Foreign fighters from the Syrian army have recently been transferred from the country’s north to the border area with Lebanon, sources told The Cradle on 13 November.
“In recent days, groups of foreign fighters have been transferred from the Harem area in Idlib province to the city of Al-Qusayr, near the Syrian–Lebanese border, coinciding with the movement of heavy military equipment, including vehicles and armored units,” the sources said.
“At the same time, forces affiliated with the Ministry of Defense of the ‘Syrian Transitional Government’ attempted to advance and take positions inside Lebanese territory, specifically in the Wadi al-Thalajat area of Ras al-Maara, along the Syrian–Lebanese border in the Damascus countryside,” the sources said, referring to barren areas where the Lebanese army is not present.
According to Lebanese media reports from the last two days, the deployments come as part of clashes between the Syrian army and ISIS cells facing the Lebanese town of Arsal, in border areas on the Syrian side.
Just days ago, the US announced Syria’s official entry into Washington’s ‘anti-ISIS’ coalition, which was formed in 2014 and followed by a widespread US military occupation of Syrian oil fields.
As self-appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa arrived in Washington on Sunday, Damascus’s forces began what they said was a widespread campaign against ISIS. Some of the images and videos released by state media appeared to be staged.
The Syrian military itself is made up of several extremist factions with links to both Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Scores of former ISIS fighters and commanders occupy positions in many of the Syrian army’s brigades.
Last month, Al Mayadeen cited diplomatic sources as saying that “unusual” movements of thousands of armed extremists, including fighters from Uzbekistanis, Chechens, and Uyghurs from China, were being observed along the Syrian–Lebanese border.
Tens of thousands of foreign fighters entered Syria illegally to join the US-backed war to topple former president Bashar al-Assad’s government, which began in 2011. The new authorities in Damascus have given some of these foreigners top positions in the army, and said they are considering giving them Syrian citizenship.
Reports of a buildup of Syrian army forces near the Lebanese border coincide with new US threats that they could be used against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Damascus will now actively assist us in confronting and dismantling the remnants of ISIS, the [Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] IRGC, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist networks, and will stand as a committed partner in the global effort to secure peace,” US envoy Tom Barrack said on Friday.
At the start of the Syrian war, ISIS and Al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front (headed by Sharaa at the time) occupied large swathes of the northern and eastern Lebanese border region.
They were eventually expelled by Hezbollah and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in 2017.
This is a big mistake and I love to see it. Empire has been trying everything they can to get the Lebanese army to fight Hezbollah and the one thing that is sure to get them to unite is an attack by the wahhabists.
Perhaps I’m simply jaded but I don’t see that going well eitheir, simply for the fact that so many Lebanese will die as Israel, Jolani, and whatever US-aligned faction of the Lebanese armed forces that still exist attempt to devour southern Lebanon.
My experience watching the Syrian diaspora justify the murder of Syrian minorities might color my impression to negatively though. I fear that the Sunni Lebanese population would rather their country were destroyed trying to eradicate Shiites over uniting with there fellow countrymen against invaders.
I can’t really say if that will or won’t happen, as my experience is solely with Shia Lebanese, and I’ve little interaction with Lebanese Sunnis. Perhaps they are less sectarian, but generally that isn’t a hurdle I’ve seen Arab Sunnis pass.
We have already seen the imperial collaborators within the Lebanese government get shut down on trying to disarm Hezbollah. If that division were to ever work it would have happened from the pressure within the country. When there is an existential threat from the outside the Lebanese people will band together.
Like with the attack on Iran. The zionists thought that terrorism and killing leaders would cause the divisions to deepen but it had the opposite effect. The divisions are still there but all sides understand that the empire is not an ally to support their views and is only concerned with crushing them under their boot.
Also diaspora is always the source of the most ignorant and reactionary views and they should probably just be ignored. They remember the nation as it was when they left and wish for a future born from that point, ignorant of all or most that has transpired from that point.
Its like they are thinking of their home when they left as some grain, They imagine a nice sandwich on bread baked from flour that the grain could have become. but that grain was planted shortly after they left and then it was harvested and turned into ethanol. And so they are debating on whether the sandwich should have mustard or not while the country is deciding whether they should drink the ethanol to get drunk or use it as fuel.
That’s why the diaspora from Burkina Faso and the Sahel in general fascinates me. If only most of the diaspora from other countries were as united and willing to help their own country as them…