Hezbollah using U.S. weaponry in Syria: top Israeli military officerDecember 21, 2016 - 18:02 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Israel has informed the United States that Lebanese Hezbollah fighters in Syria are using U.S. armored personnel carriers originally supplied to the Lebanese Army, a senior Israeli military officer said on Wednesday, December 21, according to Reuters. The U.S. State Department said last month that the American embassy in Beirut was working to investigate images on social media purporting to show Hezbollah, which supports President Bashar al-Assad, displaying U.S. military equipment in Syria. Those images were widely reported to have been of U.S.-made M113 armored personnel carriers, which the State Department said were extremely common in the region. In an intelligence briefing to foreign reporters in Tel Aviv, the senior officer showed a photograph of military vehicles, which he said included U.S.-made armored personnel carriers (APCs), along a road. "These APCs are of the Hezbollah, while fighting in Syria, that they took from the Lebanese armed forces," he said in English, describing the guerrilla group as dominant in Lebanon. "We shared this information with other countries, including the U.S. of course, and I can even say that we recognized these specific APCs with some specific parameters that we know ... these were given to the Lebanese armed forces. It's not an assumption," said the officer, who under the rules of the briefing could not be identified by name, rank or position. Western diplomatic sources have said the APCs were delivered to the Lebanese Army by the United States as part of a program to equip that force. The officer made no comment about when the APCs would have been supplied to the Lebanese Army. The officer said Hezbollah has 8,000 fighters in Syria where more than 1,700 of the group's combatants have been killed since 2011. Israel and Hezbollah, which the officer said has 30,000 members, half of them combatants, last fought a war in 2006. Top stories Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev arrived in Moscow on April 22 to hold talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". Partner news | Your home is in Armenia – Ameriabank offers mortgage loans for the Diaspora To buy real estate, Diasporans can apply to Ameriabank online to buy, renovate or build a home anywhere in Armenia. Armenia-Qatar ties discussed in Doha The Secretary of Armenia’s Security Council met with the Deputy Secretary General of the National Security Council of Qatar. ARARAT special evening dedicated to Aznavour's 100th Anniv. On May 20 ARARAT legendary Armenian brandy, celebrated the centennial of Maestro Charles Aznavour with a special event. Surveying works underway in Armenia’s Kirants Surveying works are underway in the Armenian village of Kirants in the northern Tavush province. |