Message to Washington: We are not afraid; Someone mentioned powerful Russian weapons

Message to Washington: We are not afraid; Someone mentioned powerful Russian weapons

According to sources familiar with Hezbollah's arsenal, the leader of that militant group, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, warned Washington last week that his group was preparing something for U.S. ships deployed in the region.

Two Lebanese sources familiar with the arsenal of weapons at Hezbollah's disposal claim that Nasrallah was referring to Hezbollah's greatly improved anti-ship missile capabilities, including the Russian-made "Yakhont" missile with a range of 300 kilometers, writes Reuters.

Media and analyst reports for years indicated that Hezbollah acquired the Yakhont missiles in Syria after its fighters arrived there to help President Bashar al-Assad. Hezbollah has never confirmed its possession of the weapon.

The Americans say their naval force in the Mediterranean - consisting of two aircraft carriers and their escort ships - aims to prevent the conflict from spreading by deterring Iran, which supports groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Hezbollah perceives American warships as a direct threat.

In a speech on Friday, Nasrallah said that American warships in the Mediterranean "do not scare them."

"We have prepared for the fleets that threaten us," he said.

The White House then announced that Hezbollah must not take advantage of the war between Hamas and Israel, and that the US does not want the conflict to spread to Lebanon.

One of the sources said Hezbollah's anti-ship capabilities have developed enormously since 2006, when the militant group first demonstrated it could attack a vessel at sea by hitting an Israeli warship in the Mediterranean Sea during the war with Israel.

"There is Yakhont, and of course there are other things besides it," the source said, without elaborating.

He added that Hezbollah's use of these weapons against enemy warships would mean the conflict escalated into a major regional war.