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Hezbollah chief mocks Israel in Ashura speech

"I am not talking about regular body parts. I tell the Israelis, we have the heads of your soldiers, we have hands, we have legs."

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah leader

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday made his first public appearance since the 2006 war with Israel, restating his claim that the militant group possessed the remains of several Israeli soldiers left on the battlefields of southern Lebanon.

Nasrallah, taking part in events to mark Ashura, the most important holiday for Shiite Muslims, delivered an unusually graphic speech detailing which body parts his group had.

The speech, before a huge crowd in Beirut's southern suburbs, appeared to be aimed at pressing Israel to expedite negotiations over a deal in which Lebanese and Arab prisoners would be exchanged for the remains of Israeli soldiers.

But Nasrallah did not make any reference to the two Israeli soldiers whose capture in a cross-border raid set off the war or about whether they were still alive.

The Israeli soldiers "were so weak on the field that they left behind remains not of one, two or three but a large number of your soldiers," said Nasrallah, his image towering above the crowd on a huge screen as he spoke. "I am not talking about regular body parts. I tell the Israelis, we have the heads of your soldiers, we have hands, we have legs."

An Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman, Shlomo Dror, said his government "does not relate" to such claims and doubted their veracity.

"It shows the moral standard of the man, that's all," he said.

Nasrallah also said his group was ready for any conflict with Israel, warning that if the Israelis attacked, "we promise them a war that will change the face of the entire region."

Tens of thousands of people dressed in black, their heads and wrists wrapped with yellow bands, took part in the commemorations, held in Hezbollah's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

The crowd chanted: "We serve you Hussein" and "Disgrace, how remote."

Both were references to the 7th-century killing of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed and a crucial figure in the establishment of the Shiite branch of Islam.

Lebanon has been without a president for nearly two months because of a standoff between the Western-backed majority government and the Hezbollah-led opposition supported by Iran and Syria.

As Nasrallah spoke, Amr Moussa, the Arab League's secretary-general, was promoting a three-point plan to solve Lebanon's crisis.

The initiative calls for the appointment of General Michel Suleiman, the army chief, to the presidency, a unity government and a new electoral law to avert future crises.

Hezbollah and its allies want veto power in the new government, a demand the governing majority says is unacceptable.
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