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The Sheikh: still alive and kicking
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| By Associated Press July 21, 2006 |
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Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday that the group's leadership remains intact, appearing an interview on Al-Jazeera a day after Israel said it bombed a bunker where he may have been hiding.
Nasrallah vowed never to release two Israeli soldiers captured by his organization even if "if the whole universe comes (against us)," saying they would only be freed as part of a prisoner exchange brokered through indirect negotiations.
Israeli warplanes dropped 23 tons of explosives Wednesday night on a site in south Beirut it said was an underground bunker where Hezbollah leaders -- including possibly Nasrallah --were meeting.
Hezbollah immediately denied there was any bunker and that none of its members was hurt. It said the strike hit a mosque under construction.
"I can confirm without exaggerating or using psychological warfare, that we have not been harmed," he said, referring to the strike.
Al-Jazeera, which aired only excerpts of the interview, said it was taped earlier Thursday. The interviewer said the interview took place amid tight security precautions but did not say where. Nasrallah has been in hiding since Israel's onslaught began July 12, though he gave a speech on Hezbollah television on Sunday.
Nasrallah also denied claims by Israel to have destroyed half of Hezbollah's rocket arsenal, calling the claims "baseless."
"Hezbollah has so far stood fast, absorbed the strike and has retaken the initiative and made the surprises that it had promised, and there are more surprises," he said, warning that a Hezbollah defeat would be "a defeat for the entire Islamic nation."
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