Hezbollah: Israel's control in south Lebanon weakening

Pictures taken from amateur video show a guerrilla planting a flag with Hezbollah's colors on what is believed to be a recently abandoned Israeli-built fortification

February 7, 2000
Web posted at: 11:23 p.m. EST (0423 GMT)

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Defying Israeli attacks on its suspected strongholds, Hezbollah claimed Monday that Israel's military grip in the territory it occupies in southern Lebanon is weakening.

Hezbollah released a combat video to CNN showing a guerrilla planting a flag with Hezbollah colors on what it said was a recently abandoned Israeli-built fortification.

The video also showed Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, embracing the hidden faces of men said to have killed three Israeli soldiers last week in the occupied zone.

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"We're close to victory, we'll drive them (the Israeli forces) from our land," Nasarallah was quoted as saying.

Israel maintains that Hezbollah cannot operate effectively without the consent of the Syrian government that exercises enormous influence in Lebanon.

Syrian authorities have denied Israel's claims, saying they can no more rein in Hezbollah guerrillas than the United States is able to curb Israel's military actions. The conflict, they added, can only be settled by negotiations, not by military attacks.

Hezbollah chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah embraces a fighter believed to have participated in an attack that killed three Israeli soldiers in Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon

A large-scale war could erupt if Israel abandoned negotiations and continued army attacks in south Lebanon, warned Rafic Hariri, former prime minister of Lebanon.

"Any second, anything can happen, even at the moment of signing an agreement," he said. "But the other alternative is worse and painful, and nobody can afford it and nobody should think of it."

Beirut Bureau Chief Brent Sadler contributed to this report.

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