LEBANON: Hezbollah says it's sorry for helicopter shooting

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, finally made his mea culpa.

“It was an accident and a sad and painful mistake that happens ... everywhere, around the world and even within one army.”

The head of the militant group was explaining for the first time why Hezbollah fighters fired last week at a Lebanese army helicopter, killing a military officer, in an incident that came as a shock to the Lebanese.

According to Nasrallah, there isn’t any underlying agenda behind what happened, no messages to the Israelis, no messages to the Lebanese army. Simply, a young fighter, who is barely 20, was unable to identify the army helicopter and so shot at it, Nasrallah said in a televised speech aired Thursday at a social event in southern Lebanon.   

The leader of the militant group described the shooter as an “honorable” resistance fighter who asked that he be turned in to the military police:

That was his own wish. He told us that there is nothing he would do to embarrass the resistance; after all, he added, I joined the resistance to defend the country and be martyred.

The deadly incident has stirred calls by Western-backed Lebanese political groups to discuss the role of Hezbollah’s weapons and its relation to the army.

Anti-Syrian lawmaker Nayla Mouawad said on Wednesday that the Lebanon cannot continue to coexist with an armed Hezbollah:

"It is obvious that we are facing two options: Either the democratic state of Lebanon or the Hezbollah state. ... We would not accept the placing of red lines beyond which the Lebanese Army is not permitted. ... There should be no two armies ... and two states in Lebanon."

Imad Salamey, professor of political science and international affairs at the Lebanese American University, said the incident is the result of the “vague” role played by Hezbollah as an armed force:

“The helicopter shooting comes as no surprise. One would expect [incidents] would happen either unintentionally or intentionally between two military forces operating on the same grounds with no clear lines of engagement, coordination or cooperation, and with two different military authorities. ... I think this [recent event] could be the beginning actually, not the end of these accidental shootings.

His comments were published by the Lebanese online newspaper, NowLebanon.

— Raed Rafei in Beirut

Photo: An image grab taken from the Hezbollah-run Manar TV on Sept. 4 shows Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah delivering a speech from the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh. Credit: AFP Getty Images

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