{"id":1290424,"date":"2023-10-24T17:22:13","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T17:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=448727"},"modified":"2023-10-24T17:22:13","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T17:22:13","slug":"secret-u-s-war-in-lebanon-is-tinder-for-escalation-of-israel-gaza-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/10\/24\/secret-u-s-war-in-lebanon-is-tinder-for-escalation-of-israel-gaza-conflict\/","title":{"rendered":"Secret U.S. War in Lebanon Is Tinder for Escalation of Israel\u2013Gaza Conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The State Department<\/span> urged U.S. citizens to leave Lebanon on Sunday \u201cdue to the unpredictable security situation<\/a>.\u201d The warning followed clashes between protesters<\/a> and Lebanese security forces in a Beirut suburb near the U.S. Embassy after hundreds of Palestinians were killed last week in a blast at Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. The unrest seems to confirm the fears of almost eight in 10 Americans<\/a> that the war between Israel and Hamas will lead to a broader conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But few Americans realize that the United States has long been embroiled in a wider war in Lebanon, and that U.S. forces may be a target there, as well. The U.S. has, over decades, poured billions of dollars in security assistance into Lebanon and conducted counterterrorism efforts against Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia group with political and military wings. Lebanon\u2019s dominant political and military force, Hezbollah has long been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the shadow of that conflict, the U.S. has waged another \u201csecret war<\/a>\u201d in Lebanon against Sunni terror groups like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda, according to a former four-star commander who oversaw the effort, declassified documents, former special operators with knowledge of the program, and analysts who have investigated U.S. Code Title 10 \u00a7 127e \u2014 known in military parlance as \u201c127-echo\u201d \u2014 which allows Special Operations forces to use foreign military units as proxies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East have already ramped up with drone strikes on American troops in multiple locations across Iraq and Syria, and drone and missile attacks from Yemen on a U.S. Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea. Experts say that secrecy surrounding the 127e program in Lebanon, known as Lion Hunter, whose existence The Intercept revealed last year<\/a>, could embroil the U.S. in a wider war in the Middle East and pose an additional threat to U.S. troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither Special Operations Command nor Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the greater Middle East, will comment on Lion Hunter and the number of U.S. troops who have been, and may still be, involved. But in a June \u201cwar powers\u201d letter to Congress, President Joe Biden noted<\/a> that \u201capproximately 89 United States military personnel are deployed to Lebanon to enhance the government\u2019s counterterrorism capabilities and to support the counterterrorism operations of Lebanese security forces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Israeli\u2013Palestinian conflict makes it all the more crucial that secret wars like the one carried out via the 127e program in Lebanon are subject to congressional oversight, said Katherine Yon Ebright, counsel in the Brennan Center\u2019s liberty and national security program and author of the most comprehensive analysis of the 127e authority<\/a>. \u201cAlready, we have seen U.S. forces in the region targeted over the United States\u2019s political support for and arms transfers to Israel,\u201d Ebright said. \u201cCongress and the public must know where U.S. forces are deployed in the region and whether those forces are at risk of attack, particularly as Hezbollah in Lebanon contemplates joining the conflict against Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n