(25 Apr 1997) Eng/French/Arabic
Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas fired rockets and mortars Friday at Israeli border positions in southern Lebanon and several of the mortars landed in northern Israel.
Hezbollah has been fighting to oust Israeli forces and their Lebanese militia allies from the so-called "security zone" that Israel carved out in south Lebanon in 1985.
The rebels say only two things can end their struggle - their enemy's defeat, or a glorious death as Islamic "martyrs".
The Iranian-backed militia lures recruits with the promise they will enter the fast track to heaven if they fall in battle.
But in the slums of Beirut - where the guerrillas do most of their recruiting - the generous benefits Hezbollah offers families of its war dead may do as much to attract fresh blood as promises of paradise.
A Hezbollah guerrilla trains his rifle on an Israeli position in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli army has deployed jets, helicopter gunships and other hi-tech weaponry against Hezbollah.
But the full might of its armed forces has been unable to dislodge the guerrillas from their strongholds near its northern border.
Hezbollah has killed more than 170 Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon since 1985, when Israel set up the "security zone" with the announced aim of protecting its northern communities from cross-border guerrilla raids.
Part of the reason for the tenacity of the Hezbollah fighters is their unshakeable religious beliefs.
The Shi-ite Muslim fighters are convinced God is on their side and that theirs is a Holy War.
And if they fall in battle they believe they will go straight to Heaven.
It's an idea, they say, which sustains them -- without distracting from their main aim: driving the Israeli forces out of southern Lebanon.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Many people say our aim is martyrdom. Martyrdom is not our main aim. Our main aim is to achieve victory, achieve the liberation of our land."
SUPER CAPTION: Hezbollah fighter
The guerrillas claim Israel will never match their commitment and will eventually be forced to withdraw from Lebanese soil.
SOUNDBITE: (French)
"I myself, if I become one day a martyr, I tell my wife to tell my children to follow in my footsteps, because it's the right path, and it's legal because the Israeli enemy occupied our land, and it is our right to resist and defend our land."
SUPER CAPTION: Hezbollah fighter
The pride of Hezbollah's armoury are its Russian-made Katyusha rockets, purchased with some of the 100-million (US) dollars funding they receive each year from Iran.
The rockets can be destructive, but are notoriously inaccurate.
Friday's attack was only the third known rocket launching blamed on the guerrillas since a U-S-brokered pact in April 1996 called for an end to cross-border rocket attacks in exchange for Israel halting a bombing blitz of southern Lebanon.
Around 100 people were killed in those Israeli bombardments.
In revenge, Hezbollah announced it had formed a new brigade of "martyrdom fighters" -- suicide bombers in all but name -- to hit Israeli targets.
SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)
"Our Mujahadeen understand martyrdom is the best way to reach heaven, and we become martyrs for the sake of our people's dignity and freedom."
SUPER CAPTION: Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah general secretary
But many Muslims challenge Hezbollah's notion of martyrdom.
Amir Taheri, an �migr� Iranian writer and journalist, says the idea has no basis in Islam.
SOUNDBITE:
SUPER CAPTION: Amir Taheri, Iranian writer and journalist

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