HEZBOLLAH IN AFGHANISTAN

By Debbie Schlussel

If you're keeping score -- through invasions, insistence on "free elections", and or looking the other way, the West has now handed over three countries to Iranian-allied Shi'ites, Iran itself, and/or its proxy, Hezbollah:

* Iraq
* Lebanon
* Afghanistan

Yup, you read that right: Afghanistan. Well, it's not yet "handed over" to the Shi'ite revival, but we're now seeing signs that Sunni Muslim-dominated Afghanistan is now Iranian-allied or Hezbollah-allied.

The main sign is that weapons heretofore rarely seen in Aghanistan and now seen on Iran-allied Shi'ite terrorists in Iraq (who are trained by Hezbollah), are now being found in Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan.

While some so-called "military analysts" say this means that the Taliban can get any kinds of weapons it wants from anywhere, I don't buy that. It's very clear where the weapons are suddenly coming from: Iran, Hezbollah, or both. Here are the details:

U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan have discovered a rare cache of sophisticated weapons designed to kill troops with a lethal spray of ball bearings, according to a report confirmed by military officials.

Troops uncovered 89 anti-personnel rocket-propelled grenades after their patrol was fired on by insurgents in late June, according to the Triton Report. The Pentagon uses the report, produced by the British firm HMS, for information on global terrorist attacks.

The report notes that Shiite insurgents in Iraq have been photographed carrying similar weapons. They are known as Type 69 airburst, anti-personnel rockets. The rockets are designed to hit the ground near troops, bounce 6 feet and explode, killing those within 15 yards with a shower of 800 ball bearings.

In Afghanistan, the weapons were seized in Khost province, which borders Pakistan. Insurgents plan and launch attacks from havens in Pakistan.

The weapons are rarely found in Afghanistan, said Army Capt. Christian Patterson, a military spokesman there. Their presence, he said, has not changed enemy tactics or how U.S. and Afghan forces pursue insurgents.

He said he could not speculate about who supplied the weapons to insurgents.

Charles McMinn, deputy research manager for HMS, said the source of the weapons is unclear. They have been found in Iraq, which bought thousands of them under Saddam Hussein, he said. There is no evidence the rockets in Afghanistan came from Iraq, he said.

Like I said, the source of the weapons seems quite clear. They are found on Iranian-allied Shi'ite terrorists in Iraq. And that's an indication that these came from a key Shi'ite source, too. Don't let the Pakistan reference fool you. Even though the weapons were found near Sunni-dominated Pakistan, Shi'ite Iran has its supporters and agents there, too. And the Taliban who were going to use these weapons were likely trained in their use by Hezbollah.

More and more evidence that, as we look the other way, Shi'ites and Sunnis always work together when they're fighting their ultimate enemy: us.

Despite liberals' and ignoramuses' claims to the contrary, Sunni Al-Qaeda (and in this case, its proxy, the Taliban) and Shi'ite Iran frequently work together when it suits their purposes.