Hizbollah supporters attend a memorial ceremony on Tuesday at the Sitt Zeinab Shiite Shrine in Damascus for slain commander Mustafa Badreddine, who was killed in Syria last week. AFP
Hizbollah supporters attend a memorial ceremony on Tuesday at the Sitt Zeinab Shiite Shrine in Damascus for slain commander Mustafa Badreddine, who was killed in Syria last week. AFP

Hizbollah’s intervention in Syria has left its leaders exposed



BEIRUT // Hizbollah's intervention in Syria has been vital to the battlefield successes of president Bashar Al Assad's government and boosted the militant group's prestige as a fighting force.

But these gains have come at a cost: in just four years Hizbollah has likely lost as many fighters as it did in its decades of conflict with Israel. Meanwhile, its senior commanders have been left exposed as the group morphs from a guerrilla force into a conventional army fighting in a foreign land.

Since the Lebanese Shiite militants entered the war in Syria, they have lost at least six high-profile commanders. Two – Samir Kuntar and Jihad Mughniyeh – are believed to have been assassinated in Israeli air strikes. Hizbollah also blamed the 2013 assassination of military commander Hassan Al Laqqis in Beirut on Israel, though a previously unknown Sunni militant group claimed responsibility. Other commanders were killed in battles with extremist factions.

The latest to fall was Mustafa Badreddine, Hizbollah’s top military commander who was running the group’s war in Syria. Hizbollah announced his death on May 13 and eventually said he was killed near Damascus airport in an artillery attack carried out by Sunni extremist groups.

However, many have been widely sceptical of Hizbollah’s claims, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying that no shelling occurred in the area near the airport and no rebel group claiming responsibility for the killing.

“It’s very clear that all the recent assassinations – or at least the big ones – are happening in Syria. So whatever control mechanisms they have seem to be working in Beirut but not in Syria,” said Randa Slim, a Hizbollah expert with the Washington-based Middle East Institute.

Ms Slim added that the Syrian government is perhaps more prone to penetration by foreign intelligence agencies, providing room for lapses that could put Hizbollah fighters at risk.

“The war in Syria is uncharted territory for Hizbollah, logistically and operationally,” said Bilal Saab, a fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Council. “They have learned a lot since the beginning of the conflict, but the risks are still considerable, including operational security. When you work with foreign entities such as Syrian troops and other militias, there is always a chance of moles and spies wreaking havoc from within.”

Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a professor at Beirut’s Lebanese University who is seen as close to Hizbollah, said the group’s presence in Syria has left its top-ranking commanders fully exposed to attacks from Israel and extremist rebel groups.

Alongside fighting in Syria, Hizbollah is also battling Jabhat Al Nusra and ISIL along Lebanon’s border with Syria and continues to stare down its archenemy, Israel.

The group “is overstretched and it is going to expose it to more attacks”, said Ms Saad-Ghorayeb.

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READ: Hizbollah may have evolved but its stance against Israel remains

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It is difficult to determine how much the group’s losses in Syria have affected its overall strength. Hizbollah is tight-lipped and commanders like Badreddine and Imad Mughniyeh – the group’s former military commander who was assassinated in a 2008 car bombing in Damascus – spend their lives in the shadows, their actions and even faces only really known in death. Even determining how many key commanders the group has is difficult.

"We don't know how many senior members of the military are out there," said Aurelie Daher, Hizbollah expert and author of the book Hezbollah: Mobilization and Power. "If they have lost a dozen of them, then yes, they have lost many officials. If they have a hundred or more, then one can consider their losses in this regard as less important. Everything is relative."

What is known is that key leaders like Imad Mughniyeh and Badreddine rose through the ranks of Hizbollah in its early days, and have participated in all of the group’s major military actions. They are men who went from orchestrating bombings at home and abroad to eventually commanding armies.

“There is an institutional knowledge, an institutional expertise that can only be accumulated over years of working in the field in Lebanon and abroad,” said Ms Slim, the Middle East Institute expert. “I think people like Imad Mughniyeh, like Badreddine, these lie at the core of the operation. If these are eliminated, a lot of institutional know-how goes away with them.”

Finding replacements with the experience and charisma of these kinds of leaders can be difficult, she added.

“We are talking here about commanders who are also military strategists and are responsible for outlining Hizbollah’s military strategy in these various arenas,” said Ms Saad-Ghorayeb.

