Word: hizballah
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...where are the Israeli soldiers? How many of them are still alive? And whose answers to those questions can be trusted? Hizballah asserted last week that three of the servicemen are still alive. A Westerner who has served as an intermediary in hostage negotiations said he believed that only airman Ron Arad has survived his captivity. When those contradictory statements were coupled with the disparate claims emanating from Iran and Syria about the Israeli soldiers, the overriding impression was that no one source could account authoritatively for all seven...
...brothers, Mohammed and Abbas Hammadi. Tried and jailed for, respectively, the 1985 TWA hijacking and the abduction of two German relief workers, the Hammadis are an unpredictable wild card in the hostage negotiations. The Hammadi family claims to hold the two Germans hostage and has warned the leadership of Hizballah, to which it belongs, that they will not go free until the imprisoned brothers are released...
...second thoughts would undoubtedly be checked by pressure from Washington, especially since Mohammed Hammadi was convicted for his role in the 1985 TWA skyjacking, which resulted in the murder of U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem. How critical the Hammadis will prove in any final settlement remains uncertain. While Hizballah has asserted that it wants the brothers back, it is possible that the demand is merely a noisy tactic designed to wrest concessions and appease the powerful Hammadi clan...
Tehran has put in an unconvincing bid for the release of four Iranians who have been missing in Lebanon since the 1982 Israeli invasion. The Lebanese government has steadily maintained that all four are dead. In addition, although Hizballah hinted privately last week that its vague demand for the release of the thousands of Palestinians detained by Israel during the uprising in the occupied territories was just a bargaining ploy that could be dropped, Ahmed Jibril, a radical Palestinian leader with strong ties to Syria, < specifically called for their release. A senior British diplomat warns, "It's impossible to tell...
General Antoine Lahd, commander of the South Lebanon Army militia, weighed in with a requirement that nine of his militiamen held by Hizballah be released or accounted for. Lahd holds the keys to El Khiam prison in southern Lebanon, where Israel detains 350 of the Shi'ites sought by Islamic Jihad -- though Israel would probably make him unlock the door if its soldiers are recovered. Damascus has also put in a bid for the release of an unspecified number of Syrian soldiers it claims were detained by Israel in the Golan Heights...