By Lin Noueihed, BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s declaration that Hizbollah is a resistance movement was a compromise aimed at ending a political crisis without provoking a showdown with the U.N. Security Council which demands the guerrilla group disarm.Five Shi’ite ministers had launched a government boycott on December 12, paralysing the country and sparking a slanging match between politicians for and against Hizbollah keeping its arms.

Talks to secure their return had faltered over a Shi’ite demand that the cabinet explicitly state that Hizbollah was not a militia but an anti-Israeli resistance group. Hizbollah has been under pressure to lay down its weapons since the U.N. Security Council demanded 16 months ago that foreign troops leave Lebanon and all militias there disarm. Pro-Syrian Hizbollah and Amal, Lebanon’s main Shi’ite parties, announced an end to the seven-week government boycott on Thursday after Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told parliament that Hizbollah had always been considered a national resistance organisation. He did not use the word militia.Political sources read Siniora’s words as a way to coax Shi’ite parties to rejoin the government, while not rejecting the U.N. resolution 1559 on militia disarmament.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Feb. 2 (UPI) — Hezbollah accused Israel of killing a Lebanese shepherd in the disputed region of Shabaa Farms in south Lebanon and vowed to avenge the slaying. The 17-year-old shepherd and a hunter disappeared Wednesday afternoon in the area, a common backdrop to Hezbollah-Israeli skirmishes. The hunter returned safely, but the shepherd’s body was found Thursday in the area by U.N. peacekeeping forces in south Lebanon, known as UNIFIL.

The body, riddled with bullets, was taken to a nearby hospital where the victim’s family and co-villagers gathered, shouting anti-Israeli slogans to protest against Israel’s frequent violations of the U.N.-drawn Blue Line along the border. Hezbollah’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel Wednesday against killing the Lebanese shepherd, vowing to retaliate "without taking permission from anyone." He said Hezbollah militants will punish the killers without hesitation.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – A bomb exploded near a Lebanese army barracks in Beirut early on Thursday, destroying a car and slightly wounding one soldier, security sources said. The sources said a local newspaper had received a telephone call from someone claiming to speak on behalf of al Qaeda and declaring that a security target would be bombed in Beirut in retaliation for the arrest last month of 13 group members.

The explosion occurred some three hours later at around 2 a.m. (7 p.m. EST) outside the Fakhreddine Barracks in Ramlet al-Baida district of the capital, shattering windows in nearby buildings.The sources earlier said the blast was caused by a car bomb but they later said it had been caused by an explosive charge near or under the car.

By Murad Al-Shishani, After a missile attack on Israel from south Lebanon on December 27, 2005, the Organization of al-Qaeda in Iraq, or the Land of the Two Rivers, issued an audio-recording for its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in which he claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was ordered by al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden. The attack, combined with the statement of responsibility, raised questions about al-Qaeda’s presence in Lebanon. Following the attack, Lebanese authorities arrested a group of al-Qaeda members or followers of the Salafi-Jihadist movement. While the Lebanese authorities did not disclose details about the arrested suspects, the news leaks raised several questions about the presence and nature of the Salafi-Jihadist movement in Lebanon.