Thursday, January 20, 2011

Fox News:

Hezbollah Staged a Mock Takeover of Beirut
January 19, 2011 - 10:23 AM
by: Dana Karni

The Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reported that Hezbollah activists performed a drill on Monday attempting to take over the Lebanese capitol of Beirut. According to the report, the activists practiced "a real, unarmed drill meant to test their readiness to takeover Beirut and its surroundings, including airports and harbors."

There have been reports of groups of men - dressed in trademark Hezbollah black- gathering on Beirut streets on Tuesday raising tensions that later quietly dispersed. It seems that the group focused their drill on 12 strategic locations among them some UN institutions.

The drill happening soon after Special Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare submitted the indictment to the international court in The Hague after completing his investigation of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The first draft indictments remain sealed but they are expected to implicate Syria and members of Hezbollah in the 2005 killing. Hezbollah has sought to discredit the Tribunal's findings calling it an "American and Israeli tool". After Prime Minister Saad Hariri and son of the slain leader refused to disavow the tribunal investigating his father's death, 11 Hezbollah Ministers and its political allies resigned from the unity coalition forcing the toppling the government.

The militant group has said in the past it would not allow the authorities to arrest or indict any of its members and is now threatening to take over Lebanon by force.

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