Post: #1

So for those that don't know, last week an Iranian general and half a dozen Hezbollah fighters were killed in Syria by an Israeli strike. Iran and Hezbollah said they would retaliate. Israeli troops were sent in northern Israel in preparation for a possible attack on the Galilee. It appears Hezbollah has responded.

Quote:Two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish UN peacekeeper have been killed as Hezbollah militants trade fire with Israeli forces on the Lebanese border.

A spokesman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) urged "maximum restraint to prevent an escalation".

The peacekeeper was killed close to the disputed Shebaa Farms area, where an Israeli convoy was earlier hit by anti-tank missiles, killing two soldiers.

The Israeli military responded by firing shells into southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah said it carried out the missile attack in retaliation for an Israeli air strike that killed six of its fighters and an Iranian Revolutionary Guards general in the Syrian Golan Heights 10 days ago.
'Tragic incident'

The cross-border violence erupted when Israeli military vehicles were hit at about 11:35 (09:35 GMT) near Mt Dov, in the Shebaa Farms area, a tract of land where the borders of Israel, Lebanon and Syria meet.

The Israeli military said two soldiers were killed, identifying them as Maj Yochai Kalangel and Staff Sgt Dor Chaim Nini. Seven others others were injured, two of them moderately. But the military rejected a report by Lebanon's official National News Agency that one had been captured.

Just over an hour later, mortars hit an Israeli military position on Mt Hermon, prompting troops to close the site and evacuate civilians from a ski resort in the area.

The Israeli military said it responded to the attacks with combined aerial and ground strikes on Hezbollah operational positions along the border. Lebanese officials said at least 50 artillery shells were fired at the villages of Majidiyeh, Abbasiyeh and Kfar Chouba.

Later, Unifil announced that one of its peacekeepers had been killed.

"We are looking into the circumstances of this tragic incident," spokesman Andrea Tenenti said, without specifying the source of the fire.

He also declined to give the peacekeeper's nationality, but Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy expressed on Twitter his "great sadness at the death of a Spanish soldier in Lebanon".

After Israel's surprise air strike inside Syria on 18 January, it was clear that Hezbollah and its Iranian backers would feel obliged to respond. Now they have done, with a attack which killed two Israeli soldiers, triggering an artillery barrage.

The question now is whether the two sides will regard honour as satisfied by their responses so far, or feel obliged to pursue further revenge, raising the prospect of a spiral of violence which might be hard to stop.

Everyone is mindful of the Hezbollah-Israel war of 2006, which lasted a month and caused death, destruction and disruption on both sides of the border without either side clearly winning.

The feeling is that neither Hezbollah nor Israel has much interest in an escalation to that point.

Hezbollah is already heavily embroiled in the war in Syria. Israel's leaders face general elections in March. They could benefit if a robust response was seen to punish Hezbollah without repercussions, but a disruptive war could backfire at the polls.

So both sides may try to limit hostilities. But the logic of war sometimes leads to escalation, even if nobody wants it.
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The Spanish defence ministry later identified the soldier as Francisco Javier Soria Toledo, a 36-year-old corporal in a mechanised infantry regiment.

His unit had been stationed at the Miguel de Cervantes base near Marjayoun, in southern Lebanon, and on Wednesday had been at a position near the village of Ghajar, it added.

The UN Special Co-ordinator for Lebanon, Sigrid Kaag, expressed "deep concern over the serious deterioration of the security situation" and "urgently called on all parties to refrain from any actions that could destabilise the situation further".

'Criminal terror attack'

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was "prepared to act powerfully on all fronts", adding: "Security comes before everything else."

His office accused Iran, Hezbollah's main backer, of being behind what it described as a "criminal terror attack" by the Shia Islamist movement.

In a statement, Hezbollah said the attack was carried out by a cell calling itself the "heroic martyrs of Quneitra", an apparent reference to an area of the Syrian Golan Heights where the Israeli air strike took place on 18 January.

Sources in Israel said that attack was aimed at stopping an attack on Israeli soil.

The Israeli military had already boosted its air defences and stepped up surveillance along its northern frontiers, after Hezbollah and Iran vowed to seek revenge.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli aircraft bombed Syrian army artillery positions in response to two rockets that were fired the previous day into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israeli medics said up to seven people were lightly injured by the rocket fire.

The flare-up along the Israeli-Lebanon frontier recalls the beginning of the month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, which was triggered by a Hezbollah attack on an Israeli military vehicle that saw eight Israeli soldiers killed and two kidnapped.

Some pictures




We may see some more fighting soon. In 2006, Israel responded to the kidnapping of two soldiers. This will likely heat up very fast.

Post: #2

These people live to settle scores, and they've got a lot of scores to settle. The back-and-forth fighting will never stop.

Post: #3

(01-28-2015 02:23 PM)Cincinnatus Wrote:  

These people live to settle scores, and they've got a lot of scores to settle. The back-and-forth fighting will never stop.

There's also the fact that the Syrian civil war has had several spillovers in Lebanon. The Syrian Kurds are talking about independence but Erdogan is saying he won't accept that. Turkey has already been letting fighters into Syria. I wonder if that situation will deteriorate as well.

Post: #4

Well, if everyone follows Israel's 30:1 example, the thing for Spain to do now is kill 30 Jews, preferably children.

Post: #5

Doesn't look like this thread will go anywhere. Oh well.

Post: #6

(01-28-2015 02:23 PM)Cincinnatus Wrote:  

These people live to settle scores, and they've got a lot of scores to settle. The back-and-forth fighting will never stop.

Is that a quote from the movie Congo

Post: #7

The entire middle east likes fighting. They would get bored if there was ever peace. They are like women, they will always find something to be offended or upset about.

If you gave them all a sharia-law world with good jobs, they would be really bored and need another reason to kill sunnis or whatever. You can't go from beheading people to an office job. They need to keep killing.
Maybe an American audience needs an action movie to feel stimulation, but Muslims need to be the ones killing to feel any purpose in their lives.

Islam really is like feminism.

Post: #8

This leads me to believe that Israel (Mossad) is behind ISIL. From my understanding, Hezbollah does not like ISIL, nor does Iran. They were in Syria fighting ISIL. Israel needs ISIL more than ISIL needs Israel.

Post: #9

(01-28-2015 08:39 PM)teh_skeeze Wrote:  This leads me to believe that Israel (Mossad) is behind ISIL. From my understanding, Hezbollah does not like ISIL, nor does Iran. They were in Syria fighting ISIL. Israel needs ISIL more than ISIL needs Israel.

teh_skeeze
I promise you that the Mossad is not behind it.
Israel main policy is to watch and stay out of the way.

ISIL is not a partner, as it aims to destroy Israel. So Israel does not need ISIL, and of course ISIL does not need Israel.

Post: #10

Not sure where I stand on this conflict.