Hizbollah Military Forces in Lebanon
Hizbollah Military Forces in Lebanon
Hizbollah's military strength is roughly 3,000 men, heavily dependent on part-time and irregular forces. Many are highly experienced, often well educated forces. Composed of a core of just 300 to 500 guerrillas. Hizballah has deliberately cut its force over the past years to prevent infiltration and leaks. Hezbollah fighters are old by comparison to Israeli fighters. Any age up to 35, usually married, often university students or professional men.
Heavily supplied and financed by Iran, but Syrian personnel seem to be involved in training and in coordinating with Iran. Iranian and Syrian coordination of support for military supply and possibly operations of Hezbollah seems to occur at the general officer, deputy minister level.
By the late 1990s Iran was flying three 747 cargo jets monthly to Hezbollah via Syria in an effort to upgrade their arms capabilities. Weapons include the Russian made Sagger and Strella antitank missiles. Iran's military camps in Lebanon with some 150-250 Iranian troops appeared to be offering training on the more advanced systems. Intelligence reports estimate Iranian aid to Hezbollah to be between 65 and 120 million dollars a year.
From 1998, Hizbollah forces were carrying out an average of two operations a day against the SLA and Israeli forces. Some missions involve long range shelling while others have included sophisticated roadside bombings and commando missions involving 40 well-trained guerrillas operating as a team. Guerrilla mortar strikes have improved in both accuracy and range, indicating better range-finding systems, low signature weapons, and the use of mortar boosters that enable consistent hits for 2 to 3 miles. Improved radio detonated roadside bombs were very effective against the Israelis. Some were disguised as large rocks. The fake rocks were bought from garden shops and ten packed with explosives.
Hizbollah is equipped with APCs, artillery, multiple rocket launchers, mortars, anti-tank guided missiles (including AT-3s), recoilless rifles, SA-7s, anti-aircraft guns. New longer range anti-tank weapons capable of burning through the armor plate of Israel's M-60 tanks. The supply of Katyusha rockets is estimated to have risen to 1,000. These include 30 Iranian produced 240 mm rockets with a range of 40 km, according to Israeli intelligence reports. Most of the rockets are 120 mm and 127 mm variants with a maximum range of 22 km.