In the final days of Lebanon’s war in the summer of 2006, the smouldering remains of heavily-armed Israeli Merkava tanks — considered among the best in the world — became a potent symbol across the region.
Hezbollah’s lightly-armed fighters had taken on military and technological superiority and emerged from the campaign weaker, yet undefeated. Nearly two decades later, both sides have studied and learnt from the war, fearing a repeat was inevitable.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia militia that formed in the 1980s in the chaos of civil war, has not only managed to rebuild its weapons arsenal over the last eight years, but has increased it exponentially.
It is now considered one of the most heavily-armed non-state militia groups in the world. Its army, for