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Hezbollah Says It Destroyed Israel's Crown Radar
KHIAM, Lebanon, July 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Lebanese Shiite occupation resistance group, Hezbollah, said Tuesday that it had destroyed the most important radar station in the Middle East in weekend clashes with Israel.
"The radar position that the Islamic resistance has destroyed is the most important position in the Middle East," Sheikh Nabil Qawooq, Hezbollah's top official in southern Lebanon, told reporters.
Hezbollah bombarded Israeli military positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms, which included the radar facility, shortly after Israeli warplanes knocked out a Syrian radar station in eastern Lebanon, wounding two Syrian soldiers.
The attack on the radar station followed a Hezbollah attack on the Israeli forces in the occupied Shebaa Farms on Friday.
Qawooq said that Hezbollah had succeeded in "establishing a new equation, which is the response to any aggression on Lebanese sovereignty. Any raid on Lebanese territory whatever its target merits a response from the resistance."
Qaooq also said, "Israel was astonished by the speed of our retaliation and was shocked by the loss of the radar in the Shebaa area."
"The radar covers five countries, namely Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan and parts of Iraq and therefore Israel's defeat in the latest round was very big," he said.
"According to our information, there are engineers working to rebuild surveillance equipment and radar there," he said.
Israel has not admitted any damage to the radar facility, though witnesses in southern Lebanon said they saw smoke rising from the buildings after the Hezbollah attack.
Qawooq said Hezbollah had "information that senior Israeli officers have advised (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon of the necessity of withdrawing from the Shebaa Farms."
"But Sharon wants to withdraw from the area after winning political and security gains, and we insist that it remains a defeat and a pullout without any gains," he said.
The Shebaa Farms were captured by Israel from Syria in 1967 and were claimed by Lebanon after Israel ended its 22-year bloody occupation of southern Lebanon in May of last year.
Qawooq said, "all possibilities remain open...and enemy forces on the hills of Shebaa ... are in a state of moral collapse."
He reiterated a warning that "if the enemy wants to enlarge the area of aggression, then it has to expect that the resistance will carry out its right in extending the area of retaliation."
Qaooq also said "the Israeli enemy attempted through international mediators to differentiate between destructive operations that inflict casualties among their ranks and operations which do not inflict casualties."
He did not elaborate.
"We will continue our operations and we will not squander any opportunity to inflict the largest number of casualties in enemy ranks," he added.
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