Hezbollah in southern Syria – indications of a visit and tour (February 8) by senior Hezbollah officials in the Southern Command’s area of activity:
Hezbollah’s activity and buildup in southern Syria, near the border with Israel, continues. On February 8, seven Hezbollah operatives, apparently senior figures, toured the Quneitra province. We assess that the tour was part of Hezbollah’s Southern Command unit activities, and its objective was to visit and examine the activity in the sector.
The operatives arrived at the headquarters of the Syrian Army’s 90th Brigade in Nabe’a al-Fawwar. At the brigade’s headquarters, they changed vehicles to make it difficult to identify them. It is also possible that they changed clothes and wore the uniform of the Syrian Army.
From the headquarters of the 90th Brigade, the operatives went on a recon of Madinat al-Baath, Tel Bezeq, Talul al-Khmer, Tel Kudna, and Tel al-Sha’ar. We are familiar with Hezbollah’s Southern Command unit activity alongside the Syrian army in all these places.
Hezbollah’s Southern Command, headed by Munir Ali Na’im Shaitu (“Hajj Hashem”), is spread throughout southern Syria. Its operatives are Lebanese Hezbollah operatives, and their deployment is based on and embedded in existing Syrian Army bases and facilities. Wherever a Syrian military base is defined as a headquarters or base located in a vital location, enabling intelligence regarding the sector and Israel, there is a Hezbollah branch of the Southern Command (there are dozens of such locations in southern Syria).
The main role of the southern command unit is to create an operational infrastructure for all of Hezbollah’s activities in southern Syria, emphasizing the border area with Israel. This unit has independent intelligence collection, fire, and logistics capabilities.
As part of its additional role, the Southern Command closely cooperates with the Syrian Army’s 1st Corps, which is responsible for the southern Syrian sector. Its activity is embedded in this Corps and its sub-units. The Southern Command assists in the internship, consultation, and rehabilitation of Syrian Army units in southern Syria. Hezbollah members are assigned to the commanders of the various Corps 1 as mentors on behalf of the Southern Command. The following are the sites where the tour was held:
One Response
But they are NOT at War. WHO pays them?