Steve Quayle News Alerts

July 18, 2002

Iran has agreed to finance training bases in Lebanon to enable insurgents aligned with Tehran to track and down aircraft with short-range missiles.

Western intelligence sources said the training is part of a $150 million program by Iran to bolster its proxy presence in the Levant through such groups as Hezbollah and Palestinian insurgency movements. The reports generated consternation among a visiting group of congressional leaders

The Iranian program was discussed with insurgency groups last month on the sidelines of a convention in Tehran to support the Palestinian war against Israel. Iran has accelerated shipments of Fajr-5 short-range rockets and SA-7 anti-aircraft missiles to Hezbollah and aligned Palestinian groups.

Under the plan, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard would sponsor courses for insurgents in several areas of Lebanon. Units of the corps, commanded by Gen. Ali Reza Tamzar, have begun training Hezbollah insurgents and their Palestinian allies at a camp in Khuraj near the Syrian border.

Western intelligence sources said the Iranian training involves groups of up to 25 insurgents. They receive instructions on how to track aircraft and down them with SA-7 and Stinger missiles.

Iran has also helped establish a training camp near the Al Asi River for suicide operations. The camp trains insurgents in underwater sabotage missions.

The intelligence information is said to have alarmed senior U.S. officials as well as congressional leaders. Some of them said Washington has no choice but to target Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and Syria.

Last week, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Sen. Bob Graham urged the Bush administration to focus on Hezbollah rather than on Iraq. Graham returned last week from a Middle East tour that took him to Egypt, Lebanon and Syria.

"I also believe there are some things that we need to do that are more urgent," Graham said. "One of those is to deal with these training camps that have developed particularly in Syria and Lebanon where the next generation of terrorists are being prepared."

"I think we should first give the Syrians and the Lebanese an opportunity to clean up their own house," Graham added. "But then I think that is a much more immediate threat to the security of the United States of America, in my judgment than Saddam Hussein."

Earlier this month, Lebanese troops and security forces launched a crackdown on suspected Palestinian insurgents as the United States pressed Beirut to join the war against terrorism.

Lebanese sources said that so far about a dozen suspected insurgents have been arrested. They said all of them were identified as Palestinians.

The crackdown is said to have centered on Palestinian refugee camps near the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. Security forces began the search for insurgents last month around the camps of Nahr Al Bard and Badawi north of Tripoli.

The detainees were said to have been involved in drug smuggling and currency forgery. The sources said nobody has been charged with being connected to al-Qaida.

The sources said Lebanese security forces, honoring a longtime agreement, did not raid the Palestinian camps. Instead, Lebanese authorities reached an agreement with Palestinian insurgency groups that control the two camps to surrender the wanted men.

The camps are said to be controlled by a coalition that includes the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Fatah.

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28334