US officials fear that operatives from the Hezbollah terrorist organization will attack American forces in the Middle East and even carry out attacks inside the US, four officials told Politico.
“Hezbollah could draw on the capability they have … to put people [in] places to do something” in the US, one official warned, adding that this is “something to be worried about.”
The four officials warned that Hezbollah's international network for the carrying out of terrorist attacks outside of Lebanon and the Middle East is more expansive than those of ISIS and al Qaeda.
The report noted that a serious attack in the US or on American military or diplomatic personnel in the Middle East would deal a serious blow to the Biden Administration during an election year.
Hezbollah and other Iranian proxy groups have launched about 130 attacks on American forces in Iraq and Syria since the Hamas massacre of October 7. Hezbollah has also launched hundreds of attacks on Israel over that time in support of Hamas.
The US has recently increased security at its embassy in Beirut to prevent an attack on the embassy.
Christy Abizaid, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said during a congressional hearing in October that Hezbollah and its Iranian masters were attempting to harm Israel and the US without escalating the situation to the point of opening a second front in the war. “This is a very fine line to walk, and in the present regional context, their actions carry the potential for miscalculation,” he said.
In 1983, Hezbollah was responsible for a bombing at the marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 American servicemen in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in American history.