Lebanese Army, Hezbollah declare offensives on Daesh at Syrian border

The Lebanese Army operation got underway at 5 a.m. (0200 GMT), targeting Daesh positions near the town of Ras Baalbek with rockets, artillery and helicopters, a Lebanese security source said. The area is the last part of the Lebanese-Syrian frontier under insurgent control, Reuters reported.

The operation by Hezbollah and the Syrian Army targeted the area across the border in the western Qalamoun region of Syria.

A Hezbollah statement said the group was meeting its pledge to “remove the terrorist threat at the borders of the nation” and was fighting “side by side” with the Syrian Army.

General Ali Kanso said in a televised news conference that the army had started to tighten a siege of Daesh in the area two weeks ago.

“It’s the most difficult battle so far waged by the Lebanese Army against terrorist groups – the nature of the terrain and the enemy,” he said, characterizing the 600 Daesh terrorists in the area as “suicide bombers”.

In a recent speech, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the Lebanese Army would attack Daesh from its side of the border, while Hezbollah and the Syrian Army would simultaneously assault from the other side.

A commander in the military alliance fighting in support of President Bashar al-Assad said that “naturally” there was coordination between the operations.

Last month, Hezbollah forced the Nusra Front terrorists and Syrian militants to leave nearby border strongholds in a joint operation with the Syrian Army.

The Lebanese Army did not take part in the July operation, but it has been gearing up to assault the Daesh pocket in the same mountainous region.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun was following the army operation, called “Jroud Dawn”. “Jroud” refers to the barren, mountainous border area between Lebanon and Syria.

Northeastern Lebanon was the scene of one of the worst spillovers of Syria’s war into Lebanon in 2014, when Daesh and Nusra Front terrorists attacked the town of Arsal.

The fate of nine Lebanese soldiers taken captive by Daesh in 2014 remains unknown.