Hezbollah’s Military Transformation

Hezbollah has come a long way. At it’s inception the group’s combat formations were aimed at one goal: unconventional warfare against Israel. The apex of their fame and glory was undoubtedly the Second Lebanon War in 2006 when Hezbollah fighters dealt the invading Israelis serious blows which cemented their credibility in the region. Equipped by Iran with modern military equipment, they split into small teams, each armed with loads of anti-tank weaponry and dug into interlocked fighting positions connected by tunnels reminiscent of Iwo Jima. Iranian specialists provided them with electronic warfare support, allowing them to continue to maintain their lines of communication even after Israel thought they had jammed them completely. The Iranians even turned the hardened bunker underneath their embassy into a command center for use by Hassan Nasrallah and his staff.

The glory days are over, though. Presently Hezbollah finds itself being ordered by Iran to prop up the regime of Bashar Al-Assad in Syria. The former ophthalmologist turned Alawite dictator is on the verge of being ousted by Sunnis unhappy with his ruling coalition of Shiite sects and religious minorities and their decades of oppression. In the larger proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the Assad regime is a vital ally the Iran cannot afford to lose. Hezbollah’s entrance into the Syrian Civil War was a huge boon for the Syrian regime. It allowed over-stretched Syrian troops to cover more ground, hold territory, and even launch counter-offensives to retake rebel-held areas.

These conventional offensive operations have tested Hezbollah’s ability to evolve and branch out from the tactics they perfected during the 2006 war against Israel. Gone are the days when Hezbollah fighters could dig a really deep hole and lie in wait with a wire-guided missile launcher beside them. The coalition of FSA and Al-Nusra fighters are a much more nimble opponent than Israel’s lumbering conventional forces and require a much different, more aggressive approach. This has been tricky, to put it politely. The accumulated wisdom of combat commanders states that irregular forces are usually very good at defense and iffy at offense. Hezbollah, however, has plenty of ideological motivation and it’s troops generally have higher morale than the average Syrian army grunt. For the Shiites, one of the most pressing war aims is to prevent the destruction of as many Shiite shrines and places of worship as possible, which are under serious threat from Al-Nusra extremists in the west and ISIS in the east. Another stated reason for their entry into the conflict is the same “if we don’t fight them there, soon we’ll have to fight them here” that Bush II wheeled out to justify his invasion of Iraq, except that Hezbollah’s claim carries a lot more plausibility considering that Syria and Lebanon share a land border, unlike Iraq and the United States. At the beginning of the civil war, Hezbollah reported that it’s recruitment targets were met almost immediately. Training has been expanded from the days of the 2006 war. New fighters now undergo several months of training in small unit tactics and crew-served weaponry to prepare them for the fight in Syria. Hezbollah commanders have had to think larger, moving their formations strategically as well as tactically, and ensuring greater care when dealing with logistics. Many of the same weapons that served them well in Lebanon, such as the 9M113 Konkurs, TOW, 9M131 Metis, and the RPG-7V and RPG-29 launchers, have followed them across the border into Syria. The tandem warheads on these weapons deliver a one-two punch that can crack through almost any armor in the world, regardless of the presence of explosive reactive plates. This makes them excellent partners to the regular Syrian army, which is short on manpower and hesitant to use tanks in urban areas without proper support from infantry. It also means that the armored vehicles captured by Al-Nusra, ISIS, and the FSA are all going to have to be a lot more careful how they maneuver, lest they be turned into a tin can full of exploding magma.

There have been costs to this shift to a more conventional war as well. Hezbollah has lost hundreds of fighters since they entered the conflict, and the switch from Lebanon to Syria as the primary zone of operations has opened them up to attacks from Sunni extremists. These casualties might be a drop in the bucket compared to the total number of deaths in the war, but Hezbollah cannot draw on the same reserves that a conventional army could and thus each loss is more serious. For a time it seemed as though Hezbollah would be the counter-stroke that won the war for Assad, but just months after the rebels seemed to be on the run, new coalitions between extremists and moderates in the opposition forces unleashed a devastating new offensive. Now Hezbollah ironically finds itself in the same position that Israel was- out on a limb in a foreign land, it’s troops in harms way, and ultimate victory an uncertain prospect at best. Only time will tell if this conflict leaves the group stronger or weaker.

