Report: Hizbullah Recruiting Fighters to Reactivate Resistance Brigades in Bekaa
Hizbullah is reportedly boosting and reactivating the Resistance Brigades by recruiting fighters from all sects in the north and the west of the Bekaa valley and offering them training and arms to combat the Islamic State group and other organizations.
According to An Nahar newspaper published on Wednesday, several youth are directly training with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in return for a hefty salary ranging between $1,500 and $2,500.
The newspaper reported that Hizbullah still hasn't sent the Resistance Brigades fighters to the neighboring country Syria but instead the party is preparing them to confront any upcoming war or extremist group that sought refuge in Lebanon.
The report continued that a number of Christian fighters requested to join the Resistance Brigades amid the unstable security and social situation.
The Syrian conflict has exacerbated existing sectarian tensions in Lebanon, where most Sunni residents back the Syrian uprising and Shiites generally support Syria's President Bashar Assad.
Hizbullah sent fighters to Syria to back President Assad's forces against rebels trying to remove him from power. The armed intervention in Syria earned the group the enmity of Syria's predominantly Sunni rebels. Assad is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Over the past year, Syrian troops and Hizbullah fighters have captured most of the towns and villages in Syria's mountainous Qalamoun region along the Lebanon border, depriving the rebels of residential areas where they can stay during the winter.
However, Hizbullah's involvement in Syria had drawn the ire of many in Lebanon.
H.K.
G.K.
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