Hezbollah is now receiving weapons directly from Russia as coordination between the Russian military and the Shiite terror group grows closer in the Syrian civil war.
The Daily Beast has the story:
Lebanese Hezbollah field commanders with troops fighting in Syria tell The Daily Beast they are receiving heavy weapons directly from Russia with no strings attached. The commanders say there is a relationship of complete coordination between the Assad regime in Damascus, Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia. At the same time they say the direct interdependence between Russia and Hezbollah is increasing.
…
“We are strategic allies in the Middle East right now — the Russians are our allies and give us weapons,” said one of the Hezbollah officers who chose to call himself Commander Bakr. He is in charge of five units in Syria, around 200 troops.
…
Bakr said that Russia has been increasing its support for his armed movement since 2012. Russia’s deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov met with Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in 2014 to discuss regional developments. Last November, Bogdanov issued a statement making clear that Russia does not consider the organization a terrorist group.
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From the Liveblog of
Monday, January 11, 2016
