Events have rapidly progressed lately on the Lebanese Shiite scene, beginning with the public admission by Hezbollah of its military participation in the battles raging in the Syrian city of Qusair. In a speech given Saturday, May 25, on the anniversary of the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah explicitly acknowledged that Hezbollah was involved in the Syria war, fighting on President Bashar al-Assad’s side against what Nasrallah called the takfiris, who hail from a number of Arab countries, Balkan states or even from Asia Minor. These events go all the way to the firing of two rockets, by unknown perpetrators, on a neighborhood of Beirut’s Shiite-dominated southern suburb, considered Hezbollah’s stronghold in the Lebanese capital.
In light of these developments, sources close to Hezbollah began to more openly and transparently talk about the military battles under way close to Lebanon’s northeastern border, which, until a few days ago, was a taboo subject. In this context, those sources confirmed to Al-Monitor that Hezbollah’s losses in Qusair have in fact totaled 40 dead, in addition to a larger number of wounded. The sources explained that most of these casualties did not include “elite fighters” of Lebanon’s pre-eminent Shiite organization, as anti-Hezbollah media sources have publicized during the last few days.
