Warriors of God

by Nicholas Blanford

  Thousands of balloons in red, white, and green—by happy coincidence, the colors of both the Iranian and the Lebanese flags—were released in the town center. The cloud of balloons drifted southward on the gentle evening breeze, toward the Israeli border. Some Israeli activists also released balloons of their own, inscribed with anti-Iranian messages; the wind, however, seemed to be in Lebanon’s favor, blowing those messages back at their senders.

  In his address, Ahmadinejad praised the resolve of the southern Lebanese and heaped extravagantly phrased plaudits on the Islamic Resistance. “You are a solid mountain,” he said, speaking in Farsi, his words translated into Arabic for the audience. “We are proud of you and will remain forever by your side.… You have proved that your jihad is stronger than armadas and tanks.”

  After ten minutes I had to leave. My story was due and I had yet to write and file it. The audience, too, seemed to have heard enough. They were streaming out of the stadium and hurrying home even as Ahmadinejad continued to deliver praise for their steadfastness. The good folk of Bint Jbeil had done their duty, waved a flag, and cheered the visiting head of state, and now it was time to go home.

  It was dark by the time Ahmadinejad’s entourage raced out of Bint Jbeil toward his next engagement in Qana, sirens blaring and police on motorcycles furiously waving traffic aside. Dergham drove in hot pursuit as I wrote my story in the passenger seat, the laptop computer bouncing on my knees. By the time we arrived at Qana, the village had been sealed off and there was nowhere close enough to the center to park. Lights flashed and police and soldiers directed the clogged traffic, yelling at the impatient and laughing with passing friends. I could not obtain an Internet connection, so for the first time in years I had to dictate my story by phone to the Times copytaker, just as I had done a decade earlier before reliable Internet service arrived in Lebanon. Ahmadinejad’s voice boomed over loudspeakers from the center of the village as I read my story into the phone.

  By the time I had finished, Ahmadinejad was gone. We drove into Qana and parked beside the newly constructed mausoleum where the victims of the April 1996 massacre lie. Qana was strangely subdued now that the Ahmadinejad cavalcade had passed through. A few locals loitered on the street, others stacked chairs where the ceremony had been held. I stepped into the hushed hall of the mausoleum. Flowers had been placed on the tombs in the cordoned-off center of the hall. Red roses lay on the ground, thrown by Ahmadinejad and his entourage minutes before when they had entered to say a prayer for the dead. The only sound breaking the quiet was the gentle helicopter-like thwack of the ceiling fans. I thought of Saadallah Balhas, who had joined his deceased family here upon his death two years earlier, of Fatmeh Balhas, who had seen her children blown to pieces in front of her eyes, of Ibrahim Taqi, whose near-decapitated corpse is forever seared into my memory.

  “From Karbala to Qana, the blood meets,” read a banner strung along one wall. Another banner featured the kindly face of Imam Musa Sadr, the gentle cleric whose tireless efforts half a century earlier had helped lift the Shias of Lebanon from their communal torpor.

  A man with jangling keys stepped into the hall and closed one of two heavy steel doors, bolting it in place.

  “You’re closing?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he replied with a smile. “We’re closing.”

  I walked out into the cool evening air as the caretaker flicked off the lights, swung shut the second door, and locked it carefully behind him.

  And inside, darkness fell over the cold silent tombs.

  Notes

  CHAPTER ONE: The “Sleeping Giant”

  1. Mitwali is a term of obscure origin formerly used to describe the Shia. Today, it has derogatory overtones.

  2. Constantin-François Volney, Travels Through Egypt and Syria (New York: John Tiobout, 1978), originally published in 1787.

  3. Baron de Tott, The Memoirs of Baron de Tott (London: G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1785).

  4. Volney, Travels Through Egypt and Syria.

  5. Amnon Cohen, Palestine in the 18th Century: Patterns of Government and Administration (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University, 1973).

  6. De Tott, The Memoirs of Baron de Tott.

  7. David Urquhart, The Lebanon (Mount Souria): A History and a Diary (London: Thomas Cautley Newby, 1860).

  8. Cunningham Geikie, The Holy Land and the Bible: A Book of Scripture Illustrations Gathered in Palestine (London: Cassell and Company, Limited, 1887).

  9. “Sayyed” is a term used to denote direct descendants of the Prophet Mohammed. Clerical sayyeds are distinguished by their black turbans, compared to the white turbans worn by nondescendants of Mohammed.

