From the Daily Caller
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military on Thursday released a map detailing what it says are nearly 1,000 underground bunkers, weapons storage facilities and monitoring sites built by the militant Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
Many of the sites on the map are located south of the Litani River in Lebanon, the zone where Hezbollah is banned from keeping weapons under the U.N.-sponsored truce that ended Israel’s summer 2006 war with the guerrilla group.
The military says Hezbollah has set up some 550 bunkers, 300 monitoring sites and 100 weapons storage facilities. Military officials would offer no other comment.
I wrote about this way back in January of 2009. Even then it was clear the likelihood of something this enormous was nearly a certainty. Iran and phony Muslim construction and charity organizations have been funneling money and weapons into Hizballah and Hamas for years.
After the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Iran quickly moved in and used the rehabilitation project of the destroyed Shiite areas in southern Lebanon providing cash, aid and services to all families whose houses had been destroyed. Reinvestment in infrastructure was also part of the project. Iran, through government controlled construction firms, sponsored paved roads, public facilities and the restoration of many Shiite communities while largely ignoring the other parts of Lebanon. This greatly benefited Hizbullah and cemented their political hold in the country and they used the support and reconstruction as a major PR boost in southern Lebanon.
Washington Institute: “Shutting Hizballah’s ‘Construction Jihad’”
In 1993, a senior Hizballah official noted that Jihad al-Bina had only a $1.8 million budget, though he added, “We are promised more from Iran and concerned individual financiers.” By November 2006, Hizballah officials were quoted as having some $450 million earmarked just for operations south of the Litani River. Though it was a small-time operation hardly worthy of concern in the early 1990s, today Jihad al-Bina is one of Lebanon’s most significant construction firms, funded and controlled by Iran.
Flush with money from Iran and operating under the guidance of senior Hizballah leadership, Jihad al-Bina has followed up on the July war with an accelerated reconstruction campaign aimed at building grassroots support for Hizballah. According to information made public by the Treasury Department, after the 2006 war with Israel, “Hizballah used Jihad al-Bina to raise funds for the terrorist organization and to bolster the group’s standing by providing construction services in Southern Lebanon.”
The support through phony construction companies also provided new military infrastructure for Hizbullah’s defenses. Construction for new underground bunkers and weapon facilities for advanced weaponry also took place. Iran refitted Hizballah with with newer missiles and a larger quantity of rockets increasing their deadly capability and target range and increased their survivability by adding to bunkers and reinforcing caves and tunnels.
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