Members of the Lebanese Army were spotted unloading a massive arms shipment on Sunday supplied by the United States government.
The munitions included 70 M198 Howitzer artillery units, along with 26 million rounds of ammunition, reports Lebanon’s Daily Star.
According to a press release by the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, the “American Ambassador David Hale presided over the delivery of $25 million in assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces.”
“Lebanon is now the 5th largest recipient in the world of U.S. military foreign assistance. Over $100 million last year, and over $1 billion in the last 8 years,” the statement added. “This is top of the line equipment, the best that is on the market. It is what our soldiers use, and we’re proud to know that very soon, your brave soldiers will be using it too, along with other U.S.-supplied equipment, to defeat the terrorist and extremist threat from Syria.”
“We are fighting the same enemy, so our support for you has been swift and continuous,” the Ambassador said from Beirut.”
Some national security experts have warned that the weapons shipments may fall into the hands of terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, the Shiite Iranian proxy that occupies the country’s south.
In late January, a YouTube video appeared to show a Hezbollah convoy loading American made military vehicles onto a platform. The vehicles included an M1 Abrams tank, M113 armored personnel carriers, Humvees, and Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, according to the Long War Journal.
Other reports have stated that the Lebanese army and Hezbollah have attempted to combine forces in order to attack neighboring Israel.
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