Thailand satellite terminates Lebanon's al-Manar TV test

Jan 16, 2008, 9:28 GMT

Bangkok - Thaicom has ended a test broadcast of Lebanon-based al-Manar TV, which is allegedly linked to the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, the Thailand-based satellite company confirmed Wednesday.

'Shin Satellite would like to confirm that the company had already terminated the Al-Manar TV test signal from THAICOM on Friday, January 11, 2008,' said Shin Satellite Public Company Limited (SATTEL), the owner of THAICOM satellite.

SATTEL, which runs the largest satellite system in Asia, carried out a transmission test with Al-Manar on January 9 to 11.

Piyanuch Sujpluem, a spokeswoman for SATTEL, told The Nation online website that the deal was terminated after the company discovered al-Manar 'had connections to a terrorist group.'

Piyanuch, when contacted by Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa, refused to comment further on the matter.

The US government in 2006 declared the al-Manar station a 'terrorist entity.'

SATTEL owns four satellites, including Thaicom 1, 2, 5, and the broadband satellite iPSTAR.

Al-Manar is the mouthpiece of Hezbollah - or the Party of God - an Islamic Shia group formed in Lebanon in the mid-1980s to fight the Israeli occupation of Lebanon.

Hezbollah has been blamed for launching suicide attacks against Israelis, the US and Western targets.