Hezbollah, the armed group in Lebanon has announced that it has attained precision-guided missiles. Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the group made the comments on Thursday during his traditional televised speech.

During his speech commemorating Ashoura, an important day for Shia Muslims, Nasrallah said, "I tell [Israel] no matter what it did to cut the route, it is over. It has already been achieved,” adding Hezbollah "now possesses precision missiles and non-precision weapons capabilities".

Israel has warned of such a possibility and has targeted sites in Syria which reportedly were being guarded by Hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah is fighting alongside Iran in support of the Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

Israel has said it is working to stop both Iran and Hezbollah from acquiring sophisticated arms. "Attempts in Syria to block the way towards this (missile) capability" have failed, Nasrallah said.

Nasrallah’s speech was broadcast on a large screen to supporters in Beirut’s suburb of Dahiya.

His remarks comes just a day after Israel targeted a facility in Syria it said was involved in providing weapons to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, during which a Russian reconnaissance plane was struck by Syrian anti-aircraft fire.  However, Nasrallah denied that the target of the Israeli strikes was weapons shipments bound for his group, and accused Israel of using Iran and Hezbollah as an “excuse” while really aiming to degrade Syria’s military capabilities.

“This is a lie. Sometimes they do hit places that are connected to weapons — that they know of — but many of the attacks are not related to that at all,” he said. “Israel is working on preventing Syria from possessing missile capabilities.”

Nasrallah accused the Israelis of trying to kill him "day and night". He has lived in a secret location for decades and rarely appears in public.

Nasrallah also vowed that Hezbollah would remain in Syria. Some 1,665 Hezbollah fighters have been killed there, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“We will remain there even after the Idlib accord,” Nasrallah said, referring to a Russia-Turkey deal to prevent a Syrian regime offensive on the country’s last rebel-held stronghold.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 21, 2018 08:07 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).