Syria’s new regime, led by former al-Qaeda officer Ahmed al-Sharaa, clashed with the Iran-backed Lebanese militants of Hezbollah on Monday after Hezbollah allegedly kidnapped and executed three Syrian soldiers.
The Syrian Defense Ministry, now under the control of Sharaa and his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) insurgent group after they overthrew dictator Bashar Assad in December, said on Monday that Hezbollah “ambushed and kidnapped three members of the Syrian Arab Army on the Syrian-Lebanese border near the Zeita Dam, west of Homs, before taking them to Lebanese territory and executing them on the spot.”
“We will take all necessary measures after this dangerous escalation by Hezbollah militias,” the defense ministry said.
The Lebanese government, which is partially controlled by Hezbollah, responded that the three slain soldiers were “smugglers” and claimed the exact circumstances of their deaths were unclear.
There are indeed many smuggling routes between western Syria and northern Lebanon – and Hezbollah long made use of them to smuggle Iranian-made weapons into Lebanon until Israeli forces bombed the routes to shut them down after Hezbollah joined the Gaza conflict.
Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim group that serves as a terrorist proxy for Iran, while HTS is a Sunni Muslim spinoff from al-Qaeda. HTS resents the involvement of Iran and its proxies in the Syrian civil war, which ground on for almost 15 years before the Iran-supported Syrian regime was finally deposed in December.
The new Syrian government also irked Hezbollah by vowing to close Syria’s borders, interfering with Hezbollah’s drug and weapons smuggling operations. Hezbollah took heavy damage from fighting Israel in the Gaza war and will have great difficulty rearming without access to Syrian territory.
The Syrian junta was clearly dissatisfied by Hezbollah’s account of the weekend killings because Syrian forces attacked across the border on Monday morning, capturing a Lebanese border village. The Syrians soon escalated to heavy rocket and artillery strikes, reportedly destroying an ammunition depot in Lebanon.
“What is happening on the eastern and northeastern border cannot continue, and we will not accept its continuation. I have instructed the Lebanese army to respond to the sources of fire,” Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Monday.
Aoun cited skirmishes with Syria as one of three major security threats facing Lebanon, the other two being ongoing conflict with Israel and the Syrian refugee crisis.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health reported seven deaths and 52 injuries from Monday’s clashes, while Syrian media reports said ten Syrian fighters were killed.
Late on Monday morning, the Lebanese and Syrian defense ministers agreed to a ceasefire in a telephone conference. They pledged to remain in communication to “avoid innocent civilian casualties” and both sides vowed to tighten security in their respective border regions.
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