Lebanese Hezbollah Making Preparations to Target US Troops in Syria

[Valin]

FDD's Long War Journal

Joe Truzman & Bill Roggio

May 25, 2023

Lebanese Hezbollah’s “Golan Unit” is conducting military exercises in preparation to attack American troops operating in Syria, two U.S. intelligence officials confirmed to FDD’s Long War Journal. The training involved tanks and unspecified weapons at a base in Dumeir City, 45 kilometers northeast of Damascus.

The report, originally published by Al-Hadath, highlighted the increasing danger Iran-backed proxies pose to American forces operating in Syria.

The “Golan Unit” is headed by Musa Ali Daqduq, a US-sanctioned Hezbollah military commander who was a significant figure in forming Iran-backed Shia terror organizations responsible for the murder of American soldiers in Iraq.

According to Treasury: “In approximately 2005, Iran asked Hezbollah to form a group to train Iraqis to fight Coalition Forces in Iraq. In response, Hassan Nasrallah established a covert Hezbollah unit to train and advise Iraqi militants in Jaish al Mahdi (JAM) [or Mahdi Army] and JAM Special Groups, now known as Asaib Ahl al Haq [League of the Righteous],” a Mahdi Army faction which is a U.S. listed Foreign Terrorist Organization. The group has emerged as one of the most powerful Shia terror organizations in Iraq today.

Daqduq also helped establish other Iraqi Shia terror groups such as the Hezbollah Brigades, also a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, and the Sheibani Network, which was listed by the U.S. government as a threat to Iraqi security in 2008.

(Snip)