Hezbollah leader says U.S. troops will be met with arms if Iraq is attacked

The leader of the radical Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah told about 150,000 people gathered Thursday for a religious observance that U.S. troops will face armed martyrs if they attack Iraq. “We are about to face a large-scale American war. We reject this and all the satanic, false and deceitful slogans under which it is being waged,” Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told the crowd gathered in Beirut’s Haret Hreik suburb to mark the end of a 10-day mourning period known as Ashoura. “We tell them that they will not be met in this region with roses, flowers and perfumes. They will be met with arms, martyrdom and rifles,” he said in a speech that was met with shouts of “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is Great.” Chest-beating and flag-bearing groups of Hezbollah guerrillas had marched to the site from the Martyrs’ Complex near Beirut airport, followed by black-clad men, women and children shouting “Death to America, Death to Israel.” Nasrallah called on Arab governments that have allowed the stationing of U.S. troops on their territory, “or even ones that are ostensibly neutral,” to prepare to face the consequences of a war opposed by most Arabs. Full Story