But despite their importance, she says Hizbollah does not rely on personality cults and has grown into a large military force with the ability to mobilise tens of thousands of reservists. At home, it has also grown into a movement that acts more like an institutionalised and evolving state.

“I think it will keep adapting to changing military and political realities,” Ms Saad-Ghorayeb said. “It’s not just going to freeze now because an important commander was assassinated.”

Israel appears to be taking advantage of Hizbollah’s deployment in Syria to isolate and assassinate the group’s leaders there – either because it is easier to do so in Syria or because they feel repercussions are less likely. But despite this, Ms Daher says Hizbollah still holds major manpower and leadership assets in Lebanon in case Israel were ever to attempt an attack on the group’s homeland.

Based on her conversations with contacts in the movement, Ms Daher said: “Hizbollah is perfectly aware that there is a risk that Israel would take advantage of the situation to hit the party on its own territory, in Lebanon.”

“A large number of fighters and military senior officials were hence left at home for that purpose. The elite squads are still in Lebanon.”

jwood@thenational.ae

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

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The biog

Name: Capt Shadia Khasif

Position: Head of the Criminal Registration Department at Hatta police

Family: Five sons and three daughters

The first female investigator in Hatta.

Role Model: Father

She believes that there is a solution to every problem

 

Important questions to consider

1. Where on the plane does my pet travel?

There are different types of travel available for pets:

  • Manifest cargo
  • Excess luggage in the hold
  • Excess luggage in the cabin

Each option is safe. The feasibility of each option is based on the size and breed of your pet, the airline they are traveling on and country they are travelling to.

 

2. What is the difference between my pet traveling as manifest cargo or as excess luggage?

If traveling as manifest cargo, your pet is traveling in the front hold of the plane and can travel with or without you being on the same plane. The cost of your pets travel is based on volumetric weight, in other words, the size of their travel crate.

If traveling as excess luggage, your pet will be in the rear hold of the plane and must be traveling under the ticket of a human passenger. The cost of your pets travel is based on the actual (combined) weight of your pet in their crate.

 

3. What happens when my pet arrives in the country they are traveling to?

As soon as the flight arrives, your pet will be taken from the plane straight to the airport terminal.

If your pet is traveling as excess luggage, they will taken to the oversized luggage area in the arrival hall. Once you clear passport control, you will be able to collect them at the same time as your normal luggage. As you exit the airport via the ‘something to declare’ customs channel you will be asked to present your pets travel paperwork to the customs official and / or the vet on duty. 

If your pet is traveling as manifest cargo, they will be taken to the Animal Reception Centre. There, their documentation will be reviewed by the staff of the ARC to ensure all is in order. At the same time, relevant customs formalities will be completed by staff based at the arriving airport. 

 

4. How long does the travel paperwork and other travel preparations take?

This depends entirely on the location that your pet is traveling to. Your pet relocation compnay will provide you with an accurate timeline of how long the relevant preparations will take and at what point in the process the various steps must be taken.

In some cases they can get your pet ‘travel ready’ in a few days. In others it can be up to six months or more.

 

5. What vaccinations does my pet need to travel?

Regardless of where your pet is traveling, they will need certain vaccinations. The exact vaccinations they need are entirely dependent on the location they are traveling to. The one vaccination that is mandatory for every country your pet may travel to is a rabies vaccination.

Other vaccinations may also be necessary. These will be advised to you as relevant. In every situation, it is essential to keep your vaccinations current and to not miss a due date, even by one day. To do so could severely hinder your pets travel plans.

Source: Pawsome Pets UAE

Know your cyber adversaries

Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.

Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.

Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.

Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.

Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.

Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.

Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.

Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.

Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.

Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.

The Sand Castle

Director: Matty Brown

Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea

Rating: 2.5/5

THE SPECS

Touareg Highline

Engine: 3.0-litre, V6

Transmission: 8-speed automatic

Power: 340hp

Torque: 450Nm

Price: Dh239,312

Malcolm & Marie

Directed by: Sam Levinson

Starring: John David Washington and Zendaya

Three stars

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Graduated from the American University of Sharjah

She is the eldest of three brothers and two sisters

Has helped solve 15 cases of electric shocks

Enjoys travelling, reading and horse riding

 

The specs

Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors

Power: 480kW

Torque: 850Nm

Transmission: Single-speed automatic

Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)

On sale: Now