  10. Nida al-Watan, August 31, 1993, in Voice of Hezbollah: The Statements of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, edited by Nicholas Noe (London: Verso, 2007).

  11. Ibid.

  12. New York Times, February 25, 1977.

  13. Yezid Sayigh, “Palestinian Military Performance in the 1982 War,” Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. XII, no. 4, Summer 1983.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (London: Penguin, 2001).

  CHAPTER TWO: The “Shia Genie”

  1. Author interview with Sheikh Sobhi Tufayli, September 10, 2003.

  2. John Yemma, “Can the UN peace-keeping forces in southern Lebanon keep the peace?” Christian Science Monitor, June 9, 1982.

  3. Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hezbollah: The Story from Within (London: Saqi Books, 2005).

  4. Christian Science Monitor, August 13, 1982.

  5. Nass al-risala al-maftuha allati wajjaha hizb allah ila al-mustadafin fi lubnan wa al-alam (Open Letter Addressed by Hezbollah to the Downtrodden in Lebanon and the World), February 16, 1985. In Amal and the Shia, Augustus Richard Norton, ed. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987).

  6. Avner Yaniv, Dilemma of Security Politics, Strategy, and the Israeli Experience in Lebanon (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).

  7. Sevag Kechichian, The Many Faces of Violence and the Social Foundations of Suicide Bombings, Lebanon 1981–2000 (February 2007). Unpublished paper.

  8. As-Safir, April 30, 1996, in Noe, Voice of Hezbollah, p. 157.

  9. New York Times, February 20, 1985.

  10. Middle East International, March 8, 1985.

  11. S/17093, “Report of the Secretary General on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon,” April 11, 1985 & S/17557, “Report of the Secretary General on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon,” October 10, 1985.

  12. Author interviews with residents of Marakeh, March 7, 2010.

  13. New York Times, February 18, 1985.

  14. Author interviews with former CIA field officers and analysts, 2001–2010.

  15. South Lebanon, Facts & Figures, 1948–1986 (Beirut: Lebanese Ministry of Information, 1986).

  16. The Sannine listening post was destroyed in 1990 during fighting between rival Christian factions.

  17. Robert Baer, See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism (New York: Crown, 2002).

  18. Nida al-Watan, August 31, 1993, in Noe, Voice of Hezbollah, p. 139.

  19. Information based on multiple author interviews and conversations with Hezbollah fighters.

  20. Al-Khaleej, March 11, 1986, translated in Noe, Voice of Hezbollah, p. 29.

  21. An-Nahar, June 8, 2007.

  22. As-Safir, August 24, 2009.

  23. Al-Wahda al-Islamiya, February 3, 1989, in Noe, Voice of Hezbollah, p. 39.

  CHAPTER THREE: The “Gate of the Mujahideen”

  1. The Mercedes was later transported to Mussawi’s home village of Nabi Sheet in the Bekaa Valley, where it remains on public view today on a tractor-trailer outside the mausoleum where the slain Hezbollah leader is buried.

  2. As-Safir, February 27, 1992, in Noe, Voice of Hezbollah, p. 61.

  3. Ibid., p. 62.

  4. Al-Watan al-Arabi, September 11, 1992, in Noe, Voice of Hezbollah, p. 88.

  5.
Qassem, Hezbollah: The Story from Within, p. 35.

  6. Agence France Presse, June 11, 1994.

  7. Al-Nahar al-arabi wal-duwali (newspaper), July 21, 1986.

  8. Tishreen, June 21, 1999, Translated in Noe, Voice of Hezbollah, p. 201.

  9. Free Arab Voice, July 3, 2000.

  10. “Hizballah: 13 Principles of Warfare,” Jerusalem Report, March 21, 1996.

  11. Foreign Report, December 5, 1991; Jane’s Intelligence Review, February 1, 1995.

  12. Ron Schleifer, “Psychological Operations: A New Variation on an Age-Old Art: Hezbollah Versus Israel,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 29: 1–19, 2006.

  13. Ibid.

  14. “When David Became Goliath,” Major Christopher E. Whitting, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 2001.

  15. The Independent, May 18, 1995.

  CHAPTER FOUR: The Scent of Orange Blossom in the Spring

  1. Based on several author interviews with Irish UNIFIL officers and other UNIFIL personnel, 1999–2001.

  2. “Baseless US and Israeli Calls for ‘Anti-Terrorism’ War Against Hezbollah and Iran,” op-ed submitted by Neil Sammonds to Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, 2002.

