Baalbek Voice of the Oppressed (in Arabic) — 0530 GMT

Hezbollah has issued a statement on the aggression carried out by U.S. helicopters in Somalia that left approximately 100 innocent and defenseless Somalis dead. The statement said:

As we rightly warned in the past, the U.S. intervention in Somalia, under a UN cover, is nothing but an act of aggression to impose hegemony on the Somali people. It is not, as the campaign’s name of Operation Restore Hope suggested, designed to end the conflict among the parties and achieve political accord in Somalia.

The statement pointed out that the repeated U.S. practices and aggression in the form of individualistic and uncoordinated measures validate our warnings and reveal the hostile nature of the flagrant and unjustified U.S. intervention.

The statement noted that the Muslim Somali people, who are suffering the wounds inflicted upon them, have every right to defend themselves in the face of this aggression, even if the aggression uses the United Nations as a cover.

The United Nations must condemn and deplore the U.S. practices and warn that they must not be repeated; otherwise, the silence of the international organization will be self-incriminating.

It will also prove something that is becoming clear, namely, that the United Nations and the Security Council have become a tool to serve U.S. aggressive purposes.

The statement called on all free people, particularly the Arab and Islamic people, to stand firmly against this conspiracy. It added:

Let Washington know that the famine afflicting Somalia will not stop it from becoming a quagmire into which Washington will sink along with its arrogance, policies, troops, and all its allies.