Hezbollah Commander: Syrian Islamists at War ‘Against Humanity’

In a multi-hour interview with the Guardian, a top, unnamed Hezbollah commander discussed at length his militia’s involvement in the Syrian civil war, and the way the group views its role in the increasingly regional conflict.

The commander said Hezbollah views the Sunni Islamist rebels as fighting a war “not just against us, but against humanity,” and that their involvement came entirely because of attacks on Shi’ite border villages full of Lebanese citizens.

The long-standing Sunni-Shi’ite schism has taken center stage in what was once a “Syrian” war but is now largely a regional proxy war between religious powers on either side, with Syria trapped in the middle.

Hezbollah, like many of the combatant groups, feels its involvement is entirely “self defense” against the other side, and that it is being pushed to take a bigger and bigger role in a war in which the stakes are less about territory and more about religion.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.