Contributed by Matthew

Hezbollah Group Project Twitter Attributions

Tweet Attributions

May 4th – Nusra-led militants pound Hezbollah, Syria army posts near Lebanon border http://bit.ly/1JmvVzE  via @dailystarleb #syria #freesyria Gabriel Hernandez
May 7th – What Is Hezbollah Doing in Europe? Alexis Brimhall
May 7th – Alexis Brimhall “Would Hezbollah be synonymous with suicide bombings without the appointment of Imad Mughniyeh?” #FoodForThought
May 18th – Should the EU change its stance and consider Hezbollah a terrorist group? #foodforthought #EU Alexis Brimhall
May 18th – If Iran and Syria ceased all support of Hezbollah, would it disintegrate or just evolve? #foodforthought #middleeast Alexis Brimhall
May 21st – Hezbollah, the ‘Party of God’ – Israel News, Ynetnews Gabriel Hernandez
May 21st – Israel Says Hezbollah Positions Put Lebanese at Risk Gabriel Hernandez
May 21st – Report: ‘Unprecedented’ number of Hezbollah fighters killed Gabriel Hernandez
May 21st – Out of all the Hezbollah articles I am about to post, this one is indisputably the best.
Hezbollah Lemonade. Yes. Matthew Hutchings
May 21st – albawaba.com/news/hezbollah-syrian-army-advance-toward-qalamoun%E2%80%99s-flita-697238 … Gabriel Hernandez
May 21st – The more I read, the more I wonder- is Hezbollah a ideologically-motivated religious militia or a Shiite army for hire? Matthew Hutchings
May 21st – Hezbollah, Syrian army advance toward Qalamoun’s Flita | Al Bawaba http://www.albawaba.com//news/hezbollah-syrian-army-advance-toward-qalamoun%E2%80%99s-flita-697238 … Gabriel Hernandez
May 21st – There’s defending Shiite interests, and then there is allowing yourself to be used by Iranians as a pawn in their rivalry with the Saudis. Matthew Hutchings
May 21st – The collapse of Lebanon’s Hezbollah http://ara.tv/wz82q  via @AlArabiya_Eng Alexis Brimhall
May 21st – dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2015/May-21/298736-why-hezbollah-may-seek-to-change-taif.ashx … Gabriel Hernandez
May 21st – Aight. Enough of those pansies editorializing. Let’s skip to the combat footage. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=082_1431783081 … Matthew Hutchings
May 21st – Some more quality cams from recent operations against Al-Nusra in Syria http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e2a_1431892048 … Matthew Hutchings
May 21st – Some different angles from the Qalamoun operation
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5b3_1431631921 … Matthew Hutchings
May 21st – Apparently in Shiism worshiping the dead is fine, but if you worship the living it is no bueno. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5bc_1432151140 … Matthew Hutchings
May 21st – Hezbollah secures bragging rights after being mostly left out of the retaking of Iraq. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=db5_1431875446 … Matthew Hutchings
May 21st – Gangster as fuck Hezbollah propaganda video http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=08a_1431898391 … #gshit #swagworthamill #gucci Matthew Hutchings
May 22nd – CNN: Hezbollah shows off border gains with slideshow and tour http://cnn.it/1PziBz3 Gabriel Hernandez
May 22nd – Iran: If Israel attacks, Hezbollah will ‘destroy Tel Aviv’ http://toi.sr/1PZwSQD  via @timesofisrael Gabriel Hernandez
May 22nd – Good old fashioned proxy war. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/130897.aspx … via @ahramonline Alexis Brimhall
May 22nd – 80,000 Rockets http://www.inquisitr.com/2108618/iranian-official-claims-hezbollah-has-80000-rockets-pointed-at-israel/ … Gabriel Hernandez
May 22nd – Lebanon’s Hezbollah condemns attack on Shi’ite mosque in Saudi Arabia | TODAYonline http://m.todayonline.com/world/lebanons-hezbollah-condemns-attack-shiite-mosque-saudi-arabia … Alexis Brimhall
May 22nd – U.N. tribunal hears Hezbollah said Syria would kill Rafiq Hariri: report – Al Arabiya News http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/05/21/U-N-tribunal-hears-Hezbollah-said-Syria-would-kill-Rafiq-Hariri-report.html#.VV9fSBU3xAE.twitter … Alexis Brimhall
May 22nd – Future blasts Hezbollah’s Raad for ‘intimidating’ remarks http://bit.ly/1Q1wyAX  via @dailystarleb Alexis Brimhall
May 22nd – As if Fallujah wasn’t beat up enough… http://m.liveleak.com/view?i=97f_1431459843 … Alexis Brimhall

May 22nd – Let’s end with some classic footage. Hezbollah loves rifle grenades apparently. http://m.liveleak.com/view?i=536_1429959921 … Matthew Hutchings