  3. “Israel Defends Record on ‘Grapes of Wrath,’ ” Jane’s Defence Weekly, June 5, 1996.

  4. As-Safir, April 30, 1996, in Noe, Voice of Hezbollah.

  5. Author interview, April 3, 1997.

  6. Report dated May 1, 1996, of the Secretary General’s Military Adviser concerning the shelling of the United Nations compound at Qana on April 18, 1996.

  7. “Boutros-Ghali bites back,” The Nation, June 14, 1999.

  8. Middle East Mirror, June 11, 1996.

  9. Yedioth Ahronoth, February 5, 1997.

  CHAPTER FIVE: The “Deluxe Laboratory Without Settlers”

  1. Al-Ahad weekly, September 6, 1997.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Nasrallah interview on Future Television, September 16, 1998.

  4. The Turkish government subsequently opted for the Leopard tank of Germany, although Israel’s Military Industries won a contract to upgrade Turkey’s fleet of M-60 tanks with the Merkava’s 120 mm barrel.

  5. Gal Luft, “Israel’s Security Zone in Lebanon—a Tragedy?” Middle East Quarterly, September 2000.

  6. Nasrallah interview on Future Television, September 16, 1998.

  7. According to casualty lists compiled by the author at the time.

  8. Maariv, November 25, 1998.

  9. Haaretz, March 6, 1999.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Ibid.

  12. Yedioth Ahronoth, March 2, 1999.

  CHAPTER SIX: “The Lebanese Valley of the Dead”

  1. Jerusalem Post, April 16, 2000.

  2. See Nicholas Blanford, Killing Mr. Lebanon: The Assassination of Rafik Hariri and Its Impact on the Middle East (London: I. B. Tauris, 2006), and Dennis Ross, The Missing Peace (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004).

  3. See the interview with Uri Saguy, a former head of IDF military intelligence and a member of Barak’s negotiating team with the Syrians, in Yedioth Friday Political Supplement, June 11, 2010. Saguy said that the peace deal with the Syrians would have occurred if “we had done what we promised ourselves, the Americans, and the Syrians.” He blamed Barak for reneging on his earlier promise to discuss water and borders with the Syrians at Shepherdstown.

  4. Bill Clinton, My Life (New York: Knopf, 2004).

  5. Al-Hayat, March 2, 2000.

  6. Al-Quds al-Arabi, March 3, 2000.

  CHAPTER SEVEN: The “Spider’s Web”

  1. The Daily Star, June 3, 2000.

  2. Israeli army statement, June 16, 2000.

  3. Haaretz, May 21, 2010.

  4. Al-Manar, October 7, 2000.

  5. Told to the author by a UN source, April 29, 2001.

  6. The story was subsequently confirmed to me by several sources in south Lebanon, including a confederate of Ramzi Nohra and former Lebanese military intelligence agents who had intimate knowledge of the background to the kidnapping.

  7. Israeli Channel 2 television, October 16, 2005.

  CHAPTER EIGHT: “The Fence Around the Homeland”

  1. Al-Manar, September 4, 2004.

  2. The seven outposts, from south to north, are at Moghr Shebaa, Fashkoul, Maazrat Zebdine, Ramta, Jabal Summaqa, Roweisat Allam, and “Radar.” Although Radar lay outside the geographical area of the Shebaa Farms, it was included in Hezbollah’s list of targeted outposts.

  3. Foreign Report, April 18, 2002.

  4. Haaretz, April 12, 2002.

  5. Maariv, October 24, 2002.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Radio France International, October 14, 2002.

  8. Interview with Hezbollah spokesman Hassan Ezzieddine on LBC International, January 19, 2004.

  9. Hatzofe, July 22, 2004.

  CHAPTER NINE: Spoonfuls of Cement

  1. Jane’s Defence Weekly, July 13, 2006.

  2. Yedioth Ahronoth, November 12, 2009.

  3. Al-Rai al-Aam, November 16, 2001.

  4. Joseph Felter and Brian Fishman, redacted interrogation report 013, Appendix A, “Iranian Strategy in Iraq: Policy and ‘Other Means,’ ” Combating Terrorism Center, October 13, 2008.

