Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- A circle of young men wearing green surgical masks peered into a crater filled with concrete pillars and slabs as a backhoe pulled broken blocks off crushed remains of a blood-caked body in black.

Jumbled cement, shattered windows, and collapsed walls exposing bedrooms and living rooms provided the postwar backdrop for the scene yesterday in Srifa, a ridge-top town in south Lebanon.

Guerrillas and residents called it victory.

``It was a triumph,'' said Abdel Ilah Haidar, 24, an electrician by trade and a Hezbollah guerrilla by vocation. ``We defeated the Jews. We defeated their tanks, their planes and their boats. Who has done that before?''

Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim political party and underground militia that battled Israel's army for more than a month, is fashioning a new Middle East myth out of the rubble.

The group portrays the war as a success, regardless of its casualties, the dislocation of hundreds of thousands of civilians, devastation to buildings, roads, electricity and water service, along with blown up buildings in Beirut's Shiite suburbs and destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure elsewhere.

The conflict, which began after Hezbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack July 12, left about 880 Lebanese dead and about 200 missing, Lebanon's police and government said. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said 159 Israelis were killed.

Litani River

Guerrillas boasted that the aura of Israel's invincibility was shattered as surely as were the rows of plain cinderblock buildings that once stood along Srifa's main street. Israel neither dislodged Hezbollah forces from the south, nor did it occupy several key strategic points south of the Litani River, which lies four kilometers (2 1/2 miles) north of Srifa.

Whether the victory claims endure may depend on the final diplomatic outcome of the war, especially whether Hezbollah, a virtual state-within-a-state that is regarded by Israel and the U.S. as a terrorist organization, is disarmed as called for by United Nations resolutions.

For guerrillas in Srifa, at least, disarmament is not an option.

``No one can force us to do it,'' said Ali Hashem, 27, a Hezbollah fighter and distributor of cemetery supplies. ``Not the Lebanese army and not foreigners.''

The UN cease-fire resolution calls for a beefed-up UN peacekeeping force and Lebanon's dormant army to take control of the south. Israeli forces have begun withdrawing from areas of southern Lebanon.

`Hezbollah's the Government'

The duration of the euphoria may also depend on Hezbollah's ability to rebuild the ruined businesses and homes of the south. Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, has promised reconstruction funds. No one in Srifa expected much from the Lebanese government.

``Hezbollah's the government down here,'' said Ali Hamad Moussa, 22, a student of business administration who was guarding entrances to Srifa.

Bright yellow victory banners draped on battered buildings provided a diversion from the destruction behind. ``Our blood has won,'' announced one. ``This is your democracy, USA,'' read another.

Srifa's pre-war population was 15,000, and few refugees returned from Beirut and other parts of Lebanon to survey the damage. One family salvaged tables and an armoire from a living room. Its walls were blown out, but its glass chandelier hung intact. Owners of a music and cell-phone recharge-card store searched around for loose compact discs under the dust.

Electricity and water supplies were cut. Wires from broken poles lay like dead snakes on the streets.

`I'm Happy'

``Here's my home,'' said Samira Ali Jabar, 35, surveying a pile of concrete where only a small portico was left standing. ``And there was my husband's chicken restaurant. But I'm happy. The generator was undamaged. We can set up right away.''

Nasr Hussein Said, 42, his wife and five children looked on through tears at their gutted apartment. Said railed at Israel. ``What can I do?'' he asked. ``I will sit with my family in the street. But we won, and we will rebuild.''

All the conversations were witnessed by young, lean men who roamed alleys of debris. They said they were on the watch for thievery and in case Israeli troops moved on the town. The men mostly wore black, the preferred color of Hezbollah's militia force of 4,000.

The guerrillas said there had been no ground fighting in Srifa, only jet strikes that destroyed a residential area the size of a city square block.

Bombed Before Cease-Fire

They said Israeli jets targeted Srifa because of its commanding position overlooking several near villages and the Litani River. One five-story building and grocery store owned by two Hezbollah members smoldered; it was hit by a bomb on Aug. 14 at 7:45 a.m., 15 minutes before the cease-fire took effect, guards at the building said.

During the war, Srifa was full of Hezbollah fighters, said Haidar, his face ruddy and his beard streaked with yellow. He said 32 civilians and guerrillas died in the town, though he did not specify how many of each category. The backhoe was digging for five bodies.

Haidar said Hezbollah fired no rockets from Srifa toward Israel, about 20 miles south. ``Those came from the Litani,'' he said. The valley to the north is covered with trees that overhang a dirt road on the Litani's south bank, providing cover to vehicles. Israeli bombs destroyed the nearest bridge to Srifa, its remains lying in slabs in the greenish water.

Haidar and other guerrillas believed the cease-fire would hold because Nasrallah wanted it to. ``Come back in six months. You will see everything is better,'' said Hashem, a smile broadening a narrow face.

``Yes. Come back. It's a nice town,'' said Haidar. ``We'll have a victory celebration.''

To contact the reporter on this story:
Daniel Williams in Beirut at  dwilliams41@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 17, 2006  01:02 EDT

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