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Inside Israel’s combat zone in southern Lebanon

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Inside Israel’s combat zone in southern Lebanon

Israeli army vehicles had already pounded the dirt road into dust where we crossed into Lebanon, breaking through a hole in the fence that marks the ceasefire line drawn between the two countries a generation ago.

The ceasefire itself is already in tatters.

Israel’s ground invasion along this border last week was launched, it said, to destroy Hezbollah weapons and infrastructure in “limited, localised, targeted raids”.

Ten days on, the army was taking us to a village a couple of miles into Lebanese territory, where it had just established “some level of control”.

We were told not to reveal where it is, for military reasons, and our movements were restricted.

Israeli artillery was blasting through the air as we arrived. The brigade commander, Col Yaniv Malka, told us the area was still not clear of Hezbollah fighters.

Bursts of small-arms fire were from fighting that was taking place 500m away, he said, describing “face-to-face combat” with Hezbollah fighters inside the village just a couple of days before – meaning, he said, “my troops seeing in their eyes, and fighting them in the streets”.

All along the central path through the village, houses lay demolished; piles of rubble leaching glimpses of family life. Buildings left standing were shot through with artillery, missing corners or walls and peppered with gunshot and shrapnel holes.

Two tanks sat in churned up earth near what was once a village square. The level of destruction around them is reminiscent of Gaza.

Our movements on the ground were restricted by the army to a limited area of the village, but neighbouring buildings and communities appeared, from a distance, to be untouched.

These incursions seem – so far – to be more “limited and targeted” geographically than militarily.

The graffiti on a building commandeered by troops read: “We wanted peace, you wanted war”.

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“Most of the terrorists ran away,” Col Malka told me. “[But] dozens of houses were booby-trapped. When we went house to house, we discovered booby-traps and weapons. We had no choice but to destroy them.”

We only have the army’s account of what happened here.

I asked an army spokesman whether any women or children were present when the operation here began. He replied that all civilians had been given ample warning to leave.

The human rights group Amnesty International this week described Israel’s evacuation warnings in southern Lebanon as inadequate and overly general, and said they did not absolve the country of its obligations under international law.

We were also shown three caches of weapons it said were found inside civilian homes here, including boxes of brand-new mortars, new anti-tank missiles and mines, as well as sophisticated shoulder launched rockets and night-scopes.

One anti-tank missile we saw was already semi-assembled.

The chief of staff for the 91st Division, Roy Russo, also showed us a garage he said had been used as an equipment warehouse, with sleeping bags, body armour, rifles and ammunition hidden in a large barrel.

“This is what we call an exchange zone,” he said. “They’re morphing from civilians into combatants. All this gear is designed to manoeuvre into [Israel] and conduct operations on the Israeli side. This is not defensive equipment.”

This, Israel says, is why it launched its invasion of southern Lebanon; that Hezbollah’s stockpiles of weapons and equipment along this border were planning for a cross-border attack similar to last year’s 7 October attacks by Hamas in southern Israel.

At the start of this invasion, the army revealed that Israeli special forces had been operating across the Lebanese border in small tactical units for almost a year, conducting more than 70 raids to find and destroy Hezbollah infrastructure, including underground tunnels – one of which, it said, stopped 30m (100ft) before the ceasefire line with Israel and was unfinished.

Col Malka showed me some of the weapons he said the army found on the day we arrived. They include a large IED, an anti-personnel mine, and a high-tech night-scope.

He said troops were finding “two to three times” the number of weapons they found in Gaza, with “thousands” of weapons and thousands of pieces of ammunition found in this village alone.

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“We don’t want to hold these places,” he told me. “We want to take all the ammunition and fighting equipment out. After that, we expect the people will come back, and understand that peace is better for them, and terrorist control over them in a bad thing.”

“But I’ll leave that to the diplomats to solve,” he smiled.

After the last ground war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, the UN ruled that Hezbollah must pull back north of the Litani River. A previous resolution also ordered its disarmament. Neither decision has been enforced.

That ground war in 2006 was a wake-up call for Israel. The Iran-backed militia fought its army to standstill. For almost 20 years, both sides have been avoiding – and preparing for – the next one.

Col Malka fought in Lebanon during that war. “This one is different,” he said.

When I asked why, he replied: “Because of 7th October.”

