Pro-Iranian Hezbollah leader in Lebanon Hassan Nasrallah said on Monday (October 18th) that his movement has “100,000 armed and trained combatants“, Warning the Christian party of the Lebanese Forces (FL) not to try to train it in”a civil war“.
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In a televised speech, the secretary general of the Shiite party accused the Christian party of having opened fire Thursday, in the heart of Beirut, on its supporters and those of its ally, the Shiite movement Amal, killing seven, as well as of to arm and want to provoke “a civil war“. “I reveal for the first time this figure: we have 100,000 fighters, trained and armed“Said Hassan Nasrallah, indicating that he was making this announcement”to prevent war and not to threaten civil war“.
Hezbollah and Amal had organized a demonstration Thursday in front of the Beirut courthouse to demand the replacement of judge Tareq Bitar in charge of the investigation into the gigantic explosion at the port of the capital on August 4, 2020 (more than 200 dead). The two Shiite formations accuse the Lebanese Forces of having deployed snipers on the roofs of buildings in surrounding Christian neighborhoods and of having opened fire.
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FL chief Samir Geagea denied and said on Friday that residents of the Christian quarter of Aïn el-Remmaneh had “defended” It front of “Hezbollah militiamen who tried to enter their homes“. Hezbollah is the only formation in Lebanon to have been able to legally retain its weapons after the end of the civil war (1975-1990) in the name of “resistanceAgainst Israel.