UN Peacekeepers Turn To Hezbollah For Protection
CSM:
Labboune, Lebanon - MCpl. Fabio Carlone says his small, lightly armored, Puma vehicle is just the right size for patrolling the narrow, potholed lanes of southern Lebanon.
The flaw, however, is that the vehicle provides little protection against the kind of car bomb that killed six of his United Nations colleagues last month. And Master Corporal Carlone says that weighs on his mind every time he and his Italian comrades go out on patrol along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was increased from 2,000 to 13,300 peacekeepers after the month-long war last summer between Israel and Hizbullah. The UN peacekeepers are led by elite European troops and are charged with helping the Lebanese Army ensure that the tense border remained calm.
But a year on, UNIFIL still finds itself under threat, not from the Shiite Hizbullah, but from suspected radical Sunni militants possibly inspired by Al Qaeda. And in a bizarre twist, some UNIFIL contingents are now seeking the cooperation of the powerful Hizbullah, which also views militant Sunnis as a threat, to help provide tacit security for the peacekeepers, Hizbullah and UNIFIL sources say.
Last month, six Spanish and Colombian soldiers serving with UNIFIL’s Spanish battalion were killed when a car bomb exploded beside their armored vehicle, the deadliest attack in UNIFIL’s 29-year history.
Last week, a UNIFIL jeep was damaged when a small bomb exploded nearby, confirming fears that last month’s bombing was not a random act. In both attacks, radical Sunnis are the prime suspects.
“We are facing threats, but not threats about our ability to carry out our mission,” says Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano, UNIFIL’s commander, at his headquarters in the southern coastal village of Naqoura. “We are cautious, we are soldiers. We know the risk can be minimized but not completely eradicated.”
As Lebanon’s political crisis intensified in the wake of the war last summer, UNIFIL began receiving increased intelligence warnings of potential attacks by Al Qaeda-inspired militants. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s deputy leader, twice referred to UNIFIL in video-taped messages, describing the peacekeepers as “international crusader forces.”
The growing threat of attack by Sunni radicals apparently spurred the leading European troop-contributing states to seek the Shiite Hizbullah’s cooperation. According to UNIFIL sources, intelligence agents from Italy, France, and Spain met with Hizbullah representatives in the southern city of Sidon in April. As a result, some Spanish peacekeepers subsequently were “escorted” on some of their patrols by Hizbullah members in civilian vehicles, the UNIFIL sources say.
A day after the six peacekeepers were killed last month, Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos spoke with Manucher Mottaki, the foreign minister of Iran, Hizbullah’s main patron. According to a Hizbullah official in south Lebanon, there has been at least one meeting between the Shiite party and Spanish UNIFIL officers since the bombing.
Click to enlarge
Rich Clabaugh – Staff
UNIFIL has long had quiet channels of communication with Hizbullah stretching back to the late 1980s, a recognition of the Shiite group’s clout in the south. But UNIFIL commander General Graziano says that although troop-contributing governments may talk to Hizbullah, the peacekeeping battalions are only authorized to liaise with the Lebanese Army. Contacts with Hizbullah or any other Lebanese political party is not permitted, he says.
“I highly forbid any relation that is not authorized by this headquarters for any contingent that is dressed in the blue beret to have contact with any party without my authorization,” he says.
Although there was no claim of responsibility for last month’s attack on the Spanish battalion, Al Qaeda’s Mr. Zawahiri, in a taped message released three weeks ago, praised what he called the “blessed operation” and criticized Hizbullah for cooperating with UNIFIL, heightening speculation that the bombing was the work of militant Sunnis.
That devastating bomb attack has led UNIFIL to tighten its security, which has meant fewer stops for coffee with local Lebanese while on patrol. The growing inability to mix with southern Lebanese – one of the force’s most important tactics – could become the most significant effect of the bombings, analysts say.
“It risks becoming a force where force protection becomes supreme, keeping troops safe and driving around as little as possible and behind armor,” says Timur Goksel, a Beirut-based conflict resolution expert who served in UNIFIL from 1979 to 2003. “I know [UNIFIL command] is aware of this problem, but what can they do?”
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PLZ TELL ME WHAT THEIR MISSION IS! :roll:AREN’T THEY SUPPOSED TO BE PREVENTING THESE ASSHOLES FROM GETTING THAT CLOSE TO THE BORDER. THESE ASSHOLES ARE GOING TO EAT THESE MORONS ALIVE
WE BETTER NOT EVEN GO IN AND SAVE THESE MORONS WHEN ALL HELL BREAKS OUT.
July 24th, 2007 at 2:41 amProtection from Hizbollah? What are these people stupid?
Hizbollah will use these idiots as human shields from which to fire rockets into Israel, as soon as they are ready.
More proof that the UN is a useless, ball-less agency.
