BICOM

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah yesterday gave the clearest admission yet that his organisation is actively fighting alongside forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar Assad.

Speaking on the Hezbollah television station Al-Manar, Nasrallah said that in the wake of attacks by Syrian opposition forces on Lebanese border villages, it was “normal to offer every possible and necessary aid to help the Syrian army, popular committees (pro-Assad militia) and the Lebanese.”Hezbollah is widely thought to have sent fighters to Syria since early on in the conflict and has held numerous funerals in Lebanon for those killed fighting there.

Nasrallah warned that if a key Shi’ite shrine near Damascus is destroyed in the fighting, “things will get out of control.” In what appeared to be an indication that Hezbollah could become increasingly involved in the fighting to prevent Assad’s downfall, Nasrallah said that “Syria has real friends in the region and in the world who will not allow Syria to fall in the hands of America or Israel or the Takfiris (al-Qaeda affiliates).”

The Hezbollah leader also denied that his organisation was responsible for launching a drone last week which was intercepted by the Israel Air Force off the coast of Haifa. Nasrallah said, “We didn’t launch a drone of this type.” He then warned Israel “and those standing behind it not to make a foolish mistake in Lebanon.”

Meanwhile, the IDF yesterday launched a surprise large-scale training exercise in the north of the country, calling up two thousand reservists without warning. The 48-hour drill will simulate a significant ground manoeuvre, involving live fire exercises and is designed to test the army’s readiness. However, according to the YNet news site, a senior source in IDF Northern Command denied that the drill’s timing was dictated by regional developments and said that it had been scheduled in advance.