Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared for the first time on Monday that his group has 100,000 trained fighters, The Associated Press reports.

Nasrallah’s remarks came in a speech appeared to be meant as a deterrent to domestic foes following the nation’s worst internal violence in years.

“We have prepared (those fighters) with their diverse weapons to defend our territory, our oil and gas that is being robbed before the eyes of Lebanese, to protect the dignity and sovereignty of our country from any aggression (and) terrorism and not for internal fighting,” Nasrallah said, according to AP.