Hezbollah Begins Pullout from Syria

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October 7, 2013 By Daniel Greenfield 4 Comments

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Hezbollah, Now with 30% more corpses

That’s bad news for Assad and Iran which had been relying on the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group to bring it up to par with Sunni terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. But Hezbollah’s image proved to be mostly hype.

Hezbollah took a severe beating in Syria. Its full losses are unknown, but the war is unpopular among Lebanese Shiites. Last year, Hezbollah chief Nasrallah was already begging Al Qaeda for a truce.

Considering how much Al Qaeda hates Shiites (a lot), that was a doomed prospect. Iran has tried to befriend Al Qaeda before, but Al Qaeda treats it just like America, its people are willing to use Iran as a temporary base, but then they just go back to killing Shiites. Nasrallah’s outreach efforts sounded pathetic.

Now Hezbollah is beginning its pullout from Syria. Its men helped Assad push back against Al Qaeda and the Brotherhood, but mostly they got their asses kicked.

According to Arabic media outlets, Hezbollah is withdrawing roughly 1,200 troops from Syria. The fighters were sent in to help Assad retake the city of Qusair, near the border with Lebanon, which they did in early June. They were accused of murdering women and children during the fighting, which exacted a heavy toll on both sides.

Hebollah then redirected its efforts towards Homs, to help Assad’s troops retake that area, and intended to move on afterward to Aleppo.

However, instead of quickly retaking the area, the Hezbollah and Syrian soldiers, and their Iranian advisors, found themselves increasingly trapped in endless bloody skirmishes in the region. Not only did they not retake land from the rebels, but they found themselves suffering heavy losses.

The losses lead to increasing division within Hezbollah, with many criticizing the group’s head, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, for spending Hezbollah lives in a foreign country. Nasrallah’s own brother Khader was among the dead.

…Those who have been called back to Lebanon will apparently be replaced by Iranian “volunteers” from the ranks of the Revolutionary Guards, reports say, as part of the increasingly direct involvement of Iranian troops fighting on the ground in Syria on behalf of  Assad.

That’s good news for those who want to see more Iranian Revolutionary Guard terrorists getting shot up for a change. The Iranization of the Syrian Civil War pulls the Shiite terrorist regime deeper into a hopeless fight with Al Qaeda in which no one is likely to emerge victorious.

Every Iranian terrorist agent who gets bogged down fighting ISIS or the Free Syrian Army isn’t out there planting bombs in Thailand or smuggling drugs into America.

Saudi Arabia is thrilled at the idea of giving Iran its own Vietnam, which Syria may easily turn into, if it hasn’t already. Iran meanwhile is still stuck as the odd Islamists out in a region where Sunni Islamists increasingly dominate. Iran had less of a problem with the Arab Socialists than it did with the Islamists, despite its bloody war with Saddam. And it lacks the same class of fanatics it had back during that war. Most of its people are sick and tired of the Islamic regimes and the endless fighting. Its wealthier elites want the good life. The rest just want to be able to afford chicken.

Filed Under: The Point Tagged With: Hezbollah, Lebanon, Syrian Civil War

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About Daniel Greenfield

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.