(Al Arabiya) Joyce Karam - The guessing game continues on who might have killed Hizbullah's military leader Mustafa Baddredine in Syria last week. Beyond Hizbullah's 800-1,000 casualties since 2013 in Syria and the toll on its finances, Syria's most costly burden on Hizbullah has been the losses in its senior ranking leadership and key operational strategists. From Fawzi Ayoub in 2014 to Baddredine in 2016, Hizbullah has lost 10 senior leaders in the Syrian war. Hizbullah does not have the power and control or local support in Syria that it enjoys within the intelligence, military and security structures inside Lebanon. This creates a major vulnerability. In Syria, Hizbullah is confronted by a very long list of enemies. Syrian rebels, Jabhat Nusra, ISIS, and Israeli, Turkish, Arab, European and U.S. intelligence are all present in Syria and have a stake in taking out Baddredine. The writer is the Washington bureau chief for Al-Hayat.
2016-05-18 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive