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Israeli soldiers clean their weapons after returning from southern Lebanon near the Israeli-Lebanese border in northern Israel Tuesday. (AP)
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| By Associated Press August 8, 2006 |
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An Israeli army video purports to show the interrogation of a Hezbollah fighter acknowledging his part in the raid on an Israeli army patrol July 12 -- the spark that ignited the current conflict with Lebanon.
In the video relased Monday, Hussein Ali Suleiman, 22, said the seizure of two Israelis from the border patrol was the second time he had taken part in such an attempt, following an unsuccessful raid in 2005.
He also spoke about his training in Iran.
The tape appeared to be heavily edited, and some answers were cut in mid-sentence. He appeared to have light bruises or wounds on his cheeks and lips.
Israel announced his capture on Sunday, though it was not clear when he fell into Israeli hands. Separate television footage showed him in the custody of soldiers in the field with his arms bound and a large cloth covering his eyes.
In the video, Suleiman said he joined the Islamic militia when he was 15, and received four rounds of training before he took part in an attempt to seize Israeli soldiers.
Israel says Hezbollah has tried several times to capture Israelis to barter for the release of prisoners from Israeli jails. In early 2004, Hezbollah swapped an Israeli businessman kidnapped in Europe and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers for hundreds of Arab prisoners and scores of guerrilla corpses.
Suleiman told his interrogators he attended military maneuvers in Iran with about 40 or 50 other Hezbollah guerrilla in 2003. No details of the exercises were available from the tape.
He said the trainees drove from Beirut to Damascus in Hezbollah cars, and from there took a special flight to Iran without passing through passport control.
Suleiman said his first operation was in late 2005, apparently a thwarted attempt to take Israeli prisoners. His task was to manage anti-tank missiles.
Asked if the operation failed, he said: "It had other aims. The main aim didn't go well, but the secondary aim was to direct a severe blow to the (Israeli) posts," he said.
The tape showed Suleiman speaking briefly about the July 12 cross-border operation in which his unit killed three Israelis and took two others with them to Lebanon. His job was to cut the access routes to an outpost, he said before that segment abruptly ended.
In 1998, Suleiman said he attended night school, a "soldiers course", for a 1 1/2 months that involved classes in Islamic law and jurisprudence.
He said he received his next training after Israel ended its 18-year occupation of South Lebanon in 2000, a 45-days "fighter" course that involved weapons training, sabotage and communications. Four months later, he trained on anti-tank weapons, and underwent more training several months later.
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