Hezbollah really went all out to strut its stuff last week in the Syrian city of Qusayr, putting all of its super military hardware on display, including American-made M113 armored personnel carriers (APCs), according to international media.
Among the Soviet-made T-72 tanks, Russian Kornet anti-tank missiles, KS-12A anti-aircraft weapons and other ordnance, however, was the U.S.-produced military hardware. To date, it is estimated that over 80,000 M113s of all types have been produced and used by over 50 countries worldwide, making it one of the most widely used armored fighting vehicles of all time. The Military Channel’s Top Ten series named the M113 the most significant infantry vehicle in history.
The question is how Hezbollah obtained the APCs — and whether they are the same APCs that were given to the Lebanese Armed Forces by the United States. This past summer, the U.S. provided Beirut with 50 armored vehicles, 40 artillery pieces and 50 grenade launchers as part of an aid package intended to help defend Lebanon from the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization.
Thus far, the LAF and the State Department have denied that the APCs paraded by Hezbollah were taken from Beirut, adding they’re investigating the matter. But the entire issue of the parade is raising eyebrows: in the past, Hezbollah is has kept the details of its arsenal a well-guarded secret, although its Iranian benefactor is well known for parading its own military hardware down the main street of Teheran each year.
Nevertheless, Hezbollah is known to have approximately 100,000 rockets and missiles in its current arsenal, and it is believed that in the next war the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group could rain 1,500 to 2,000 missiles a day on Israeli towns and cities.
