Heavy clashes erupt along Syria-Lebanon border as Hezbollah, military forces battle for control VIDEO

A large-scale military operation was launched by the Military Operations Administration in the western countryside of Homs, including the villages of Hawik, Bluzah, Al-Fadliyah, Akoum, and the surrounding rugged areas extending to the Lebanese border.

The operation, aimed at expelling militants, smugglers, and drug traffickers linked to Hezbollah, involved the use of tanks, armoured vehicles, drones, and heavy weaponry, Caliber.Az reports, citing Syrian media.

During the campaign, shells struck civilian areas, escalating tensions in the region.

Violent clashes broke out between the General Security forces and the Military Operations Administration on one side, and the militants on the other, after three security units were deployed for an arrest operation. These confrontations, particularly in border villages, resulted in at least one fatality in the initial toll.

On January 14, sources from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported fresh fighting between Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and local residents of Al-Misreyah village in Al-Qusayr, located on the Syria-Lebanon border. The clashes, which broke out in the early hours, involved the use of heavy and medium weapons, although no casualties were recorded.

Hezbollah launched the assault from three directions, prompting local residents to call for military reinforcement from the Military Operations Administration to help fend off the attack. Hezbollah is known to have stockpiled weapons in Al-Qusayr and surrounding areas, though the locations of these weapons remain undisclosed. The group has long sought to smuggle these arms across the border to Lebanon, particularly since the fall of the Assad regime.

In further developments, intense clashes were reported this morning between the Military Operations Administration and Hezbollah forces in the area between Harmal and Al-Qusayr. The fighting follows Hezbollah's attempt to smuggle weapons from Al-Qusayr to Lebanon, though no casualties have been reported at this stage.

The Al-Qusayr region, which includes over 80 villages and towns, holds significant strategic and symbolic importance for Hezbollah, particularly since the city's fall in 2012, which marked the beginning of the group's military intervention to support the Assad regime.

Despite Hezbollah's influence over much of the Syria-Lebanon border, Al-Qusayr remains a key flashpoint in the ongoing tensions.

By Aghakazim Guliyev