Observatory Says 104 Hizbullah Fighters Killed in Syria so Far, Party Denies Figure
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Seventy-five fighters from Hizbullah have been killed in Syria since late last year, a source close to the group said on Thursday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave a higher death toll, saying 104 Hizbullah members had been killed in Syria since last autumn, but a Hizbullah spokesman denied the figures.
"There have been 57 killed and 18 others who have died of their wounds since the start of its participation in the war in Syria," the source close to Hizbullah told Agence France Presse.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said 104 Hizbullah fighters had been killed in all in fighting in central Homs province, which borders Lebanon, and around a revered Shiite pilgrimage site just south of Damascus.
"In the past five days, 46 were killed in Qusayr, 20 more died in the same area earlier this month, and 38 have died since the autumn in Homs province and at the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine," the Britain-based watchdog chief said.
Hizbullah spokesman Ibrahim Moussawi told AFP: "I deny these figures. When we decide to give any information, we'll be in touch."
Hizbullah combatants have become increasingly involved in Syria's conflict, fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's forces against an insurgency that flared after a brutal regime crackdown on democracy protests.
Initially Hizbullah said it wanted only to defend 13 Syrian villages along the border where Lebanese Shiites live, and the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine, revered by Shiites around the world.
However its elite fighters later encircled the rebel-held central town of Qusayr with regime troops before the launch on Sunday of a withering assault on the strategic border town that is home to 25,000 people.
Hizbullah denied its involvement in Syria for some time, quietly burying fighters killed in the fighting there.
But the movement stopped hiding its dead when its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on April 30 paid homage to fighters killed across the border.
"Syria has true friends in the region who will not allow Syria to fall into the hands of the United States, Israel and Takfiri groups," he said in a televised address.
Waddah Sharara, an expert on the organization, says Hizbullah has some 20,000 fighters, of whom 5,000 to 7,000 have combat experience, and between 800 and 1,200 of them have been fighting at Qusayr.
23 May 2013, 13:09
189
What is the purpose of this article? Maybe they need to include names and addresses just to fill up the page.
23 May 2013, 14:10
154
@ starsky
You mean 75 Hez deaths? This is old news and quite bad news for the rebels. One would have thought the deaths and casualties much, much higher given the ground they have captured and the length of time thay have been there.
Over 20 Salafists from Tripoli were taken out in a couple of days a while back ... didn't even reach the front lines. There is no way that the death and casualty totals for Lebanese Salafists aren't many times the Hez figures.
23 May 2013, 18:46
73
1000 hezballah fighters dead will not change the cause or objection! Fighting against heart eating, racist demons! I never believed or supported hezballah untill today when I realized they are fighting evil! Truth and civilization against heart eating, animals that behead people in front of women and children!
23 May 2013, 19:39
35
"I never supported hizbolla till today" liar... lol you've been posting defending hizbocrap since you first joined.
23 May 2013, 19:45
35
Stay in Australia Adonis. Fight your cyber war and let normal people live their lives.
Subnormal.
23 May 2013, 19:53
63
Mohammad, I've been posting here since 2001... Believe me when I say I haven't defended hezballah since I first joined. I have and still wish they will disarm and integrate into the Lebanese army just like the many Jewish armed factionsintegrated with the idf!
Prime suspect, I wish nothing more than Lebanese people to live their live and not get involved in Syria. Sunni or Shiite. We deserve peace and have been played and suffered enough at the hands of foreigners!
23 May 2013, 19:57
24
by the way have you seen the youtube vids of ASSad's thugs beheading and stabbing unarmed people to deal with their hands tied behind their back? 2al Truth 2al...yl3an hek truth...and no I do not believe you because I have read you defend them multiple times before today.
24 May 2013, 00:13
00
@ado: it is not black and white. No reasonable person would deny that there are heart-eating monsters - and plenty of them among the elements of the Syrian opposition. At the same time, the majority of those fighting in the opposition have a genuine aspiration for freedom and a government that those not oppress its people. If or when Assad is gone, expect another clash between the Takfiris, who are a minority and foreign to Syria, and the rest of the Syrian factions who do not aspire to a country ruled by the Sharia.
Hezbollah is not fighting evil in Syria. It is fighting freedom.
23 May 2013, 13:20
113
the number is very low ... comparing to the war they r in ... am sure they are very well trained to obly suffer 75. Of course am with the rebellion but am not feeling lucky lately!
23 May 2013, 14:19
314
who gives a damn about these brainwashed backwarded shiite terrorists,the more death the merrier, lebanon is a better place without them
23 May 2013, 14:33
413
traitors are those who work for other countries against there own...eg the Hizb you support..so that makes you a traitor..
23 May 2013, 14:39
511
you are supporting traitors and cowards who kill innocent woman and children..if that makes you proud ,..then it would be an insult to animals to call you one idiot.