As we were speaking, the sound of small-arms fire grew louder. He gestured towards it. “That’s my guys fighting in the casbah,” he said.

Israel’s ground invasion is part of a dramatic escalation against Hezbollah over the past three weeks that has also seen it intensify air strikes on southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut.

Lebanon says more than 2,200 people have been killed, mainly during the recent escalation, and more than a million people displaced.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel on 8 October last year, the day after Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel. The Iran-backed group says it is acting in solidarity with the Palestinians and has said it will stop firing if there is a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Israel accuses Hezbollah of using civilians as human shields. One commander described the ground war as an offensive operation to defend Israeli citizens – an invasion to stop an invasion, in other words.

But the speed with which Israel’s forces have been moving through villages along this border may only be the first chapter in this story.

Hezbollah tactics have shifted since the ground invasion began, with Israeli towns like Metula – surrounded on three sides by Lebanon – reporting a drop in direct fire from anti-tank missiles, and a rise in rockets fired out of sight from further away.

The assessment of many is that Hezbollah fighters have not run away, but simply withdrawn further back into Lebanon.

Israel already has four divisions lined up at this border – and a growing chorus of voices inside the country who say this is the moment, not just to push back Hezbollah, but to remake the Middle East.

As the fighting near the village intensified, we were told to leave immediately, hurried out to the waiting convoy.

Under the shadow of a growing conflict with Iran, Israel’s small successes along this frontier don’t change one key fact: this is not actually a border war, it’s a regional war being fought along a border.

Inside Israel’s combat zone in southern Lebanon

BBC
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US soldier accused of helping ISIS jailed

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5 hours ago

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October 16, 2024

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US soldier accused of helping ISIS jailed

Cole Bridges, also known as Cole Gonzales, a 24-year-old from Stow, Ohio, was sentenced to 168 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release for attempting to provide material support to ISIS, a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Bridges was also convicted for attempting to murder U.S. military service members by assisting ISIS in planning attacks against American soldiers in the Middle East.

Bridges, who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in June 2023, joined the U.S. Army in September 2019 and served as a cavalry scout in the Third Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia. However, before his enlistment, he had already begun researching jihadist propaganda and supporting ISIS on social media.

In October 2020, about a year after joining the Army, Bridges began communicating with an undercover FBI employee posing as an ISIS supporter. During these communications, Bridges expressed his disillusionment with the U.S. military and his intent to help ISIS. He provided advice to supposed ISIS fighters on training and targets, including potential attacks in New York City.

Bridges’ actions underscore the dangers of radicalization and the threat posed by individuals seeking to assist terrorist organizations from within.

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Mr Bridges also provided the OCE with portions of a U.S. Army training manual and guidance about military combat tactics, with the understanding that the materials would be used by ISIS in future attack planning.

In or about December 2020, Mr Bridges began to supply the OCE with instructions for the purported ISIS fighters on how to attack U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Among other things, Mr Bridges diagrammed specific military maneuvers intended to help ISIS fighters maximize the lethality of future attacks on U.S. troops.

Mr Bridges also provided advice about the best way to fortify an ISIS encampment to ambush U.S. Special Forces, including by wiring certain buildings with explosives to kill the U.S. troops.

Then, in January 2021, Mr Bridges provided the OCE with a video of himself in his U.S. Army body armor standing in front of a flag often used by ISIS fighters and making a gesture symbolic of support for ISIS.

Approximately one week later, Mr Bridges sent a second video in which Mr Bridges, using a voice manipulator, narrated a propaganda speech in support of the anticipated ambush by ISIS on U.S. troops.

The FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force investigated the case, with valuable assistance provided by the FBI field offices in Washington, Atlanta, and Cleveland; U.S. Army Counterintelligence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, and U.S. Army Third Infantry Division.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sam Adelsberg and Matthew Hellman for the Southern District of New York prosecuted the case, with assistance from Trial Attorney Michael Dittoe of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

US soldier accused of helping ISIS jailed

(US Department of Justice)

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P Diddy accused of molesting 16-year-old boy, rape in fresh lawsuits

Published

22 hours ago

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October 15, 2024

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs

P Diddy accused of molesting 16-year-old boy, rape in fresh lawsuits

Six people on Monday filed fresh lawsuits against American music mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, accusing him of multiple sexual assaults, rape and molesting a 16-year-old boy.

