United States intelligence revealed that Russia’s Wagner mercenary group plans to provide Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia, an air defence system, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified US officials.
Wagner plans to supply the Pantsir-S1 system, known by NATO as the SA-22, which uses anti-aircraft missiles and air-defence guns to intercept aircraft.
Wagner Group, which was funded by the Russian state and has been brought firmly under Kremlin control since an aborted mutiny by its former leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in June.
One unidentified US official quoted by the Journal said that Washington had not confirmed that the system had been sent. But US officials are monitoring discussions involving Wagner and Hezbollah, the Journal said.
The Journal said that the Pantsir system would be provided to Hezbollah via Syria, where Russia propped up President Bashar al-Assad by entering the civil war there in 2015.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards founded Hezbollah in 1982, in the middle of Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war. It was part of Iran’s effort to export its 1979 Islamic Revolution around the region and fight Israeli forces after their 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israeli forces across the border since its Palestinian ally Hamas in Gaza and Israel went to war on October 7.
Meanwhile, Israel troops have surround Gaza City traditionally a Hamas stronghold. Military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said. “The soldiers are advancing in battles, during which they are destroying terror infrastructure above ground and below ground and eliminating terrorists,” he told a briefing.
Overnight they found large caches of weapons, protective gear, communication equipment and maps, he said.
In one Israeli air strike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, a local journalist working for the official Palestine TV and at least nine of his immediate family were killed in their house, relatives and health officials said.
