Reuters: Hezbollah is ‘Israel’s’ Most Formidable Enemy, It Enjoys Flexible Chain of Command

By Staff, Agencies

Reuters mentioned that Hezbollah's flexible chain of command, together with its extensive tunnel network and a vast arsenal of missiles and weapons it has bolstered over the past year, is helping it weather unprecedented “Israeli” strikes.

According to two sources familiar with Hezbollah operations said the group swiftly appointed replacements for senior figures martyred in Friday’s “Israeli” airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Reuters further recalled Hezbollah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in an Aug. 1 speech that the group quickly fills gaps whenever a leader is martred.

The sources, who all asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, did not provide details of the weapons or where they were bought.

Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King's College London, said that while Hezbollah operations had been disrupted by the past week's attacks, the group's networked organizational structure helped make it an extremely resilient force.

"This is the most formidable enemy ‘Israel’ has ever faced on the battlefield, not because of numbers and tech but in terms of resilience."

Hezbollah’s rocket attacks are possible because the chain of command has kept functioning despite the group suffering a brief spell of disarray after the pagers and radios detonated, one of the sources, a senior security official.

Three sources said Hezbollah's ability to communicate is underpinned by a dedicated, fixed-line telephone network - which it has described as critical to its communications and continues to work - as well as by other devices.

If the chain of command breaks, frontline fighters are trained to operate in small, independent clusters comprised of a few villages near the border, capable of fighting “Israeli” forces for long periods, the senior source added.

In what two of the sources said was an indication of how well some of Hezbollah's weapons are hidden, on Sunday rockets were launched from areas of southern Lebanon that had been targeted by “Israel” shortly before, the two sources said.

The report also detailed that Hezbollah is believed to have an underground arsenal and last month published footage that appeared to show its fighters driving trucks with rocket launchers through tunnels. The sources did not specify if the rockets fired on Sunday were launched from underground.

The report also underlined that the group’s arsenal and tunnels have expanded since the 2006 war, especially precision guidance systems.