Fadlallah Calls Attack in "Israel" Heroic

Source: Al Alam TV, 08-03-2008
BEIRUT --Influential Shiite Lebanese leader Ayatullah Sayed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said the attack by a Palestinian gunman on an 'Israeli' seminary in occupied Al-Quds Thursday night that left eight dead was a heroic act.
Fadlallah said in his Friday sermon: "The heroic operation in Jerusalem (Al-Quds) proved that the mujahedeen in Palestine are able to hit the Zionists hard."
"It was a natural reaction to the barbaric 'Israeli' violence in Gaza", he added in reference to air and ground operations by the 'Israeli' occupying regime last week that has left more than 130 dead, most of whom were women and children.
The US, which remained silent on the 'Israeli' offensive in which scores of unarmed Palestinians were slaughtered, failed Thursday to gain unanimous Security Council support to condemn the attack in Al-Quds.
Fadlallah also slammed the US administration for its unconditional support for the occupying regime and its dispatch of a destroyer to international waters off the coast of Lebanon.
"The dispatch of its warships to the Lebanese coast is an attempted distraction from its political and security failures to pressure the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine," he said of Washington.
"It is to reassert its complete support for the Zionist enemy in the massacres in conducts in Gaza and the West Bank," he said.
The US Navy had sent at least three warships, including at least one Navy guided missile destroyer, the USS Cole, to the eastern Mediterranean Sea in a show of strength to the states of the Middle East region.
The Cole is equipped to engage in a variety of offensive actions, including anti-aircraft and land attack missions.