A four man National Guard observation team was forced to flee their post when a group of heavily armed illegals stormed their position, coming within yards of the check point located between Nogales and Lukeville.

The Guardsmen retreated from the encounter and called for border patrol back up, following the standard operating procedure laid out by state officials. The armed group then disappeared into the desert fueling fears that they may still be in the United States.

The Guardsmen’s retreat policy was an attempt by government officials to protect the troops from harm, and was implemented in response to the 250 Border Patrol agents who have been the victims of violent assaults between June ’05 and June ’06. Several agents assaulted died of their injuries and minimizing casualties at the border is seen as an important factor in public support for the tough security measures, like posting troops on the border, Arizona has taken.

The attack comes just months after a Texas Representative Michael McCaul issued a statement concerning the threat of Islamic terrorists infiltrating the border with the help of Communist sympathizers in Latin America. Additionally, Hezbollah is active in Latin America, fueling concerns that armed incursions by terrorists on the southern border may increase, making the American southwest look like the Israeli/Lebanon border.

With Hugo Chavez increasingly flexing his military muscle, and long suspected of supporting Hezbollah in Venezuela, and Iran, Hezbollah’s main source of financial and military backing, angry at U.N. sanctions being leveled against it, this incident could be part of a wider conflict poised to envelope our south western states.