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Iran-Backed Militias Have Been Meeting In Southern Lebanon, Sources Say
Tripoli, Lebanon. The largest Crusader fortress in Lebanon, the Citadel of Raymond de Saint-Gilles - 8 September 2008 (Vyacheslav Argenberg)
April 05, 2024
By RFE/RL's Radio Farda
Militias supported by Iran from across the Middle East, including groups from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestinian factions, have been holding secret strategy sessions in Hizballah's tunnels in southern Lebanon in recent weeks, according to information obtained by RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.
Sources affiliated with the militias told Radio Farda that the meetings were attended by representatives from various Iranian-backed groups, including Iraq's Kata'ib Hizballah, Al-Nujaba, the Badr organization, and delegates from the Huthi movement in Yemen.
Among those who had been attending the meetings was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a high-ranking commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' Quds Force, who was killed on April 1 in a suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian Embassy's consular annex in Damascus, the sources said.
Representatives from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United States and the European Union, attended the meetings as well, according to the sources.
The meetings come amid heightened tensions in the region as Israel and Hamas fight a war sparked by Hamas's October 7 raid into Israel that saw some 1,200 people killed and 240 taken hostage and brought back to Hamas by the extremists.
Since the war broke out, Iranian-backed militias have stepped up retaliatory actions against Israeli interests as its incursion into Gaza broadens, triggering concerns that the war will escalate and spread across the region.
Hizballah has launched rocket and drone attacks into northern Israel, leading to Israeli counterstrikes. The confrontations have resulted in the deaths of more than 300 Hizballah fighters. Meanwhile, Iraqi militias have carried out numerous rocket and drone attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.
Yemen's Huthi rebels have also targeted commercial vessels in the Red Sea that they believe to be connected with Israel or en route to Israeli ports. These actions have drawn military responses from the United States and the United Kingdom, while the European Union has deployed forces to help safeguard maritime transport in the strategic waters.
Despite the widespread turmoil, Iran has denied any involvement in orchestrating the attacks, asserting that the militias are independently choosing their courses of action.
Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda
Copyright © Apr 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 conncwsecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. http://www.rferl.org
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