on Tuesday, including the capital, as the hardline Shiite cleric threatened a countrywide campaign of civil revolt.
Heavy clashes broke out between Sadr’s Mahdi Army fighters in the southern oil city of Basra, killing at least seven people and wounding 48, and in Kut and Hilla, both south of Baghdad, officials said.
As evening fell, Mahdi Army fighters fought with Iraqi and US forces in their Sadr City bastion in eastern Baghdad for the first time since last October, a security official and witnesses told AFP.
Troops had surrounded the sprawling impoverished neighbourhood of two million people and armed Shiite fighters were roaming the streets, a witness said.
The fighting, which severely strains a ceasefire declared by Sadr in late August and renewed last month, prompted the cleric to issue a stern warning that he would launch protests and a nationwide strike if attacks against his movement and “poor people” are not halted.
“We demand that religious and political leaders intervene to stop the attacks on poor people. We call on all Iraqis to launch protests across all the provinces.
“If the government does not respect these demands, the second step will be general civil disobedience in Baghdad and the Iraqi provinces,” Sadr said in a statement read by his representative Hazam al-Aaraji in the holy city of Najaf.
Liqa al-Yassin, an MP from the Sadr bloc, told AFP that the Sadrists would boycott parliamentary proceedings “until the government agrees to our demands.”
“We are also starting a signature campaign to express no confidence in (Prime Minister) Nuri al-Maliki’s government,” he said.
Fighting raged from early morning in areas of Basra controlled by the Mahdi Army as troops and police launched a major crackdown on armed groups in the oil hub, considered the nerve centre of Iraq’s national economy.
At least seven people were killed and 48 wounded, among them dozens of members of the Iraqi security forces, according to police and medics.
An AFP correspondent said fighting in Basra died away late afternoon and the streets were empty even of security force vehicles.
Clashes raged sporadically in Kut as militants fought Iraqi and US forces but there were no immediate reports of casualties. At least two people died in the Hilla clashes, security officials said.
In August, Sadr ordered a ceasefire following bloody fighting in the shrine city of Karbala blamed on his fighters, which were involved in two rebellions against US forces in 2004.
While Iraqi and US officials say most members of the militia have heeded the order, a number of what the US military terms “rogue elements” continue to attack American forces with mortars, rockets and roadside bombs.
Despite the ceasefire, Mahdi Army members are being subject to raids by the “occupiers” and Iraqi forces which are “destroying Iraqi houses,” Sadr’s statement said.
“Iraqis in general and Mahdi members in particular are paying the price.”
British military officials said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was in Basra to personally oversee the major security force sweep in Iraq’s second largest city, but that British troops were not taking part.
An AFP correspondent said fighting involving mortars, machine guns and assault weapons erupted soon after the security forces entered the Al-Tamiyah neighbourhood, a bastion of Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia, at around 5:00 am (0200 GMT). The fighting quickly spread to five other Mahdi Army neighbourhoods.
Television pictures showed Iraqi troops running through the streets firing weapons and taking cover as ambulances raced past. Thick palls of smoke were seen rising above the city skyline.
In the wake of the fighting police also imposed curfews in five central-southern Shiite cities — Kut, Samawa, Nasiriyah, Hilla and Diwaniyah — as well as in Sadr City.
Basra province was handed over to Iraqi control by British forces in mid-December.
It has since become the theatre of a bitter turf war between the Mahdi Army, the Badr organisation allied to the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) of powerful politician Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, and the smaller Shiite party, Fadhila, ahead of provincial elections in October.
After touring Basra on Monday, Maliki vowed his government would restore order, saying the city was experiencing a “brutal campaign” by internal and external groups targeting “innocent men and women.”
“The federal Iraqi government... will restore security, stability and enforce law in this city.”
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD8VKJ2TO0
Clashes Break Out in Basra
By RYAN LENZ – 1 hour ago
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi forces clashed with Shiite militiamen Tuesday in the southern oil port of Basra and rockets rained down on the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad as followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr expanded a nationwide backlash against government crackdowns.
The U.S. Embassy said no deaths or serious casualties were reported in the Green Zone attacks — the second major barrage this week launched from Shiite areas. Two rockets landed on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s compound, but did not explode, an Iraqi government security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to disclose the information.
