Tuesday, October 13, 2009

CNN - Did something blow up in Lebanon, or not?

As our story on the Hezbollah explosion in Lebanon continues...

The New York Times reports on Monday night's explosion in South Lebanon, fairly reporting all views:

A cache of munitions exploded in the house of a local Hezbollah official in southern Lebanon on Monday, producing conflicting reports of casualties. Security officials said the blast in the village of Tayr Filsi, on the southern bank of the Litani River, killed five people, including the Hezbollah official and his son. A Hezbollah spokesman denied that anyone had been killed and said the reason for the explosion was under investigation. Israel said the blast showed that munitions were being stockpiled in violation of the truce that ended a war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

The Associated Press says:

A blast at a Hezbollah member's home in southern Lebanon was caused by an exploding shell and injured one person, Lebanon's army said Tuesday.
Monday's night's explosion occurred in the garage of the house, and several Lebanese security officials said initially that the building might have been used to store weapons. If true, that would be a violation of a U.N. resolution that ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
That prompted Israel's president, Shimon Peres, to warn that Hezbollah and what he said was its growing arsenal are turning Lebanon into a "powder keg" and standing in the way of peace between the two countries.
The U.N. resolution that ended the monthlong war called for the disarming of Hezbollah and for an international arms embargo against the militant group. Israel claims Hezbollah has tripled its arsenal since the war ended and that it possesses tens of thousands of rockets.
One senior security official initially said that one person was killed in Monday's explosion in the village of Tayr Filsay, near the southern port city of Tyre. Hezbollah and Lebanon's army, however, said no one was killed and that one person was wounded.
The Lebanese army statement gave no details about the circumstances of the blast or the kind of shell it said caused the explosion.
The U.N. mission and the Lebanese army were investigating. Hezbollah acknowledged the home belonged to one of its members, but would not give any other information.
Hezbollah legislator Hussein Haj Hassan said Israel was exaggerating the incident to "take advantage of it for political interests."
Michael Williams, the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon, told reporters in Beirut that the mission was concerned about the incident.
"We are keeping a close eye on this because of its relevance to (U.N.) Resolution 1701 while waiting for the outcome" of the investigation by U.N. peacekeepers and the Lebanese army, he said after meeting Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri.
Williams was referring to the Security Council resolution that ended the 34-day Hezbollah-Israel war, which killed more than 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis.

Even the BBC admits the blast occurred (although they believe it's an unexploded Israeli shell from 2006 - big surprise there):

The Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers have begun investigations into Monday's blast at a Hezbollah member's house near the southern city of Tyre.
Hezbollah says that one person was wounded, while other reports said there had been one or more fatalities.
Reports are conflicting about the cause of the blast. Some sources said it happened when an Israeli shell left over from the 2006 war was dismantled.
Other reports say a Hezbollah rocket exploded by accident.
The blast reportedly destroyed a house north of Tyre in the village of Tayr Filsi, on the southern bank of Litani River.
Witnesses quoted by AFP news agency said the owner of the garage, Abdel Nasser Issa, had found a rocket on the river bank and had taken it to his garage where he dismantled it.
The 34-day conflict left the area littered with unspent ordnance dropped during the Israeli bombardment.
Israel said the blast "proved again the presence of weapons forbidden in southern Lebanon".
Hezbollah is banned from conducting military action south of the Litani, under the terms of the UN ceasefire following the 2006 war.

CNN, on the other hand, still has nothing whatsoever on the blast. CNN - Where are you?

3 comments:

  1. You're waiting for CNN to give a news report that just might show someone other than Israel in a bad light? I thought frum Jews were forbidden to rely on miracles.

    ReplyDelete
  2. See Haaretz for video of trucks removing weapons
    KT
    Joel Rich

    ReplyDelete