BEIRUT, 19 July 2006 — Raad is born — not the long-range missile which Hezbollah is firing at Israel but a Lebanese baby boy whose mother wants to honor the group’s showdown with the Jewish state.
After a difficult Caesarean delivery, Kawkab Al-Akli gave birth to a boy at the Labib medical hospital in the southern coastal city of Sidon, her husband Mohammed Al-Khaled told AFP.
“We had sought refuge at a school in Sidon after running away from our village of Marwahine in the south because a lot of people were killed in Israeli attacks,” he said.
“This morning, my wife gave birth to a boy. She wanted to name him Raad to honor the resistance, Hezbollah and (its leader) Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” he said.
Still in pain, his wife, a mother of seven already, added: “I will also bring Raad 2 and Raad 3.”
Hezbollah has since last week for the first time fired Iranian-made Raad missiles, extending the reach of the group up to the northern Israeli city of Haifa.
