Report: Surge in Recruitment as Hizbullah Fighters Help Assad
Hizbullah is experiencing a surge in recruitment as it fights alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's troops in Syria, members of the group have told London's Daily Telegraph.
The newspaper said that two Hizbullah members separately said there had been an increase in the number of men willing to fight in Syria.
"First they need to be given proper training. Only if they are good men do we let them join our ranks," one said, asking not to be named.
"All the men from this area are getting guns and asking to fight in Syria, whether they are already members of Hizbullah or not," said one supporter of the group, who asked not to be named.
"We are in a critical situation and we have to fight for the sake of the Shiites," he said.
The Hizbullah supporter spoke sitting in a cafe in Hermel, the town in the eastern Bekaa valley, which has been hit with three suicide car bombings.
The sectarian divide has grown increasingly explosive in Lebanon, with Sunnis largely backing the rebels in Syria, while Shiites and Hizbullah support Assad's regime.
Sunni militants have carried out more than a dozen bombings against Shiite areas since July, killing dozens and terrifying the country.
The hard-line Sunni groups are seeking revenge against Hizbullah for supporting Assad.
"You step out of your home and you don't know if you are going to live or die. A bomb might kill you when you are on your way to the shop for groceries. Nowhere is safe," Ibrahim, a 67-year-old retired engineer, told the Daily Telegraph.
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