Hezbollah has 50,000 rockets & missiles, leaked US cables report

Leaked US diplomatic cables reportedly show that Hezbollah has acquired an arsenal of some 50,000 rockets and missiles, raising fears of an even larger conflict with Israel, and a full-scale regional war. The New York Times says it gained advance access to leaked documents from the WikiLeaks website. It says one cable quotes a Pentagon official expressing concern over the Hezbollah arsenal. The Pentagon official indicated that the up to 50,000 rockets and missiles included 40 to 50 Fateh-110 missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv and most of Israel, and 10 Scud-D missiles. The cables indicated that a senior Syrian Foreign Ministry official denied supplying Hezbollah with the weapons, echoing comments from President Bashar Assad, but that US diplomats were insisting that the flow of arms had continued to Hezbollah. Earlier leaked cables showed that US diplomats were accusing Iran, as well, of smuggling weapons to Hezbollah. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is said to have written a Syrian diplomat ten months ago that the Obama administration knows that Damascus is supplying ballistic missiles to Hezbollah, and is very concerned about it. Reportedly, Secretary Clinton sent the letter a week after a senior Syrian official promised her that his country is not transferring new missiles to Hezbollah. (14,44)