Beirut: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah today said his Lebanese Shiite movement would boost its support for Syria's regime after one of its top commanders was killed there last week.
"We will increase and bolster our presence in Syria," Nasrallah said in a speech during a ceremony to mark a week since Mustafa Badreddine was killed in an artillery attack near Damascus.
"More commanders than before will go to Syria. We will be present in different ways and we will continue the fight," he said.
According to Hezbollah expert Waddah Charara, the Shiite militant group has sent between 5,000 and 6,000 combatants to Syria since 2013.
Between 1,000 and 2,000 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in fighting there, other experts say.
"Our revenge will be great and final defeat on these terrorist, tafkiri (Sunni extremist) and criminal groups," he said, less than a week after Hezbollah accused Islamist extremists of killing Badreddine.
