From Al Manar video
Ehud Goldwasser
Photo: Reuters
Eldad Regev
Reproduction photo: Hagai Aharon
Hezbollah releases video of 2006 kidnapping op
Al Manar airs report on 2006 preparation for two IDF soldiers' kidnapping, which sparked 2nd Lebanon War. In video, terrorists are seen rehearsing operation, operation commander Khalid Bazzi patrolling area
Seven years after the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers Eldad Regev and Udi Goldwasser during a patrol near the Israel-Lebanon border, Hezbollah published a video on Saturday of the training its operatives underwent in preparation for the kidnapping.
Hezbollah trains for kidnapping operation. Al Manar ( )
The video also shows Khalid Bazzi, the operation's commander, known by his nom de guerre, Hajj Qasim, touring the area where the two soldiers were kidnapped.
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Al Manar, the Hezbollah affiliated television channel where the video was aired, claimed that the Shiite terror group decided to hold its training exercises in the same location where the kidnapping itself was scheduled to take place.
The terror cells charged with the kidnapping mission, the station reported, were located in the trees of the adjacent forest.
"Even the operation's commander, Hajj Qasim, climbed atop one of the trees and spoke with one of his men without the enemy noticing," the Al Manar report claimed.
During the report, Khalid Bazzi, the operations commander, is portrayed as briefing his men in the area in anticipation for the kidnapping operation.
Afterwards he is presented as taking an active part in the training exercise. However, it is worth noting that some of the materials aired in the Al Manar report have already been screened as part of a documentary about Bazzi broadcast by the network in 2010.
At the conclusion of the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said that three of his organization's commanders were killed during the fighting with Israel – reportedly, Bazzi was among them.
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