DailyMail.co.uk  |  August 7, 2017

US Special Forces Train Lebanese Army Ahead Of ISIS Showdown As Hezbollah Says It will Fight Beside Syria In The Confrontation

• US special forces are providing 'training and support' to the Lebanese Army
• It comes ahead of a confrontation with the Islamic State along the Syrian border
• Lebanese militia Hezbollah announced that it will battle ISIS on the Syrian side
• Hezbollah has been a key ally of Syrian President Assad during the conflict

By Kelly Mclaughlin

US special operations forces are aiding the Lebanese Army ahead of a confrontation with the Islamic State along the Syrian border, a Pentagon spokesman has confirmed.

News of the support comes after the Lebanese militia Hezbollah announced it will battle ISIS on the Syrian side during the confrontation.

Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon said that special forces would provide 'training and support' for the Lebanese Armed Forces.

'That not only concentrates on operational type missions, but also tactical and strategic type missions,' he told The New Arab. 'We also have a presence with Lebanese special forces in all aspects of training and special operations.'

Further details about the training have not been released due to operational security reasons, though US Air Force special operations aircraft have been seen landing at the Lebanese Special Operations Forces' academia in Hamat.

A confrontation between the Lebanese Army and ISIS is expected to break out at the Syrian border in a matter of days.

The Lebanese army will attack Islamic State from the Lebanese side of the border while Hezbollah and the Syrian army will simultaneously attack it from the Syrian side, said Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's Shi'ite group, Hezbollah.

'The Syrian front line against Daesh will be opened, and the Syrian army and Hezbollah will be there,' he said.

He said Islamic State fighters in the enclave, who hold Lebanese captives, still had a door open for negotiations and could avoid a battle.

Hezbollah has been a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the six-year conflict, fighting alongside the Syrian army against rebels including hardline Sunni Islamists.

A Hezbollah offensive last month forced Nusra Front militants in an adjacent enclave on the border to depart under an evacuation deal for a rebel-held area in northwest Syria.

The Lebanese military, which has received more than $1 billion in US security assistance in the past decade, took a back seat in the operation, but has been widely expected to lead the attack against the Islamic State pocket.

Nasrallah emphasised that the assault inside Lebanon will be the army's responsibility.

The presence of the militant enclaves on its border has represented the biggest military spillover of Syria's civil war into Lebanon.

More than a million Syrians have also sought refuge in Lebanon, putting strains on the economy and services, and in his speech Nasrallah said it was time for Beirut to discuss their situation with Damascus.

Thousands of refugees travelled to rebel-held northwest Syria alongside the Nusra fighters who left the border area after Hezbollah's assault.

Far from being an ally in the fight against Hezbollah, the Lebanese government headed by Saad Hariri is based on a partnership with the Shiite group, whose clout and dominance in the tiny country is on the rise.

'Lebanon is on the front lines in the fight against (the Islamic State group), al-Qaida and Hezbollah,' President Donald Trump said at the press conference in Washington, lighting up social media with comments from Lebanese who ridiculed his perceived ignorance of Lebanese politics. 

Declaring victory Friday night, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the army was perfectly capable of winning that fight but offered his support should it be needed.

'We are at the service of the Lebanese army and under its command ... if they ask for any help we will help,' he said in a televised speech.

It is this complex relationship between Lebanese governments and Hezbollah that foreigners often find so baffling.

'Both Lebanon and Hezbollah occupy a grey area: Lebanon isn't really a state, and Hezbollah isn't a terrorist group - or isn't only a terrorist group, depending on your view,' said Faysal Itani, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, explaining the misperceptions.

'So the American tendency is either to treat Hezbollah as controlling the state of Lebanon, or to see Lebanon as a sovereign entity fighting a terrorist group. Both are false.'

Original article here.