23 May 2013, 14:45
47
keep dreaming..they tried people who fight in the shouf..and got there backside kicked by few amateurs .
23 May 2013, 14:47
48
if been proud of them destroying my country...i don't want to be proud...there is nothing to be proud off ..
24 May 2013, 10:54
20
FT the only retard is you...i am sure the majority here believe the same.
23 May 2013, 14:38
35
sense of pride by killing,i'm impressed by your intelligence
remember u dont even have atm machines in syria that's pride
23 May 2013, 14:47
47
Does Nasrallah has no shame in lying? What happened to his speech when he confirmed that Hezbollah is not involved in Syria's war and that it is about Lebanese people living in Qusayr defending themselves? I guess lying is in the doctrine of Hezbollah: say anything that helps your cause. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6fTUglEv_M
23 May 2013, 21:10
32
Motormouth....get a life! And that probably mean in Iran where you can be suppressed like a dog and told what to do. You can't handle freedom and a democratic system because you know you would be a lose whore. Obviously you need someone to walk you on a tight leash and that does not belong to Lebanon or its people. How pathetic.
23 May 2013, 14:52
27
Heroes fight for righteousness and support the oppressed against the oppressor. Israel is an oppressor, so is Assad. Hezbollah is fighting righteousness for an ulterior motive, the defense of Wilayat Al Fakih where Aoun would certainly not be president.
23 May 2013, 14:56
48
Qusayr, ladies and gentleman, is a small town of 30,000 people located very close to Hezbollah's stronghold in Hermel. Yet, all the power of the Syrian army and Hezbollah has not succeeded in assuring them victory. What will happen when they try moving to Damascus, Homs, Aleppo, and Daraa? The only reason Hezbollah got involved is because the regime there needed a moral victory but this is just one battle in a long war which will witness the demise of the Wilayat Al Fakih in the Arab world.
23 May 2013, 15:11
47
Do you really believe what you are saying? Did someone move Akkar away from the Syrian border? What happened to the fight against the Zionist enemy and the Great Satan USA? Face it. It is all about the creation of Wilayat Al Fakih that will never see the light thanks to the fighting men of the FSA.
23 May 2013, 15:50
46
the roar: qousayr is important to hezbis and bashar because it is the route to the coast for bashar and the supply route for hezbis.... nothing more... so the hypocrit excuse that hezbis are fighting to defend lebanese is just very comic.....
23 May 2013, 18:30
32
enlighten me aflatoon. He is saying that an Israeli source is more trustworthy, in his opinion, than naharnet. how many ways can this be interpreted.
23 May 2013, 15:35
39
As i am getting close to my 3akbel el mieh, and by the time i am writing, my objective is met. I happily announce: 3akbel el alef!!!
23 May 2013, 15:52
47
Between 75 - 104 accordant to my sources. Most likely 100. Banimaroof will gladly provide us with their names so we can spit on the terrorists' graves.
23 May 2013, 16:11
84
even if you hate hezbis it is no reason "to spit" on the graves of the dead ones... it makes you no better than those you criticize and it is a shame to speak like that....
23 May 2013, 18:03
45
i guess that your brain has bugged given your lame remarks.... you cannot believe that i told him what he said is a shame as in your mind a hezbi hater has no decency so you want to picture them as low people ready to spit on tombs and eat corpses... sorry to disappoint your hezbi brainless mind...
well you see i proved you wrong once again....
23 May 2013, 18:14
34
" so what do you call beheading innocent civilians?" i call it barbarism , extremist be them hezbis or salafis are still extremists and are missing a brain...
23 May 2013, 18:18
30
But my pregunta is,do they deserve to be buried with honor? Because if they do, then they dishonor the genuine victims who are in Syria. These young men took the minivan to kill.... Not to resist!
They should be feeding the 30cm long sharks in the Mediterranean sea.
23 May 2013, 16:09
413
Resistance to Israel ? They resist to no one !
Hizballah are crooks, drug and weapon dealers, murderers and criminals.
Israel is only an excuse for them to carry weapons and take control of lebanon !
23 May 2013, 16:31
00
I really do not get it from you guys !!!!
At the end of the days both sides are lebanese dying in Syrian for the sake of the syrians.
It is not enough the lives that we have lost when the Syrians were occupying lebanon?
23 May 2013, 16:37
46
"In December 2011, the US authorities released an indictment filed against Lebanese drug lord Ayman Juma, which exposed Hezbollah's involvement with the Los Zetas drug cartel. According to the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Los Zetas is the most technologically advanced and most dangerous cartel operating in Mexico.
Juma was indicted in absentia for smuggling 85 tons of cocaine into the US and for laundering $850 million for Los Zetas. He was also accused of serving as a go-between for the Mexican crime syndicate and the Shiite terror group."
Yeah... resistance my A$$ too!
