Hizbollah vows at mass Beirut rally to keep up ‘jihad’ in Syria

BEIRUT — The Lebanese Shiite movement Hizbollah vowed to maintain its “jihad” in neighbouring Syria at a huge rally in Beirut on Wednesday, a day after its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the war was in a phase of escalation.

Addressing thousands marking Shiite Islam’s annual Ashoura religious commemoration in a heavily secured square in Hizbollah’s south Beirut stronghold, Nasrallah said the war in Syria was being fought in defence of the whole region.

“We will continue to bear our great responsibilities of jihad there. Your sons are there, and your men, your brothers, your husbands. They are defending their existence, dignity and the resistance,” he said.

Black-clad supporters paraded through the streets to mark the 7th-century death of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson Hussein, seen by Shiites as a divinely guided leader, and they roared approval of Nasrallah’s remarks.

“We answer your call, o Nasrallah!” they chanted.

Since Hizbollah’s entry into Syria’s civil war on the side of President Bashar Assad, some 1,500 of its fighters have died, security sources in Lebanon say. These have included about 350 this year; their images, often in heroic pose, are displayed on posters in Shiite villages across Lebanon.

Hizbollah’s part in the war is presented by the movement as both a defence against Sunni Muslim extremists in Syria who have vowed to exterminate all Shiites, and as a way of protecting the regional Iran-backed bloc that has long sustained Hizbollah.

The most emotive date in the Shiite calendar, the death of Hussein at Kerbala is seen as providing an exemplar for how the sect should always stand up against tyranny and social injustice, offering up their lives if necessary.

It has been used as a political call to arms for Shiites since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, and was linked at Wednesday’s rally to the struggles faced by Hizbollah allies across the region against a Sunni bloc led by Saudi Arabia.

As they marched along Hadi Nasrallah Street, named for their leader’s son who was killed in clashes with Israeli troops in 1997, large groups of men clapped their chests with open palms as they chanted support for Hizbollah and its regional allies.

Many of them wore photographs of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — also recognised by Hizbollah as Shiite Islam’s ultimate authority — tucked into headbands that carried religious slogans.