Monday, July 31, 2006

Suburban Beirut: "Civilians" with anti-aircraft weapons

Either this group of Lebanese "civilians" are hunting for pterydactyls, or they hope to shoot down an Israeli jet.

Of course these suburban Beirut residents view their work as self defense, but they obviously don't care if their fellow suburbanites are killed by retaliatory Israeli Defense Force strikes. In the generally agreed upon rules of warfare, the men pictured are legitimate military targets. And if an IDF bombing strike destroys them and some nearby houses, who is to blame?

The picture, and the below excerpt, comes from Australia's Sunday Herald Sun:

This is the picture that damns Hezbollah. It is one of several, smuggled from behind Lebanon's battle lines, showing that Hezbollah is waging war amid suburbia.

The images, obtained exclusively by the Sunday Herald Sun, show Hezbollah using high-density residential areas as launch pads for rockets and heavy-calibre weapons.

Dressed in civilian clothing so they can quickly disappear, the militants carrying automatic assault rifles and ride in on trucks mounted with cannon.

The photographs, from the Christian area of Wadi Chahrour in the east of Beirut, were taken by a visiting journalist and smuggled out by a friend.

Technorati tags:

No comments: