Hezbollah (Lebanon): Difference between revisions

==Hezbollah's military intervention in Syria on Combating ISIS==

Hezbollah collaborated with the Syrian government in its efforts to combat the terrorist group [[ISIS]]. Following the outbreak of unrest in Syria, Hezbollah actively engaged in fighting alongside the Syrian army against the [[Takfir|Takfiri]] (excommunicationist) ISIS militants. One significant achievement for Hezbollah in Syria was its liberation of al-Qusayr.

Hezbollah first supported the Syrian government politically and then launched a military intervention in Syria in late 2011 alongside Syrian troops and loyalist militias. The decision to intervene directly on the ground was proof of the new strategic relationship between the two actors. Hezbollah was a major foreign actor, helping the Assad government alongside the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia. Hezbollah supported Damascus militarily, technically, and logistically against different Syrian armed opposition groups. Hezbollah combatants in Syria were estimated at between 7,000 and 9,000, including elite troops, experts and reservists. Hezbollah has also opened training camps near the city of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley, near the Syrian border, in order to train the youth of various religious communities.<ref>[https://www.frstrategie.org/en/programs/observatoire-du-monde-arabo-musulman-et-du-sahel/consequences-hezbollahs-military-intervention-syria-lebanese-shia-population-and-relations-israel-2017 The Consequences of Hezbollah’s military intervention in Syria on the Lebanese Shia population and Relations with Israel]</ref>

Initially, there was relatively little confrontation between Hezbollah and the ISIS militants. Hezbollah tended to operate mainly in western Syria, while ISIS resided in the more lightly populated east. This all changed when ISIS took the war to Hezbollah on November 12, 2014, by deploying a pair of suicide bombers against the Burj al-Barajneh district of southern [[Beirut]], a mixed but largely Shia neighborhood where Hezbollah has a strong presence. The attack killed and wounded scores of civilians. Eager to punish Hezbollah for its Syrian intervention, ISIS promised "the Party of Satan" much more of the same.<ref>[https://www.refworld.org/docid/56a7924c4.html Unwanted Ally: Hezbollah's War Against the Islamic State]</ref>

Hezbollah's war aimed against Sunni extremists was both declared; protecting Shia shrines in Syria, and undeclared, the latter including keeping supply lines from [[Iran]] open, preserving the Syrian government, and keeping Sunni extremists (al-Nusra Front) from entering Lebanon. Sayed Hasan Nasrallah claims Zionists and Sunni extremists have the same goal of "destroying our peoples and our societies". As a political party with a strong social welfare arm, Hezbollah's leaders have deftly created a political alliance with Maronite Christian factions, secular Druze, and even Shia of the Amal Movement. Lebanese sources indicate that Hezbollah began recruiting Christians, Druze, and Sunnis for the fight against ISIS in late 2014. According to Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah: "This danger does not recognize Shiites, Sunnis, Muslims, Christians or Druze or Yazidis or Arabs or Kurds".<ref>Jews are notably absent from the Hezbollah leader's list of ethnicities under threat, as Hezbollah considers Israel's Jews to be in league with Islamic State terrorists.</ref> The reluctance of ISIS to strike Israel only reinforces Hezbollah's belief that there is cooperation between Israel and the Sunni extremists.