- WASHINGTON (AFP) - Lebanon's
Shiite fundamentalist group Hezbollah may be the "A Team' of terrorism
and the United States will act against as part of its war on extremist
violence "in good time," US Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage said.
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- "Hezbollah maybe the 'A team' of terrorists, maybe
al-Qaeda is actually the 'B team'," Armitage told a conference on
the impact the September 11 attacks had on US foreign policy.
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- "They're on the list, they're time will come, there's
is no question about it," he said of Hezbollah which is backed by
Iran and Syria and virulently anti-Israel.
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- "They have a blood debt to us and ... we're not
going to forget it," Armitage said, referring to numerous anti-US
attacks the group has claimed.
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- "All in good time we're going to go after these
problems just like a high school wrestler goes out for a match: we're going
to take (them) down one at a time," he told the conference hosted
by the US Institute of Peace.
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- Armitage's remarks come as Hezbollah continues to threatens
to complicate the Middle East situation with attacks on Israeli interests,
just as Washington gears up for a possible military action on Iraq.
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- Last week, the group attacked the disputed Shebaa Farms
area, which was captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war
and is now claimed by Beirut with Damascus's blessing, drawing quick Israeli
retaliation.
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- The attack was the first since April 26, although Hezbollah
intermittently exchanges fire with Israeli positions there from its strongholds
in south Lebanon.
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- The movement has been an inspiration to Palestinian Islamist
groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, that followed Hezbollah's example
of "martyrdom operations" or suicide bombings, which the movement
first used against US and Israeli targets in Lebanon in the 1980s.
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- Like its Palestinian counterparts, the group idealizes
armed struggle and "martyrdom" as the only ways to bring Israel
to its knees. Like them, it also sees "no legitimacy for the existence"
of Israel, its web site says.
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- Following the September 11 attacks on the United States,
Iran, Syria and Lebanon came under increased pressure to rein in the group,
which Washington has blacklisted as a terrorist organization.
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- In a June 24 address on the Middle East, US President
George W. Bush called on Syria to rein in Hezbollah and stop supplying
it with money and equipment. Since then US press reports have alleged the
group has links with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
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- However, the group is absent from the recently updated
European Union list of terrorist groups.
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- Hezbollah was created with Iranian help in the eastern
city of Baalbek in 1982, as Israel was carrying out a full-fledged invasion
of Lebanon. It made its first public appearance in 1985, when its military
arm started to carry out suicide bombings and shelling that struck fear
in northern Israel.
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- The group counts about 3,000 regular guerrillas and can
mobilize up to 7,000 combatants in emergencies.
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