Beirut Welcomes Freed Prisoners

The leader of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has personally welcomed home five militants freed by Israel. The Israelis handed over the prisoners, along with the remains of 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters, in exchange for the remains of two of soldiers. The soldiers' capture in 2006 sparked a brief war between Israel and Hezbollah. Greeting the returnees at a huge rally in Beirut, Sheikh Nasrallah said the "age of defeats" was over.

Tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters, some travelling by car or scooter, converged on the south of city to celebrate the prisoners' release and listen to Sheikh Nasrallah speak.
"It is an identity of the will and culture of resistance and of the rejection of humiliation and occupation, regardless of who the occupiers, the tyrants and the powerful are."
Qantar also addressed the crowds, hailing Lebanon's "great Islamic resistance".