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Group profile: Hizbullah
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| 26 July 2006 |
Hizbullah continues to pose a significant threat to Israel. Hizbullah's relentless guerrilla campaign against the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon is widely seen as the driving force behind Israel's May 2000 unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon. While Israeli forces withdrew behind the UN approved international boundary, Hizbullah continues to dispute the small Shebaa Farms border region as a pretext for continuing sporadic operations against Israel and, therefore, justifying its retention of a military wing.
Already considered the most capable non-state armed group in the Middle East, Hizbullah's Islamic Resistance (IR) military wing was rearmed by Iran with a large number of unguided rockets after the withdrawal. Israeli intelligence believes that members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) continue to train and operate alongside IR fighters in Lebanon.
Training
Islamic Resistance guerrillas are reckoned to be amongst the most dedicated, motivated and highly trained of their kind. Any Hizbullah member receiving military training is likely to do so at the hands of IRGC, either in southern Lebanon or in camps in Iran. The increasingly sophisticated methods used by IR members indicates that they are trained using Israeli and US military manuals; the emphasis of this training is on the tactics of attrition, mobility, intelligence gathering and night-time manoeuvres.
Alliances
Hizbullah is wary of alliances with other guerrilla organisations, being mistrustful of outsiders and believing most Palestinian groups to be riddled with informants.
During 2002 there were reports that Hizbullah was co-ordinating with militant Palestinian groups in the confrontation with Israel. The groups were said to include Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Ahmed Jibril's Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
A eulogy delivered following the death of operative Ghalib Awali in July 2004 acknowledged for the first time the existence of a unit designed for operations in the Palestinian theatre. The statement, by Hasan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Hizbullah, praised Awali's work within "the unit that devoted itself in the past few years to helping his brethren in occupied Palestine".
Al-Qaeda
Following the terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September 2001, there were allegations from US and Israeli sources that Hizbullah was allied to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network - allegations that Hizbullah has strongly denied. The 9/11 Commission Report stated that "Al-Qaeda members received advice and training from Hizbullah" in the past, although states that there is "no evidence that Iran or Hizbullah was aware of the planning for what later became the 9/11 attack." The US Treasury Department also accused operatives loyal to the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi of attempting to establish links with Hizbullah "and any other group that would enable them to smuggle mujahideen into Palestine".
As the insurgency in Iraq has escalated, however, the Sunni jihadist movement has become increasingly anti-Shia, with Zarqawi's group leading efforts to incite a sectarian war between Iraq's Sunni and Shia Muslim communities. While Hizbullah may have helped Iran keep tabs on Sunni extremists in the past, an alliance looks increasingly unlikely. Indeed, Sunni jihadists have become extremely critical of Iran and its ally Hizbullah and their attempts to 'hijack' the Palestinian cause.
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© 2006 Jane's Information Group
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