The lawsuits filed in federal court in Manhattan contribute to a growing list of legal challenges against the embattled hip-hop mogul, all of which he has denied.

The plaintiffs are anonymous, with two women referred to as Jane Does and four men as John Does.

Some of these individuals, echoing previous allegations made against Mr Combs in recent months, contend that he exploited his celebrity status and the allure of potential fame to lure victims to extravagant parties or drug-fuelled gatherings, where they were subsequently assaulted.

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Claims include allegations of physical violence, drugging, and threats of death should the victims resist or disclose their experiences.

The lawsuits recount alleged assaults dating back to the mid-1990s, occurring at Mr Combs’ high-profile white parties in the Hamptons, a Brooklyn celebration for his late collaborator Biggie Smalls, and even in a storeroom at Macy’s flagship store in Manhattan.

The plaintiffs are among what their legal representatives described as a collective of over 100 accusers currently pursuing legal action against Mr Combs following his arrest on sex trafficking charges on September 16.

Attorney Tony Buzbee announced the forthcoming litigation at a press conference on October 1 and provided a hotline number for other potential accusers.

However, Mr Combs’ legal team condemned these tactics as “clear attempts to garner publicity.”

“In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone—adult or minor, man or woman,” the team said.

P Diddy accused of molesting 16-year-old boy, rape in fresh lawsuits

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Woman who slept with 122 students in 3 weeks replies parents, critics

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1 day ago

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October 15, 2024

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Bonnie Blue

Woman who slept with 122 students in 3 weeks replies parents, critics

An adult content creator believes the parents of the men she’s slept with should be ‘thanking’ her after she invited them to ‘marathon’ sex sessions at various UK universities.

Late last month, Bonnie Blue, a 25-year-old who resides in Australia, returned to England to embark on a month-long erotic odyssey.

It’s understood she planned to sleep with as many freshman students as possible in the hopes of ‘helping’ young men gain confidence when it came to doing the deed.

The OnlyFans star, who originally hails from Nottingham, began her ‘educational’ sex tour in her home town before traveling over to institutions in Cambridge and Derby.

She reportedly encouraged ‘virgins’ and ‘fresh 18-year-olds’ to contact her so they could embark on an hour-long sexual encounter.

“I gave everyone a time slot. It’s like you’re going for your hair,” she told the Daily Mail. “I said you can do whatever you want to me in this slot and then someone else is coming in.”

Initially, slots with Bonnie were capped at 60 minutes each. However, presumably due to her popularity, she later reduced time to just 20 minutes per man.

Bonnie reportedly filmed each of her sessions – ensuring each of the men had valid IDs and signed a consent form beforehand – and plans to post each video on her OnlyFans account.

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The social media star has taken on critics and parents who have taken issue with her event.

Bonnie claims the mums, dads and legal guardians of the men she slept with should be ‘thanking’ her for ‘educating’ their sons.

“I’m helping their children out,” she told the publication. “When I’m sleeping with them it’s educational and they walk away with such confidence.”

Bonnie also claimed that she found men in the UK to be ‘stiff’ in the bedroom compared to their Gold Coast counterparts. She’s also been forced to defend her decision to target freshmen for her sexperiment.

“If people want to think that an 18-year-old doesn’t want to sleep with a porn star then they really have to get out from under their rock,” she claimed.

“When 18-year-olds are having sex it’s usually unprotected and it’s never that good of an experience because the girls are inexperienced too. I have a video of them and they clearly are enjoying it.”

However, students were not the only people Bonnie slept with during her marathon.

“It was mostly students but there was also a group of grandads,” she admitted. “The oldest was 71. One was retired. He heard about me from his grandson.

“The people who turn up might look weird or be weird to someone else but I’m happy to pleasure anyone.”

Earlier this year, Bonnie admitted to sleeping with ‘122 students’ during a three week period.

The adult star headed to Cancun for Spring Break and allegedly made $250,000 from her Mexican trip with friend Leilani May.

“The college boys enjoyed Spring Break, but I gave them one to remember,” she told the Daily Star.

“Many Spring Breakers actually called it a bonding experience. They enjoyed every second of it, as did I!”

Bonnie said she’s considering going back for round two in Cancun next year and that she also hopes to tick off Freshers Week in Manchester and London, too.

Woman who slept with 122 students in 3 weeks replies parents, critics

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