“We assure our people ... that we will continue to respond against these brutal [Takfiri] forces and their ongoing aggression will be destroyed through the pillar of the national strategy,” Hezbollah MP Hussein Musawi said in a Thursday statement.

Musawi said Hezbollah and the Lebanese Army are the target of Israeli-backed Takfiri groups.

“The ‘Army, People, Resistance’ [formula] is now the target of Takfiri-Zionists,” he said.

“What happened in recent days, from the assassination of [Hezbollah] commander Hassan Lakkis to suicide bombings on Army checkpoints in Sidon all the way to the bloody bombing in Labweh in the northern Bekaa, confirm that the Zionists and Takfiris are two sides of the same coin,” he added.

Musawi said Hezbollah deems those attacks an “aggressive decision and an extension of the war imposed on Syria and its environs.”

"This war," he continued "has been approved by the Zionist and Takfiris together."

“We are facing sectarian, suicide terrorist operations carried out by dark forces targeting the Lebanese Army institution – the guarantor of unity, security and stability of the Lebanese people – as well as the resistance [Hezbollah] given it is Lebanon’s deterrent and defense system in an effort to eliminate the strength factors.”

Musawi said the rising sectarian rhetoric has created an atmosphere for such assaults.

BA/BA