Israel Puts Combat Troops on Alert to Ward off Possible Mughniyeh Revenge Attack
Israel ordered its outposts and combat troops on alert along the border with Lebanon over fears Hizbullah would carry out an attack to avenge the killing of its top commander Imad Mughniyeh, Israeli military sources said Wednesday.
A military spokesman, however, told Agence France Presse that the army had not gone on a general state of alert in the area.
On Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak responded to threats by Hizbullah by saying any attack would prompt a painful and beyond imagination response from Israel.
"I want to say here, on the border, that I don”t recommend that Hizbullah test us because the consequences would be more painful than one can imagine," Barak said during a visit to the Israeli-Lebanese frontier area.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed last week to avenge the killing of Mughniyeh in a February 2008 car bombing in Damascus which the Shiite group blamed on Israel.
"I want to tell the Lebanese government we would hold it responsible," Barak said, according to a statement by the defense ministry.