Deadly clashes have broken out between the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group and Syrian armed forces as the latter attempted to destroy smuggling routes used during the Assad regime, the Washington Post reported on Saturday after speaking with a number of soldiers involved in the operations.
The terror group has reportedly attempted to tighten its grip on previous routes as a way to rearm following its war with Israel, which saw much of Hezbollah’s arsenal and senior leadership destroyed in strikes and a limited land operation.
Syrian patrol cars have come under frequent fire, and the patrolmen shot, according to the report. Last month, three soldiers were reportedly killed in the conflict.
While Syrian forces are attempting to guard the 233-mile border with Lebanon, Iran has reportedly begun expanding its smuggling contacts in Syria – allegedly trying to destabilize the new HTS government, which replaced Bashar al-Assad’s regime. European officials reportedly denied knowledge that Iran was directly trying to destabilize the country’s new leadership, in contrast with statements given by Syrian authorities.
Behind Hezbollah’s smuggling
“They are trying to open gaps,” Maher Ziwani, the Syrian army commander, said, speaking on the recent border clashes.
Despite his efforts, the Syrian commander told the American newspaper that he didn’t trust the border’s security “even 1%.”
“It’s quite difficult to draw a clear line between the clans and Hezbollah. There’s clear and strong cooperation between the two,” said Haid Haid, a Syria analyst with Chatham House who tracks transnational smuggling routes, told the Washington Post.
Ahmed Adbelhakim Ammar, the head of security for Qusayr, claimed the new Syrian government had halted more than a dozen shipments to Hezbollah.
“There is a huge stockpile in Syria that Hezbollah is trying to move out of Syria,” Haid said. “They know where those are, and they are working with Syrian networks to get them out.”
Beyond Syrian efforts, the IAF has frequently targeted Hezbollah strongholds around the border. Despite this, the Washington Post reported local officials finding stockpiles of Iranian weapons in Qusayr, just six miles from the Lebanese border.
Sharing photographs of the weapons, Samer Abu Qassim, head of general security for Qusayr, said all the local shops had been used as a storage facility for Tehran. A nearby school had also been used as a training base for Hezbollah, according to the source, who claimed boxes of munition were discarded in the building’s stairwell.
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