Hezbollah demands back seized munitions

BEIRUT (Reuters) -
Hezbollah demanded the return of a truck carrying munitions seized by Lebanese authorities on Thursday and said the supplies were heading to its fighters in south Lebanon.Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said earlier on Thursday customs authorities had stopped a truck carrying weapons on the outskirts of Beirut and had taken it to the city's port for investigation.Hezbollah said the authorities had confiscated a "truck carrying munitions to the resistance." The truck had been carrying the load from the Bekaa Valley in the east to the south, it said in a statement."The government program clearly confirms the right of the resistance ... to work to liberate the rest of the occupied land, the prisoners and to confront the Zionist threats," the statement said, demanding the return of the truck and munitions.Israel and Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, fought a war in July and August following the Lebanese group's capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12.The war was halted by a U.N. Security Council resolution which authorized the deployment of thousands of U.N. troops to monitor the truce. The Lebanese army also deployed to the south under the resolution.The Lebanese government is supposed to halt the flow of weapons to Hezbollah from abroad under the resolution. A U.N. envoy and anti-Syrian Lebanese leaders have accused Syria of smuggling weapons to its allies in Lebanon in recent months.Hezbollah is part of an opposition at odds with the government. The Shi'ite Muslim group says the cabinet does the bidding of the United States and, together with its allies, is demanding veto power in government. The political standoff spilled over into armed clashes last month and nine people were killed. It was Lebanon's worst civil unrest since its 1975-1990 civil war and raised fears of a new conflict. Leaders on both sides called for calm.Hezbollah has sworn it will never use its weapons against other Lebanese. It says it needs the arms partly because of Israel's continued occupation of Shebaa Farms -- territory occupied since the 1967 Middle East war.The Shebaa Farms are claimed by Lebanon, while the United Nations says they belong to Syria. Damascus says the land belongs to Lebanon.Israeli and Lebanese soldiers exchanged fire on Wednesday after Lebanese troops shot in the air as an Israeli patrol crossed a security fence near the border to search for explosives planted by Hezbollah guerrillas. No one was hurt.