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The Role of Hizbullah and Iranian Forces in the Syrian Civil War
(BICOM) Yoram Schweitzer - Hizbullah's manpower in Syria is between 8,000 and 10,000. Hizbullah is doing the hard work for the Iranians in Syria and is responsible for establishing, training, equipping, and leading new military units in Syria composed of local volunteers and foreign fighters from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. The total number of these forces is around 50,000, which include perhaps 10,000 of Hizbullah and the same number or a little less of Iranian Revolutionary Guards and other Iranian volunteers. I wouldn't be that sure that the campaign against the opposition and against the Jihadi-Salafists has ended. I don't think defeating them will go that smoothly. Even if Assad manages to maintain his control of vital Syria - the axis between Damascus and Aleppo - he will still have fighting opposition against his rule, and no one can guess whether and how he can gain control of all of Syria in future. The writer heads the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) Program on Terrorism and Low Intensity Conflict.