Hizballah / Hezbollah - Strength
The head of Lebanon's Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said 18 October 2021 that his Iran-backed movement had 100,000 "trained" and "armed" fighters at its disposal. This is a big exaggeration, even including the reservists. In addition, quantity is one thing, but quality of their fighters has been shaken by long wars, budget shifts, and emergency recruiting during Syria. Speaking after deadly violence in Beirut days earlier, Nasrallah accused the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party, of being behind the killing of seven members of his movement and Shiite ally Amal at a rally on Thursday and warned it against sparking any "civil war". He said he revealed for the first time how many fighters were in his ranks "to prevent war, not threaten a civil war".
However, experts believe this number is an exaggeration, estimating that the militia's actual strength is somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 trained fighters, with the potential to supplement this force with up to 30,000 part-time members.
The State Department's 1993 report on international terrorism lists Hizbollah's "strength" at several thousand. Hizbollah sources assert that the organization has about 5,000-10,000 fighters. Other sources report that Hizbollah's militia consists of a core of about 300-400 fighters, which can be expanded to up to 3,000 within several hours if a battle with Israel develops. These reserves presumably are called in from Hizbollah strongholds in Lebanon, including the Bekaa Valley and Beirut's southern suburbs. The number of members involved in combat activity in southern Lebanon is under 1,000. But it has many activists and moral supporters. After the Israeli withdrawal Hizballah reduced the number of full time fighters to about 500, though estimates range from 300 to 1,200. There are also several thousand reserves, but these lack training or experience.
Hizbollah's militia is a light force, equipped with small arms, such as automatic rifles, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, and Katyusha rockets, which it occasionally has fired on towns in northern Israel. Hizbollah forces are shown on television conducting military parades in Beirut, which often include tanks and armored personnel carriers that may have been captured from the Lebanese army or purchased from Palestinian guerrillas or other sources.
Imam al-Mahdi Scouts
Hezbollah fighters have been schooled from a young age to submit to strict military discipline and are nurtured in a culture of martyrdom, believing that God sanctions their struggles. Many have attended university or at least completed high school, and their military and ideological training is rigorous. They are lauded within the Shi’ite communities of the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon as defenders of a Muslim sect that traditionally was powerless and downtrodden in a country dominated by Christian and Sunni Muslim landlords and politicians.
Established in 1985, the Imam al-Mahdi Scouts is believed to have around 50,000 members, who are distributed amongst more than 500 regiments, many of whom will eventually enter Hezbollah’s armed wing, or will go on to become ardent activists of the group. Even the remainder who do not take up a vocation within the organisation, will still have become heavily indoctrinated as to radical Shiite ideology, passing it on to family and friends.
The main topic on the curriculum of the al-Mahdi scouts has always been the destruction of Israel, they are also taught that becoming a martyr to protect their land is the highest of virtues, and during these intensive summer courses, scouts are also taught weapons skills, and take part in target practice. But there is also a lighter side to lessons, where youngsters are taught to read and write, they are also taught computer skills, and lessons in administration.
Children as young as eight, who have joined the ranks of Hizballah’s Imam al-Mahdi Scouts, are learn the concepts of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Shiite ideology, ready to be unleashed across the globe. As far as Hizbollah is concerned, they like to find their conscripts at the earliest of age, and one of their favored methods is to sign them up as Imam al-Mahdi Scouts, the youth wing of their fighting machine.
The aim of this exercise is to program a child’s developing mind, through teaching the concept of martyrdom, while influencing their hearts with the use of an intense program of indoctrination. At summer camps, which are designed to accommodate children under the age of 10, and youths up to the age of 20, the scouts undergo military training, as well as taking part in various sporting activities.
Novices are taught hatred of Israel, a loathing for Western culture, reverence to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and at the same time, those attending the camps are expected to swear allegiance to Hassan Nasrallah, the current Secretary General of the Lebanese political and paramilitary party Hizballah.
While taking part in parades, which come as part of the scouting curriculum, the youth are often seen attired in military-style uniforms, they also wear berets, and at times, headbands emblazon their foreheads bearing slogans such as “Oh Jerusalem, we are coming”, while on other occasions, scouts have been seen to wear combat paint streaked on their faces, and carry plastic rifles.
The fleur-de-lis is the internationally recognized emblem of the scout movement, a badge containing this emblem is worn by the Imam al-Mahdi Scouts, and just like all other scout troops worldwide, their emblem contains an element of their own distinction, which in the case of the Hizballah troop contains two swords either side of it, a hand raised as if taking an oath, and it also displays an inscription beneath it reading “Obey!”
Once the indoctrinated child reaches seventeen years-old, if the young scout excels in his training, his trainer approaches him with an offer to join the ranks of Hezbollah’s armed resistance group.
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