Damascus announces the start of a military operation to expel Hezbollah fighters from the Syrian territories

Military operations are continuing on the Syrian -Lebanese border, through clashes and mutual shelling operations between the Syrian army, and armed groups that the Syrian side says are affiliated with the Lebanese Hezbollah, in addition to the participation of the Lebanese army in the bombing operations. The official Syrian News Agency “SANA”, on Monday evening, quoted a source in the Syrian Ministry of Defense as saying that “after the treachery of Hezbollah militia with three of our fighters and liquidated them in the field yesterday, we started combing the Syrian lands and villages adjacent to the Lebanese border west of the city of Qusayr.”

The source added that this move aims to “expel Hezbollah militia from the Syrian villages and regions that are taken by temporary places for smuggling and trade,” noting that the operations are concentrated primarily in the village of Hosh al -Sayyid Ali, the Syrian village, which he said was “a den of Hezbollah militia in the days of the defunct regime.” The source pointed out that the Syrian army forces will target “gatherings and movements of Hezbollah militia in the region in support of the operation.”

For its part, the Syrian Ministry of Information stated that the Syrian army “is now liberating lands controlled by Hezbollah during the era of the Assad regime, and that it did not exceed the Syrian border to Lebanese territory.” The ministry stressed that there is no problem between Syria and Lebanon, and that the clashes are only with Hezbollah members on Syrian soil.

In another statement, the Syrian Ministry of Information denounced what it called “the direct targeting of a group of journalists and media professionals while they were covering near the Lebanese -Syrian border, through guided missiles launched by Hezbollah after the kidnapping and liquidation of three members of the Syrian army yesterday. Persons’ accountability.

Local sources told Al -Arabi Al -Jadeed that artillery shells from the Lebanese side targeted Ain Al -Tannour water station in the western countryside of Homs Governorate. The sources also reported the killing of two young Syrian army forces on the Syrian -Lebanese border, the military observer Abu Arab Saraqib, and Yahya al -Matar Al -Mughali, who comes from the city of Tabqa in the province of Raqqa, east of Syria.

On the Lebanese side, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said that what is happening on the eastern and northeastern borders of Lebanon cannot continue, and we will not accept its continuation, and that it gave directives to the Lebanese army to respond to the sources of the fire. He also directed the Lebanese Foreign Minister, according to the Lebanese presidency, to communicate with his Syrian counterpart in Brussels to address the border problem “to ensure the sovereignty of the two countries and prevent the deterioration of the situation.”

On Sunday, violent clashes erupted between the Syrian army forces and militants from the Lebanese Hezbollah against the city of Qusayr in Homs countryside on the Syrian -Lebanese border, according to Syrian military sources. The sources said that the Military Operations Department sent large reinforcements to the border area, where the town of Al -Qasr, affiliated to the Lebanese Hermel Zone, was targeted.

These developments came after gunmen from Hezbollah kidnapped three members of the Military Operations Department on the Syrian -Lebanese border near the Zeta Dam, west of Homs, before they took them to Lebanese territory and liquidated them in a field liquidation, according to the official Syrian News Agency (SANA) quoted the media office in the Syrian Ministry of Defense.