The Lebanese Army Fires Back at Hezbollah Militants (Video)

What a whirlwind few days for the Iranian-commanded militant group, Hezbollah.

An orchestrated blitzkrieg in the media, online and IRL by the militant group has been ongoing for a few weeks now. The target is Investigating Judge Tarek Bitar, leading the investigation into the August 4, 2020 blast at the port of Beirut that killed more than 200 people and destroyed huge swaths of the city.

The Hezbollah Narrative

Hezbollah and Amal pushed the narrative of a sectarian-motivated “ambush” for what they claimed were “peaceful”, “unarmed” and “professional” protesters. The reality was, it was exclusively fighting-age males and known fighters from the the Syrian war, armed to the teeth.

Hezbollah pushed the narrative that it was premeditated ambush by the Lebanese Forces, a christian right wing militia from Lebanon’s Civil War days.

The Lebanese Forces Leader didn’t deny this allegation, instead characterizing it as self-defense after rioting had begun by the alleged peaceful protesters from Hezbollah and Amal.

This makes sense for the LF because it makes them appear as a party capable of standing up to Hezbollah’s bullying tactics and using their vast arsenal and fighters to impose, by force, decisions upon Lebanon and the Lebanese government that are against the law, malicious and absolve Hezbollah of any responsibility or accountability.

The Real Story

Hours later, it became clear that all the allegations of mystery LF snipers were difficult to back up with any concrete or even circumstantial evidence. It just felt “right” that of course a sectarian conflict was gonna happen between two militias on an infamous frontline during Lebanon’s civil war.

Security footage was leaked, showing that the first Hezbollah militant, Mohammad Jamal Tamer, was killed by Lebanese Armed Forces (army) gunfire in what seems to be returning fire to Hezbollah and Amal snipers. You can see the videos below.

The first video shows how it was a soldier that killed Tamer below.

Right after the militant was gunned down by the army, you could see and hear Hezbollah/Amal militants yelling it was the army that shot him, and in the background of their video notice Hezbollah/Amal snipers shooting at the Lebanese Army.

You can see clearly from the video that Hezbollah/Amal militants knew from the first second it was the army that shot Tamer, and that they were firing at the army as well, as you can see in the screen grab below.

What Does This Mean?

It means that all sides involved knew that the narratives they were actively pushing (or not denying at least) were false and yet continued with the disinformation campaign.

We can discuss all day why they’d choose to do that, but what’s clear is Hezbollah is unhappy about Bitar and the investigation and is ready to push boundaries it tries not to cross to bring the investigation to a halt, or derail it enough to make sure their underlings never get interrogated by a judge.

The fact that Hezbollah didn’t do as much when the Special Tribunal for Lebanon found a Hezbollah commader guilty of killing ex-PM Rafik Hariri in 2005, makes it weird that they’re this perturbed by a Lebanese judge who probably will not be able to bring Hezbollah members and their allies to justice in a country controlled by Hezbollah and its partners.

It seems the general mood in the region is worrying Hezbollah, and it wants to make sure its home base in Lebanon is securely under their control. That would explain their erratic behavior, even when everything is going their way from the Iran negotiations to the cabinet of their man, Najib Mikati.

What’s significant is that it’s the first time the Lebanese Army actually fights back against Hezbollah. Usually the army deploys force exclusively against unarmed protesters, especially in Tripoli, Zouk and Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square. It even allowed Hezbollah to take ISIS fighters that had executed Lebanese soldiers and police to safety via Assad’s areas in Syria.

It will be very promising to see the Army finally enforce Lebanon’s sovereignty over Hezbollah militants, but that is still wishful thinking, given the Army confirmed the video above is genuine, and that the soldier is under investigation. It’s important to mention none of the soldiers who shot protesters while on duty were investigated, only when this soldier returned fire on Hezbollah militants.

What Will Hezbollah Do?

Hezbollah loves painting the picture of a symbiotic relationship between them, the self-proclaimed “resistance” and the Lebanese Army. The motto being: “the people, the army, the resistance” and their insistence on putting it in every cabinet formation platform/document.

It seems the Hezbollah twittosphere is split, with some launching vicious attacks on the army, and others downplaying the events as not representative of the relationship between the militant group and the Lebanese army.

Below are some examples from Hezbollah accounts trying to de-escalate:

And here are a sample of the ones attacking the army, note that the ones I bookmarked had been deleted by the time I was writing this post, indicating that maybe the Hezbollah leadership doesn’t want to escalate with the US-funded and equipped Lebanese Army.

The main takeaway from all this is that Hezbollah and Amal lied and tried to start a civil strife, and failed, to serve their political purposes of getting rid of the Aug 4 Port Explosion investigation.

That only makes Hezbollah more guilty of involvement, and shows and increasing hostility to Hezbollah by various Lebanese community fed up with Hezbollah’s arrogance and hegemony on them (Choueifat incident, Hasbaya incident and now Tayyouneh incident just this year alone)

We will wait and see what the Hezbollah militant leader in hiding since 2006 will say in his scheduled livestream from his hideout on Monday.