Fadlallah Defends Hizbullah Role in Idlib Battle
Loyalty to Resistance bloc MP Hasan Fadlallah on Sunday defended Hizbullah’s participation in the ongoing battle in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib near Turkey’s border, hours after Hizbullah announced the death of eight of its fighters there.
“The Islamic Resistance martyrs who ascended yesterday were through their blood trying to thwart an attempt by the takfiri groups and the states that back them to spread their presence once again in Syria,” Fadlallah said at a memorial service for one of the slain fighters in the southern town of Kfardounin.
“This battle that the resistance is fighting is in the face of a takfiri scheme led by the U.S. and its allies in the region,” the MP added.
“We will remain at the heart of the confrontation against it after it faced a major defeat due to the resilience of Syria and its army along with our resistance and Syria’s allies. We will continue this confrontation to prevent these people from seizing control anew of Syria,” Fadlallah went on to say.
He added: “We will remain in this battle as much as it needs our presence, at any location or spot, so that booby-trapped cars do not return to Lebanon and so that these groups do not return to our border.”
The deaths in Idlib marked the highest for Hizbullah in Syria in years as the group has pulled out many of its fighters from the neighboring country.
Hizbullah sent thousands of its battle-hardened fighters into Syria a year after the country's conflict began in 2011, helping President Bashar Assad's forces win major battles against insurgents. But over the past two years, Hizbullah has withdrawn many of its forces, leaving only a few hundred of them in several areas around the war-torn country.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 14 Hizbullah fighters were killed Friday afternoon in the village of Talhiyeh when Turkish drones attacked their post as well as others of the Syrian army.
The Observatory's chief, Rami Abdul Rahman, said the 14 Hizbullah fighters included 10 Lebanese citizens and four of other nationalities, including at least one Iranian.
More than a thousand Hizbullah fighters, including several founding members, have been killed in Syria.
Source: Naharnet
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