Posted on 10/19/21
| News Source: Arutz-7
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared for the first time on Monday that his group has 100,000 trained fighters, The Associated Press reports.
Nasrallah’s remarks came in a speech appeared to be meant as a deterrent to domestic foes following the nation’s worst internal violence in years.
“We have prepared (those fighters) with their diverse weapons to defend our territory, our oil and gas that is being robbed before the eyes of Lebanese, to protect the dignity and sovereignty of our country from any aggression (and) terrorism and not for internal fighting,” Nasrallah said, according to AP.
In his speech, Nasrallah accused the head of a right-wing Christian party, Samir Geagea, of seeking to ignite civil war in Lebanon.
Addressing Geagea directly, Nasrallah said: “Don’t miscalculate. Be wise and behave. Learn a lesson from all your wars and all our wars.”
Nasrallah’s speech followed gun battles on the streets of Beirut this past Thursday, in which seven people were killed. The incident was the worst street violence the city has seen in years and erupted over the probe into last year’s massive port blast in the city.
It is difficult to verify the 100,000 fighters figure as Hezbollah is largely secretive. If true, it would be larger than the size of Lebanon’s armed forces, estimated at about 85,000.