Al-Maliki was in Basra, where he is supervising the operation against the Shiite militia fighters. At least 25 people were killed in the Basra fighting, officials said.
The violence marked a stunning escalation in the confrontation between the Shiite-run government and al-Sadr’s forces, who have bitterly complained about the recent arrests of hundreds of backers.
The clashes also threaten to reverse the security gains achieved by U.S. and Iraqi forces. The Bush administration has hailed the decline in violence as a key sign that Iraq is headed for better days.
Al-Sadr declared a unilateral cease-fire last August. That move — along with a U.S. troop buildup and a Sunni alliance with the American forces — has contributed to a steep drop in violence.
But the truce is now under serious pressure. Al-Sadr’s allies have grown increasingly angry over U.S. and Iraqi raids and detentions, demanding the release of followers.
The cleric recently told his followers that the cease-fire remains in effect but that they were free to defend themselves against attacks.
Al-Sadr’s headquarters in Najaf also ordered field commanders with his Mahdi Army militia to go on maximum alert and prepare “to strike the occupiers” — a term used to describe U.S. forces — and their Iraqi allies, a militia officer said. He declined to be identified because he wasn’t supposed to release the information.
More than 2,000 supporters of al-Sadr danced through the streets with olive branches and copies of the Quran during demonstrations in Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad. Similar protests were held earlier in the day in Baghdad.
Lawmakers from al-Sadr’s movement announced in a Baghdad press conference that a general strike campaign — which began in selected neighborhoods of the capital and included the closure of businesses and schools — was being expanded nationwide.
Three police officers were kidnapped from a checkpoint in eastern Baghdad, a police official said on condition on anonymity because he wasn’t supposed to release the information.
Stores and schools also were closed in several other predominantly Shiite neighborhoods in the capital, and armed Mahdi Army members were seen patrolling the streets in some Shiite neighborhoods of the capital.
In Basra, Iraqi soldiers and police battled Mahdi fighters for control of key neighborhoods in Iraq’s second-largest city, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad. The fighting erupted a day after al-Maliki flew there and announced the security crackdown against the militias.
AP Television News video showed smoke from explosions rising over the city and Iraqi soldiers exchanging gunfire with militia members.
Basra accounts for most of Iraq’s oil exports, but an oil ministry official, declining to be identified because he wasn’t supposed to publicly discuss the sensitive issue, said production and exports had not been affected by the fighting.
Curfews were also imposed in the Shiite cities of Kut, where a large number of Mahdi Army gunmen were seen deploying on the streets, and Nasiriyah.
In Baghdad, suspected Mahdi Army gunmen exchanged gunfire with security guards of the rival Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council in Sadr City, police said.
The rising tension led many people in Shiite neighborhoods to stay at home rather than venture into contested streets.
Athra Ali, 27, a government employee who lives in the Hurriyah neighborhood, said she decided not to go to work after seeing many shops closed and streets abandoned.
A university lecturer at Baghdad’s Mustansiriyah University also said the institution had closed early and sent students home.
Security in Basra had been steadily declining well before the British handed over responsibility for security to the Iraqis on Dec. 16.
Col. Karim al-Zaidi, spokesman for the Iraq military, said security forces were encountering stiff resistance from Mahdi Army gunmen in the city.
The U.S. military said Tuesday that five suspected militants were killed in Basra while attempting to place a roadside bomb. Ten others were injured after being spotted conducting suspicious activity, the statement said.
British troops remained at their base at the airport outside Basra and were not involved in the ground fighting Tuesday, according to the British Ministry of Defense.
But three British jets provided aerial surveillance for the Iraqi forces, said Maj. Tom Holloway, a military spokesman in Basra.
He said the British jets have not dropped any bombs because the Iraqi forces “haven’t yet asked.”
U.S. officials have insisted they are not going after Sadrists who respect the cease-fire. Instead, the Americans are targeting rogue elements, known as “special groups,” that the military believes have ties to Iran. Tehran denies that it is fueling the violence.
The U.S. military blamed Iranian-backed Shiite militia factions for a spate of rocket attacks that struck the Green Zone and surrounding areas on Monday.
The Sadrists allege that rival militia factions have infiltrated the security forces and are targeting the movement to gain advantage in provincial elections expected this fall.
Associated Press writers Bushra Juhi, Sinan Salaheddin and Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report.