Hizbullah

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The revelation by the Washington Post’s Adam Goldman and Ellen Nakashima that the car-bomb assassination of Hizbullah commando Imad Mughniyah in Damascus in 2008 was a joint CIA/ Israeli Mossad operation comes at an awkward time for Washington. The administration of George W. Bush did not target Mughniyah […]

Bashar al-Assad

Israel’s Syria Strike: Is it trying to Help al-Qaeda vs. Hizbullah & Iran?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — There are several questions around the Israeli helicopter gunship strike on Mazari` al-Amal in Syria’s Quneitra Province, which killed Hizbullah personnel and an Iranian general. First, what were the latter doing there? Second, why did Israel strike them? The Israeli cover story, that Hizbullah was planning attacks inside […]

France

Hezbollah’s Surprising Denunciation of Paris Attacks: is it Courting the West?

contributors

By Rola El-Husseini | (Special to Informed Comment) In a speech in Beirut on January 9, 2014, on the occasion of the birth of the Prophet Mohammed, Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah declared that killings and beheadings by “takfiris” (excommunicators) are more harmful to Islam than are cartoons or books mocking the Prophet. This was […]

Hizbullah

Can Hizbullah save Lebanon from ISIL?

contributors

VICE: “As the Islamic State massacred its way throughout Iraq and Syria this summer, a separate battle took place in neighboring Lebanon. This summer, the Islamic State invaded the Lebanese border town of Arsal, beheading captured soldiers and unleashing waves of lethal car bombs, destabilizing the country. Hezbollah, one of the world’s strongest guerrilla armies, […]

Featured

Pan-Mideast War: ISIL and al-Qaeda attack Hizbullah outposts Near Lebanese Border

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole ISIL and al-Qaeda have, according to Hizbullah, launched attacks in Syria’s Qalamoun district (abutting the Lebanese border near Baalbek) on Hizbullah military outposts on the Syrian side. Hizbullah is acting in Syria as an adjunct to the Syrian Baath Army and helped reduce Qusayr and Homs last spring. The Syrian rebels were […]

Hizbullah

Sunni Radicals of ISIS seek showdown with Lebanon’s Hizbullah

contributors

By Radwan Mortada The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has decided to instigate a full-scale conflagration in Lebanon. All indications show that the al-Qaeda offshoot is resolved to bring back suicide bombings en masse to the country of the cedars. After all, Lebanon is within the borders of ISIS’ coveted emirate, yet its […]