Hizballah - Syrian Civil War
Up to 10,000 Hezbollah militiamen are estimated to have been fighting in Syria at any one time. By November 2015 Hezbollah fighters increased in numbers on the front lines in northern Syria, aiding the military of President Bashar al-Assad against rebel forces and Islamic State militants. The presence of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah had grown noticeably in Syria since Russia began its air campaign in late September 2015 in support of the Assad government. Hezbollah casualty figures in October showed a steady increase in battle deaths.
In the battle for Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, Tehran-backed Hezbollah fighters have reportedly taken a key role alongside Iranian forces in support of the Syrian regime. Hezbollah is preoccupied in other battles as well, including in northern Hama and a smaller involvement in Quneitra.
Since the beginning of the crisis in Syria, Hezbollah had not been very open about the scale of its involvement, but its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has occasionally referred to siding with the Syrian government as a strategic need and a religious duty.
Hezbollah lent support to Assad’s regime from the start of the civil war with small numbers of fighters but committed heavily when the war dragged on to do all it could militarily to save Syria’s strongman, a member of the Alawite minority sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam. Hezbollah fighters were 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 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.
Many Lebanese Shi’ites doubted the wisdom of the involvement in Syria. When young Lebanese Shi’ite fighters started to return in body bags in 2014, some supporters, especially those in southern Lebanon, questioned why Hezbollah was fighting in Syria, arguing the real enemy is Israel. But a series of jihadist bombings in Shi’ite strongholds of Beirut and suicide bombings in the Bekaa Valley changed that — the critics fell back into line.
“The Islamic State has been a saving grace for Hezbollah’s recruitment efforts,” said Matthew Levitt, director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and author of the book “Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God.” Until the bombings and the rise of the Islamic State, “there was a lot of backlash to Hezbollah,” he adds. “Hezbollah is seen as the only one capable of defending Shi’ites from the onslaught of the radical Sunnis.”
By early 2016 there was increasing concern that Hezbollah is getting valuable battlefield experience in Syria, especially when it comes to large-scale, coordinated offensive operations, something the Shi’ite militia had little knowledge of before. That practical experience could be of use in any subsequent conflict with Israel. Hezbollah commanders acknowledge the benefits. Hezbollah has been in the vanguard of large assaults on Syrian rebels and not just along the border in Qalamoun and Quneitra but also further afield around Aleppo in northern Syria.
There was always a fair amount of synergy between the Iranians and Hezbollah in terms of tactics, command-and-control and training. The missions they were involved with in Syria were different from what they had been working on with Iranian revolutionary guards in the context of strategic competition with the Israelis. So in Syria, Hezbollah had to become somewhat masterful in counter-insurgency.
Hezbollah has also learned to coordinate with other other irregular militias that have come from as far away as Afghanistan. And Israel’s arch-enemy has become used to working with the Russian military — calling in airstrikes and liaising when it comes to intelligence and reconnaissance. Hezbollah is learning to use more sophisticated equipment, and it is getting more battlefield experience for its fighters.
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