Hezbollah has U.S. armored personnel carriers. But how did they get them?
Hezbollah has U.S. armored personnel carriers. But how did they get them?
By
Thomas Gibbons-Neff November 16
surfaced online of a Hezbollah parade in Qusair, Syria, featuring U.S. armored personnel carriers affixed with antiaircraft guns. The images prompted a flurry of speculation about the vehicles’ origin and whether the group had pilfered the stocks of the U.S.-supplied Lebanese military.
The armored personnel carrier, known as the M113, is one of the United States’ most ubiquitous armored vehicles and has been in service since the 1960s. The tracked semi-rhombus-shaped vehicle comes in numerous variants and can be outfitted to carry troops and artillery; its chassis was even used as the basis for a
nuclear-missile carrier. It has appeared in every major U.S. conflict since the Vietnam War and is used by
U.S. police departments and dozens of others countries’ militaries around the world.
As a prominent political and military entity in Lebanon, Hezbollah’s possession of the vehicles could support the theory floated by the defense analyst Tobias Schneider, who tweeted that the personnel carriers were probably taken from the Lebanese Armed Forces, a major recipient of U.S. military aid.
[U.S. accidentally delivered weapons to the Islamic State by airdrop, militants say]
Over the summer, the Lebanese military took possession of dozens of pieces of artillery, armored vehicles, semiautomatic grenade launchers and 1,000 tons of ammunition — all worth about $50 million — as part of the United States’ ongoing efforts to bolster the country’s capacity to fight extremists. The shipment, overseen by the Pentagon and the State Department, brought the amount of U.S. military aid sent to Lebanon in 2016 to $221 million, according to
U.S. Ambassador Elizabeth H. Richard.
While
Lebanese smugglers have helped move weapons and ammunition to opposition groups in Syria, cases of Lebanese military equipment appearing in the conflict have been rare. In a
tweet, the Lebanese military denied that the M113s were taken from its stocks, a claim backed up by a State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the issue.
The big winner of war is always the arms industry...supplying both sides
interesting how quick you are to call this a "non story"
This isnt your uncles unlocked Audi......Youre talking about a 20,000+ pound machine thats hard to hide moves at about 35 mph and requires special training to operate...