Hezbollah originally devoted itself to overthrowing the Lebanese government and resisting the presence of Israeli troops and the Multinational Force in Lebanon ( MNF ) in the country , as illustrated later by the " Open Letter " , a constitutional document which it released in February 1985 . The organization is widely credited with a series of attacks sponsored by Iran in the early 1980s , not long after which the MNF ceased to exist . Such incidents include the 1983 suicide bombings in Beirut which struck separate buildings housing MNF troops , killing 241 American soldiers and 58 French paratroopers . The movement also engaged in a series of kidnappings of foreigners and assassinations of politicians throughout the civil war . Given the criticism Syria has received for its links to Hezbollah , the latter 's tactics were badly received by both the Syrian government and Amal , who had been working toward achieving favorable perception by world media and the United States . Hafez al-Assad , Syria 's president , warned that he would expel the IRGC from Lebanon following Hezbollah 's kidnapping of David S. Dodge , the acting president of the American University of Beirut . Amal 's leader , Nabih Berri , became the target of multiple Iranian-backed assassination attempts perpetrated by Hezbollah and other pro-Khomeini elements in Lebanon . Assad 's threat to the IRGC was materialized when he expelled 300 of its recruits from Baalbek following a complaint by Berri to the Syrian government over the attempts on his life . The hijacking of TWA Flight 847 from Athens to Rome in 1985 by Hezbollah , which was forced to land in the Amal-controlled Beirut International Airport , initially embarrassed Berri and Syria , and further added to the tension between the Syrian and Iranian camps . Hezbollah opposed the Syrian-brokered Tripartite Accord later that year , and supported the PLO during the War of the Camps , which was launched by Amal , with Syrian support , in order to curb the resurgence of Yasser Arafat 's PLO in Lebanon . Hezbollah considered this sort of inter-Muslim fighting a preoccupation from the resistance to Israel , and Iran was keen to lift Amal 's siege on the Palestinian camps , publicly denouncing its actions as beneficial to the Israelis , against whom it sought to create a Shiite-Palestinian coalition
1983 suicide bombings
1983 Beirut barracks bombings
War of Brothers