(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-20 09:26

BEIRUT - Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned on Saturday that his group will beat back any attack from Israel.

Any violation from Israel to the Lebanese territories or the civilians in the country's south will not pass without any actions from our side, Nasrallah told a southern Beirut rally marking Shiite religious festival of Ashura.

Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is seen in the crowd during an Ashura ceremony held in Beirut's suburbs January 19, 2008. Tens of thousands of Shi'ite Muslim Lebanese converged on Hezbollah's southern Beirut bastion on Saturday to mark the climax of Ashura religious ceremony, one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest events. Ashura, a 10-day-long event commemorates the death of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson Iman Hussein in battle 1,300 years ago. [Agencies]

Talking about threats of a new Israeli war against Lebanon, Nasrallah said "the Israeli command and the Israeli army do not have the capabilities to launch a war, but in return, we are committed to the resistance and we are capable and ready."

He, meanwhile, confirmed that his guerrilla group possessed body parts of Israeli soldiers left on southern Lebanon's battlefields during the July war in 2006.

Addressing the Israelis, Nasrallah said "your army is lying to you ... your army has left the body parts of your soldiers in our villages and fields."

"We have heads, hands, and legs "of your soldiers, he said, accusing the Israeli army of "losing its credibility."

Nasrallah also strongly lashed at US president George Bush, his policy and his latest tour in the Middle East region, calling on the Arab states and the Islamic "Nation" to support the resistance "politically, financially, militarily, morally, and in the press, as well as in all fields."

The Ashura festival this year came as the country stuck in a serious political crisis over the presidency, which has been vacant since the former president Emile Lahoud ended his term on November 24.

The sharply divided Lebanese parliament has delayed elections of a new president for 12 times without a consensus.

It was for the first time that the Shiite militant group leader appeared before the public since his last show-up at a "victory rally" marking the end of a war between Hezbollah and Israel in September 2006.

Nasrallah went into hiding after last appearance for fear of a possible Israeli assassination.