File:Several countries designated Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed, Lebanon-based militia group, as a “terrorist” organization.The designation covers the entirety of the group, both the political and military wings.
The commander of the Western Region in the Syrian Border Security Administration, Mu’ayyad al-Salama, stated that “during the past week, clashes took place with armed smuggling groups in the Syrian villages of Hawik, Jarmash, Wadi al-Hawrani and Akum, during a combing campaign we launched to control the country’s western borders from smuggling operations.”
He claimed, in statements to the Syrian News Agency – SANA, that “most of the smuggling gangs on the Lebanese border belong to Hezbollah, which has become a threat with its presence on the Syrian border through its sponsorship of drug and weapons smugglers.”
Al-Salama pointed out that “in turn, the former regime also transformed the Syrian-Lebanese border into corridors for drug trafficking in cooperation with Hezbollah, which helped strengthen the presence of armed smuggling gangs in the border area.”
He claimed that “during the combing campaign, our forces were able to seize a large number of farms, warehouses, and factories for manufacturing and packaging hashish and Captagon pills, in addition to printing presses specialized in printing counterfeit currency, as this area was the economic artery of these gangs. We also seized many shipments of weapons and narcotics in the border areas with Lebanon, which were on their way to cross.”
The Syrian official added: “We confirm that we did not target the Lebanese interior, despite the bombing that targeted our units by Hezbollah, and our operations were limited to the adjacent Syrian villages, and targeted armed smuggling gangs and those who fought with them.”
Earlier, Al-Nashra’s correspondent in the Bekaa reported that the Lebanese army had deployed on the Lebanese-Syrian border from Qanafez to Dora Josi, passing through Hosh Al-Sayyed Ali, and closed all illegal roads with earthen barriers, to maintain security and prevent the entry of militants and the smuggling of weapons and drugs to and from Syria.
During the deployment, army units appeared to be establishing centers and opening new roads to control the borders.
The new military administration deployed its elements along the border on the Syrian side, where this border witnessed cautious calm today and no shooting, breach or smuggling was recorded on illegal roads due to the closure of the crossings.
Source: El Nashra , translated from Arabic