An abduction vow is renewed

Calling kidnappings of 2 Israeli soldiers 'Operation Truthful Promise,' Hezbollah chief praises strategy

BY MOHAMAD BAZZI | Newsday Middle East Correspondent

July 14, 2006

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The last time Hezbollah abducted Israeli soldiers, the Shia militant group was richly rewarded.

Since forcing Israel to withdraw from a self-declared "security zone" in southern Lebanon in May 2000, Hezbollah has made freeing Lebanese prisoners held by Israel one of its main goals. In October 2000, Hezbollah guerrillas ambushed an Israeli patrol near the border, severely wounding three soldiers in an attempt to capture them. The three soon died, but Hezbollah kept the bodies.

Through the German government, Hezbollah and Israel held three years of torturous negotiations. In January 2004, Israel freed 425 Arab prisoners, including two Lebanese guerrilla leaders, in exchange for the soldiers' bodies and an Israeli businessman kidnapped by Hezbollah.

At a mass rally staged by Hezbollah to welcome the freed prisoners, the group's leader warned it would abduct more Israeli soldiers to secure the release of the last three Lebanese detainees being held by Israel.

Turning to a poster of Hezbollah's ambush of the three soldiers, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah declared: "This is a choice." Saying Hezbollah fighters were heavy-handed in fatally wounding the soldiers, he added, "I pledge to you that, next time, they will bring them alive."

On Wednesday, after Hezbollah had kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in a daring cross-border raid, a smiling Nasrallah dubbed the latest abductions "Operation Truthful Promise."

Nasrallah said no one should have been surprised that his group had plotted the abductions for months. "For at least a year, I have been saying that one of our top priorities is to capture Israeli soldiers to force a swap," he said.

But unlike the abductions in October 2000, Hezbollah's actions this week have hurtled the region toward war. In retaliation, Israel has launched its most intense attack on Lebanon in 24 years, devastating the country's infrastructure and imposing an air and sea blockade.

Hezbollah leaders insist that no amount of Israeli pressure or military attacks will force them to release the two soldiers - unless Israel agrees to a prisoner exchange.

"What we say is that these hostages will not be returned to their homes except through one way: indirect negotiations and a prisoner swap," Nasrallah said at a triumphant news conference Wednesday. "Let the Israelis do whatever they want - no military operation will result in the return of the soldiers."

Israel, too, has taken prisoners to use as bargaining chips in Lebanon. It kidnapped two Hezbollah leaders, Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid in 1989 and Mustafa Dirani in 1994, as leverage for the release of Israeli airman Ron Arad. His plane was downed in Lebanon in 1986, and his fate is still unknown. Obeid and Dirani were among the prisoners freed two years ago in exchange for the soldiers' bodies.

"There is a precedent of exchanging Arab prisoners for Israeli soldiers," said Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a political science professor at Lebanese American University in Beirut. "In 2004, that precedent worked out well."

'Party of God'

Hezbollah, a sworn enemy of Israel, was established in 1982 in response to Israeli occupation of Lebanon.

Name: Arabic for "Party of God"

Size: Several thousand militants and activists

Base of operation: Lebanon's Shia regions, including Beirut and Bekaa Valley

Terror activities: Truck bombing of U.S. Marine barracks in 1982; kidnappings of Westerners in the 1980s

Political influence: Holds 23 of 128 seats in Lebanese parliament

Linked to: Governments of Iran and Syria

- BBC; CIA WORLD FACTBOOK;

COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

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Calling kidnappings of 2 Israeli soldiers 'Operation Truthful Promise,' Hezbollah chief praises strategy

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