Nasrallah
Photo: AP
'We can fire 3,000 rockets a day' says Nasrallah
Hizbullah leader: 'Resistance' is stronger today than before, UNIFIL force can't stop us
Hizbullah "could launch between 1000 and 3000 rockets daily," its secretary general Hassan Nasrallah claimed in an interview with a Dubai statellite TV station last week.
Nasrallah's comments were reproduced on Hizbullah's Arabic language website on Saturday, under the heading: "We could launch... 3000 rockets daily in a war in July."
Last week, the UN's Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said he was disturbed by the levels of arms being smuggled to Hizbullah via the Syrian-Lebanese border. Ki-moon told the UN Security Council that evidence of the smuggling of arms was "detailed and substantial."
During his interview, Nasrallah boasted that Hizbullah had amassed tens of thousands of rockets since the war last summer, adding that the international UNIFIL force stationed in southern Lebanon would be unable to stop Hizbullah from attacking Israel.
"When I said Hizbullah possesses more than 12 thousand missiles and then I said that we have more than 20 thousand rockets, this means that maybe we have 30 thousand or 80 thousand rockets or maybe more," Nasrallah told the 'Qalam Rasas' program on Dubai Satellite TV.
While Hizbuallah fired between 300 and 400 rockets a day on Israel during last summer's war, Nasrallah could now launch between 1000 and 3000 rockets daily, the Hizbullah site quoted its leader as saying. "Nasrallah stressed that the resistance is stronger today than before and can fight better than last year," the website said.
"Asked whether Hizbullah was able to respond to Israeli attacks with the presence of international forces in southern Lebanon, the Secretary-General stressed that the resistance is located in the southern villages south of the Litani, and thus are still in their villages, mocking the enemy which said that Hizbullah is far from the border," the website reported.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has often reiterated his view that the presence of the international UN force in Lebanon has succeeded in keeping Hizbullah cells away from Israel's northern border, thereby marking a victory for Israel in the 2006 conflict.
Over the weekend, Israel's Channel Two reported that Hizbullah had planted its flag on the Israeli-Lebanese border, before it was removed by members of the UNIFIL force. After a number of confrontations between UNIFIL and Hizbullah, Hizbullah members again planted their flag on their border.
