Hezbollah Prepares for the Final Showdown in the Qalamoun Mountains

[Bleipriester]

The result of the coming operations will be that the Syrian troops and Hezbollah can deploy at other frontiers.
Hezbollah has a 8:1 Kill/Death ratio in Syria. It is a very effective force.

"The Syrian Armed Forces and Hezbollah have some unfinished business to take care of in the Qalamoun Mountains of the Rif Dimashq Governorate after a three month hiatus to clear the strategic border-city of Al-Zabadani from the Islamist rebel factions entrenched inside.

What is left under the control of the armed Islamist factions in the Qalamoun Mountains? Quite a bit of territory, actually; in fact, the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” and the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) still control a small parcel of land in Jaroud Rankous (southern Qalamoun) and a substantial amount of land in Jaroud Qarah (northern Qalamoun).

Not only does Hezbollah have to combat the Islamist rebel groups and ISIS in the Syrian portion of the Qalamoun Mountains, but also, inside the Lebanese border-district of ‘Arsal, where the aforementioned terrorist factions enjoy autonomous control over large swathes of territory that the Lebanese Armed Forces have been unable to recover since August of 2014.


However, unlike the recent Al-Zabadani offensive, the Lebanese Resistance will be carrying out these operations on their own, while their trusted ally from the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Mechanized Division is redeployed to another volatile front inside Syria.

Hezbollah’s primary focus will be Jaroud Qarah and Ras Ba’albak; these two areas have recently become a hotspot for ISIS to launch an assault on the Syrian Arab Army’s positions at the border-city of Al-Qusayr in the Homs Governorate.

If Hezbollah captures Jaroud Rankous and Jaroud Qarah, they will have successfully sealed off the Syrian-Lebanese border; this would be one the biggest blows to their enemies, as they rely on this border to resupply and reinforce their fighters inside western Syria."

Hezbollah Prepares for the Final Showdown in the Qalamoun Mountains

 

[Bleipriester]

ISIS Prepares for Large-Scale Offensive on the Syrian-Lebanese Border

"The Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) is preparing for a large-scale offensive inside the northwestern hills of the Qalamoun Mountains after a failed assault on the Al-Qusayr border-crossing in early August; this prior offensive ended badly for the terrorist group, as Hezbollah and the Syrian Armed Forces reversed all of their gains.

According to a military source in Damascus, a Hezbollah drone captured footage of the terrorist group moving their fighters from Jaroud ‘Arsal, Jaroud Qarah, and Jaroud Qa’a to the Damascus-Aleppo International Highway and the Ras Ba’albak fronts in order to capture the Syrian Arab Army/Hezbollah’s territory under their control.

ISIS has enjoyed control over the Jaroud Qarah border-crossing into Lebanon for the last two years, while also combatting their former allies from the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) that shared control of this territory before they were defeated by Hezbollah and the Syrian Arab Army three months ago.

East of the Damascus-Aleppo International Highway in the Qalamoun Mountains, the Syrian Arab Army controls the area from Qarah to the town of Maheen in the Homs Governorate; however, ISIS is in full-control of the ancient Assyrian city of Al-Quraytayn, which is located directly east of Maheen.

If the terrorist group can advance east of the Damascus-Aleppo International Highway from Jaroud Qarah, while another ISIS contingent pushes west from Al-Quraytayn to the aforementioned highway; this will endanger both the Syrian capital of Damascus and the provincial capital of the Homs Governorate."

ISIS Prepares for Large-Scale Offensive on the Syrian-Lebanese Border