23 May 2013, 16:45
412
Good riddance....too bad the number was not followed by few zero's!
23 May 2013, 18:32
43
so I don't get it are you claiming that no one from hizbocrap was killed? are you guys burying boxes full of stones then in those funeral processions???
23 May 2013, 19:59
31
explain what you mean by a huge "Zero" then stop changing your mind after you get burned.
23 May 2013, 17:35
44
Mahdi, read the source ... this is an AFP story ... it's not written by Naharnet.
They do seem to provide the most balanced coverage though. You will find more news stories about Tripoli on the homepage and lebanon section.
23 May 2013, 17:37
00
They've captured Qusayr that's why there's still Hizb Allah coffins coming daily from there lol
23 May 2013, 17:39
45
Let them all perish- better for the world=- I amsure Israel is watching this with glee-- their arch enemy will be eliminated without them even havig to fire a shot!
23 May 2013, 17:53
31
Thats nice password using the same slogan used in the US, just replace sunni with muslim. Glad to dissapoint you, plenty of terrorists have been or are shiite in iraq, iran and lebanon. And terrorists exist from all religions, not only muslims, including buddists, hindu, christian, jewish, atheist, cults of various belief.
23 May 2013, 18:04
33
If Assad loses, Hezbollah would find itself all alone in a very, very hostile neighborhood. It's a do or die thing for Hezbollah. It is not about defending Lebanon or securing supply lines to keep Israel in check. It is about the prevention of the total collapse of the Shiite Crescent and with it, the collapse of Hezbollah as we know it.
23 May 2013, 18:09
43
of course it is but hezbis are too hypocrit to admit it so they come up with stupid justifications....
23 May 2013, 18:29
44
Assad cannot but loose. And this by the law of numbers. HA has 5,000 combattants. Even if they take qusair, how can they hold it? Besides, if the FSA is ready to loose 30,000, what can the whole of HA do?
The only thing is financial gain. Nasrallah is doing a tough deal with the iranians on the price per dead to around 1,000,000 dollars per head.
23 May 2013, 18:26
43
Nasrallah is shrewd enough. He negotiated with the mollahs of Iran the price per dead combattant in Qusair to around 1 Million USD. Of this, he pays around 200,000 USD to the family, and uses the rest to buy new mercenaries from the chiite community.
23 May 2013, 18:29
43
Then it's endless. It's funny how they use satan's currency to buy people. Hizbelshaitan is indeed appropriate.
23 May 2013, 21:30
32
Jabal. No certified source. Rumors. "But il n'y a pas de fumée sans feu" + I think it makes sense to Hassan in his set of values. Else why would he sacrifice his young people?
23 May 2013, 23:51
21
OK then we'll treat it as a rumor. On the other hand, it is well documented that Hezbollah gives financial compensation to the families of its dead fighters. Hezbollah needs to be financed like any other operation and the money has to come from somewhere. Iran is a major financial sponsor of Hezbollah, that's no secret either. It would be no surprise if financial aspects of Hezbollah's operation in Syria were discussed with the Iranians. War is expensive and Hezbollah's accountants have a budget to reconcile. Believe me, every organization has its bean counters (those drive me nuts, by the way. Can't live with them Can't live without them).
23 May 2013, 19:39
51
given all the posts from hezbi voice mowaten it seems that his party is in trouble to come here and try to prove they aren't! just like the fights in tripoli that are triggered just to divert the attention from qousayr.... LOL
23 May 2013, 20:39
33
@realist I agree with you on. Without claiming to be an expert on Hezbollah, I would think that they are optimized at resisting and harassing the enemy. They are not an offensive force trained and organized to storm cities and hold them. Hezbollah is a hit-and-run gerilla outfit, albeit with lots of rockets. It would not surprise me if they were having difficulties with the Qusair offensive.
23 May 2013, 21:40
22
@ realist and @ jabal10452
In fact, this article argues the same points and it also has references to other online info including al-akhbar, check it out:
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentaryanalysis/hezbollah-slips-in-qusayr
23 May 2013, 21:06
34
The number is probably closer to 500, but who's counting.
and before you answer, everyone is counting and it is difficult on the ground to figure out the exact figures. HA's numbers will be VERY conservative so if they admitted to 75, then number will be significantly higher--HA has never been truthful or open when it comes to their operations. A large number would not be good for them and their communities as a large number of dead would probably increase rumblings of dissent among their own.
23 May 2013, 21:15
01
Here we go again with the counting game. What difference does it make to what is going on if the count is 75, 107 or 382? The Syrian army is crushing the rebels from Syrian provinces of Yemen, Libya, Turkey, Lebanon (t3isho wa tfou2o ya 3anater), Saudi Arabia and Europe, too, and the best thing the losers can do is throw around insignificant numbers! Talking about confidence in numbers!
