War in the shadows

Two mysterious explosions in suspected Hezbollah arms caches in the space of three months, and the discovery of Israeli electronic wire-tapping devices, provide rare glimpses into the covert intelligence war waged between Israel and Hezbollah. It is still unclear what caused the small explosion in a home in the southern village of Tayr Filsay on October 12, but the aftermath provided an opportunity for a propaganda skirmish between two masters of the art. With the Lebanese media still buzzing about the source of the explosion and the number of casualties, the Israeli military released video footage shot by a pilotless drone, which it said showed Hezbollah men loading rockets into the backs of trucks. Hezbollah then produced its own footage, claiming that the long rocket-shaped object seen in the Israeli video was nothing more than a rolled up steel shutter. In the absence of evidence either way, the outcome was