Ranwa Yehia

                 Lenanese Daily Star staff

                 Usually shrouded in secrecy, Hizbullah’s military wing Tuesday allowed reporters a rare
                 glimpse into the world of the resistance fighter, his weapons and tactics at a remote front line
                 location in Iqlim al-Touffah.
                 Some 70 representatives of local and foreign media were herded into coaches for the trip,
                 organized by Hizbullah’s Central Information Office, to the frontline village of Ain Boussoir, 6
                 kilometers north of Nabatieh.
                 The reporters were led through olive groves just outside the village to an isolated area by
                 camouflaged Hizbullah fighters who seemed to know the location of every stone and tree along
                 the slippery and rocky path.
                 The fighters showed their weary visitors to designated chairs facing a makeshift platform
                 overlooking the villages of Ain Qana and Jbaa.
                 Impatient photographers and cameramen were told when and of whom they could take
                 pictures by the polite but security-conscious resistance officials.
                 Press officer Atallah Hammoud introduced a local Hizbullah commander as Ammar.
                 Clad in a camouflage uniform, with a black keffiyeh around his neck and sporting sunglasses,
                 Ammar said that the chosen area was secure enough for visitors but was nonetheless
                 classified as a military zone.
                 Indicating a map with a laser pointer, he said that his unit was responsible for targeting the
                 South Lebanon Army militiamen based in Rihan.
                 Ammar informed the reporters that the strategic Israeli positions at Bir Kallab and Qassaret
                 Aaroush in the northern sector of the occupation zone were protected by SLA outposts dotted
                 along the frontline.
                 “The SLA positions are used as barriers to protect the Israeli soldiers. Recently, the SLA
                 positions have been rebuilt with reinforced cement roofs and equipped with 24-hour radar
                 surveillance,” he said.
                 Ammar added that several of the Israeli Army’s state-of-the-art Merkava Mark III tanks had
                 been deployed to “sensitive military areas.”
                 “But despite all these reinforcements, resistance fighters have been able to break through
                 them on numerous occasions,” he said.
                 Ammar said that the number of SLA soldiers had halved to 900 from 1,800 in 1995, but he
                 refused to specify the number of Hizbullah fighters.
                 Describing the effect of the psychological war against Israel through videotapes of Hizbullah
                 operations, Ammar said each film was scrutinized by a special committee before broadcasting
                 to ensure no secret military tactics were included.
                 Listing the steps fighters go through before staging an operation, Ammar said that when an
                 outpost or ambush was chosen, an operations committee picked the best way to target it and
                 prepare a back-up plan.
                 “We then pray and look forward to God’s blessing and head to our positions,” he said.
                 Reporters were then shown three different weapons commonly used by the guerrillas,
                 including a Katyusha rocket launcher, a Sagger anti-tank missile and a 122mm mortar.
                 One Hizbullah fighter, his face daubed with camouflage paint, said that the mortar was a
                 favorite weapon for the resistance because it could be dismantled into three pieces and easily
                 transported across difficult terrain.
                 “We can fire around 15 shells a minute. We can also use fragmentation and phosphorous
                 shells, smoke rounds and flares,” the fighter said, as an Israeli pilotless reconnaissance plane
                 could be heard buzzing above our position.
                 A plan to allow journalists to witness an actual operation by Hizbullah was canceled at the last
                 minute as Ammar received information that security conditions were unstable.
                 As reporters mounted the two coaches rented by the party on the return trip, several Hizbullah
                 members were praying under an oak tree.
                 The press officer said that they were on their way to stage an operation.

                                                                            DS: 17/02/99