  5. Yedioth Ahronoth, September 26, 2001.

  6. Zaim (plural zuama) is an Arabic term for a feudal leader or chieftain.

  7. The Daily Star, March 5, 2004.

  8. Jerusalem Post, May 30, 2006.

  CHAPTER TEN: “Birth Pangs”

  1. Al-Hayat, May 17, 2007.

  2. Matt Matthews, We Were Caught Unprepared: The 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli War, The Long War Series Occasional Papers 26, 2008.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Alistair Crooke and Mark Perry, “How Hezbollah Defeated Israel, Part Two: Winning the Ground War,” Asia Times, October 13, 2006.

  6. “Mine Action Structure in the Republic of Lebanon,” Lebanon Mine Action Center (lebmac.​org/​files/​publications/​Mine_​Action_​in_​the_​Republic_​of_​Lebanon.​pdf).

  7. Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, 34 days: Israel, Hezbollah and the War in Lebanon (New York and Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

  8. Ibid.

  9. Stephen Biddle and Jeffrey A. Friedman, “The 2006 Lebanon Campaign and the Future of Warfare: Implications for Army and Defense Policy,” Strategic Studies Institute, September 2008.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN: The “Last War with Israel”

  1. DEBKAfile, July 12, 2007.

  2. See the diplomatic cable from the U.S. embassy in Beirut titled 08BEIRUT523 in which Marwan Hamadeh, then minister of telecommunications, discusses with U.S. diplomats Hezbollah’s fiber optic network. The cable was among the 250,000 diplomatic dispatches that WikiLeaks began releasing in late 2010.

  3. Haaretz, July 2, 2010.

  4. Jerusalem Post, July 5, 2010.

  5. Gabi Siboni, “Disproportionate Force: Israel’s Concept of Response in Light of the Second Lebanon War,” INSS Insight, No. 74, October 2, 2008.

  6. Jerusalem Post, October 29, 2007.

  7. The National, February 23, 2009.

  For Yasmine and Alexander

  Acknowledgments

  It would not have been possible to write Warriors of God without the kindness and good-humored hospitality of the people I have encountered during seventeen years of reporting the travails of south Lebanon. Despite the hardships of occupation and war and the many tragedies suffered by families that inevitably draw correspondents, vulturelike, to their door, I was always greeted with warmth and understanding and plied with the inevitable glasses of tea, cups of coffee, and often plates of food. To all of them I am deeply grateful.

  I must thank my former colleagues at The Daily Star, the newspaper where I worked between 1996 and 2002, both my editors for granting me wide latitude to cover the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon and my fellow correspondents, some of whom patiently acted as translators on my trips to the south.

&n
bsp; When I began planning this book, I assumed that I would need the formal assistance of Hezbollah in arranging interviews or helping to fill gaps in my research. But as the writing process got under way, I quickly realized that my problem was not obtaining more information, but choosing what to exclude from an ever-expanding manuscript. Consequently, I neither asked for, nor was given, formal help from Hezbollah in writing this book. However, I would like to thank Hezbollah’s media department, which has arranged almost all of my newspaper interviews with officials and fighters since 1994, which I drew upon for Warriors of God. In particular I would like to thank Ibrahim Moussawi, Hussein Rahhal, Hassan Ezzedine, Haidar Diqmaq, Wafa Hoteit, and Hussein Naboulsi.

  Very special thanks also goes to all those Hezbollah combatants who gave unauthorized interviews for this book.

  I would like to express my gratitude to all who agreed to be interviewed for Warriors of God, Lebanese and Israeli alike. In particular I would like to thank the following for their assistance, advice, and insights: Noam Ben-Zvi, Christopher Clark, Andrew Exum (who had the misfortune of reading most of the considerably longer original manuscript), Timur Goksel, Amos Harel, Ahmad Husseini, Hassan Husseini, Avi Issacharoff, Clive Jones, Colin King, Meris Lutz, Mahmoud Manaa, Hassan Saad, Hassan Siklawi, James Spencer, and Boutros Wanna. Most of all I would like to thank Dergham Dergham, fixer, friend, and briefly cell mate.

  Special thanks to Gail Ross and her team, who took an idea that had been germinating in my mind for almost a decade and helped me shape it into a coherent product. Also grateful thanks to Random House and my editor, Jonathan Jao, for his patience and guidance; to his assistant Samuel Nicholson; and to Loren Noveck, the production editor.