July 24th, 2007 at 5:46 amThe UN Joke again, and again! Many years ago, I think it was Seira Leone, a 20,000+ UN force, sent in to protect the population from RUFF, a local group of terroists thug insurgent types, found themselves being victimized by that force. They were found to be for all propper respects, functionally useless. A South Africa sponsored mercenary force called Executive Outcomes, a force probably less than 150 in all, routed RUFF and sent them far back into the bush licking thier wounds. Here a professional force, backed with little logistics other than mostly what they carried and maybe a few vehicles, routed of force that made a mockery of a UN force of between 20,000 to 25,000 men. Where have they ever been effective? Do not say Korea, that was mainly an American op. I agree with Dan, totally ball-less!
July 24th, 2007 at 7:49 amYeah what the fu*k is going on here? Looking to the same people they were sent there to stop for protection. well why the hell dont they just leave then? The UN is an imcompetent organization and i actually think they are a threat to our security.
July 24th, 2007 at 8:03 amI said ask the Lebanese population what they think ; obviously they feel a bit safer with Unifil than without the blue helmets even if the latter are in a weak position because they couldn’t get the UN article 7 to make their job properly
July 24th, 2007 at 8:15 amThe UN peacekeepers are led by “elite” European troops…
Elite? Did someone slip the SAS in while I wasn’t looking? I thought most of the soldiers, and I use the term loosely, were French, Spanish, and Italian. When was the last time any of those armies won a battle, let alone a war?
They need “protection” from the very people they’re supposed to disarm. Next thing you know, they’ll be wearing abayas and walking four steps behind their Hizbollah masters like the little bitches they are.
July 24th, 2007 at 8:39 amWho knew the Italians were so stupido?!
July 24th, 2007 at 9:37 amWhy didn’t they choose the Israelis?
Are they that anti-Semitic?
Your 100% on that one Dan, the United Nations continues to prove it’s irrelevency and ineffectualism as an international institute.
July 24th, 2007 at 9:49 amArmies follow orders. When those orders don’t allow for offensive tactics, the army is in reality a police force. These troops aren’t trained to be policemen. They’re trained to fight offensively against their enemy. Thanks to the Useless Notions (UN) they will be used as shields or sacrifices for the goals of AQ or Hezbollah. I don’t understand how putting 20-25 thousand troops who’s hands are tied behind their backs because of UN limitations, is going to stop fighting there. If and when fighting breaks out again, they’ll just be stuck in the middle.
July 24th, 2007 at 10:13 amticktickboom
all the Lebaneses aren’t pro HBZ, there are christians, sunnites, druzes who represent 60 % of the population
When was the last time any of those armies won a battle, let alone a war?
is that supposed your argument ? because I find it “funny” ; it reminds me some of your historical facts in the last quater of the XXth century
and this Unifil couln’t have existed if it wasn’t your very government approval ;
well, I suppose Condi was just making some tourism in Lebanon last year, nah ?
July 24th, 2007 at 10:26 amInteresting how so many of us understand the dynamics of the mideast so well, and others lack even basic cognitive reasoning?
If I were a UN peacekeeper(now there is an oxymoron), I’d be looking for some concrete to dig into right about now.
Or at least adding some serious overhead cover to my bunker.
Cause when the shooting starts, they will be cannon fodder for Hizbollah, or hostages to play on the sympathies of the European media with.
July 24th, 2007 at 11:01 amCheck this out. This is your UN troops in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHOCSVueICk
Sidenote: I’ve done beach assaults in the dead of night with no lights or night vision devices that were textbook.
July 24th, 2007 at 12:07 pmThis vid is freaking laughable.
dan the magnifique histrion : you said “if I were” … well go in there ; and I have already seen that video, I am afraid to disapoint you, it’s a fake, as alsready stated by french professionals, they aren’t frenchs, but englishes,
you silly
July 24th, 2007 at 12:49 pmyou want the proof ? there aren’t the same sort of soldiers on this french video , how silly they had to dive in mud for driving tanks
bataillon français au Liban
July 24th, 2007 at 1:14 pmAnd some people wonder why I started the Reject the U.N. blog…
Hell, if Pat wants to contribute a story there, or if any of Pat’s readers have some writing talent and a huge dislike for the U.N., let me know via email and if you have something you want to say in that blog, write it, email it to me and I’ll publish it if it’s any good, and I won’t steal it either, it WILL be credited to you…
July 24th, 2007 at 1:49 pmTexasFred. I occasionally like to comment and write about the useless UN. Feel free to include that video that I posted. A retired two-star originally turned me on to it. It made the rounds of the Pentagon. Boy were they laughing……
But seriously, yeah.
July 24th, 2007 at 2:00 pmOk, so maybe the UN doesn’t have an unblemished record of policing situations after a conflict. What are the alternatives in preventing another escalation in Lebanon other than using UN forces?
July 24th, 2007 at 2:58 pmSometimes Eric, war is the only answer left. War has decided the 20th century: Nazism or Freedom? War decided that. You can never take that off the table unfortunately.
July 24th, 2007 at 3:17 pmI don’t know whether to laugh or get mad!
July 25th, 2007 at 3:31 pm