Thousands of Iran-backed foreign fighters are reportedly poised to join forces with Hezbollah if its ongoing conflict with Israel along the Lebanese border escalates into all-out war.
"We will be shoulder to shoulder with Hezbollah," an official with an Iran-backed militia in Iraq told the Associated Press for a report Saturday.
Another official with an Iran-backed group in Lebanon also said members of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces, Afghanistan's Fatimiyoun, Pakistan's Zeinabiyoun and Yemen's Houthi rebels could all travel to Lebanon to wage war against Israel.
Some of the groups have already launched attacks against Israel and its allies since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on Oct. 7, AP said.
United Nations officials, including the commander of peacekeeping forces in Lebanon, warned earlier this month that they were "deeply concerned" by the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
"The danger of miscalculation leading to a sudden and wider conflict is very real," Maj. Gen. Aroldo Lazaro and Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon, said in a joint statement on June 15, Reuters reported at the time.
Large numbers of foreign fighters are already deployed in Syria and could easily slip into Lebanon across the porous and unmarked border between the two countries, AP said.
In a speech Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said militant leaders from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and other countries have offered to send tens of thousands of fighters to help Hezbollah.
But he said Hezbollah already had more than 100,000 fighters, adding, "We told them, thank you, but we are overwhelmed by the numbers we have."
Qassim Qassir, an expert on Hezbollah, told AP that the combat being waged now primarily involved firing missiles and didn't require an influx of militants.
But if a protracted war were to erupt, Hezbollah might need outside help, he said.
More than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon and since Hezbollah started attacking Israel on Oct. 8, launching what an Israeli military last week has grown to more than 5,000 rockets, anti-tank missiles and drones.
The vast majority of the Lebanese casualties were Hezbollah fighters but 70 casualties involved civilians and noncombatants, AP said.
On the Israeli side, 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, and tens of thousands have been displaced on both sides of the border.
the vast majority of them fighters but including 70 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed. Tens of thousands of residents have fled their homes on both sides of the border.
Israel and Hezbollah last engaged in large-scale combat in summer of 2006, when they fought a 34-day war that killed about 1,200 people in Lebanon and 140 in Israel.
