BAALBEK, Lebanon: Lebanon’s northeastern border with Syria braced for more violence after fierce clashes between Hezbollah and the Nusra Front over the weekend left nearly two dozen combatants dead, according to security sources.
The fighting broke out Sunday evening when Nusra Front fighters attacked three Hezbollah military posts on the outskirts of the Baalbek village of Brital in Lebanon’s eastern mountain range, security sources said. Hezbollah acknowledged the death of eight fighters, and security sources added that at least 20 party members were wounded in the fighting.
Speaking to The Daily Star, the sources said 14 Nusra Front jihadists were also killed in the clashes, which died down around 3 a.m. Monday.
Hezbollah captured five Nusra Front militants, the sources said, adding that the party’s fighters repelled Nusra Front attacks on two of its main posts in the area – Ain al-Saa and Mihfara – on the farthest edge of the Lebanese town of Brital.
But another security source familiar with the battles said Nusra Front gunmen also attacked the post of Umm Kharj, saying this was the main target of the operation.
Umm Kharj is another important Hezbollah post in the area, and is where the largest number of Hezbollah fighters was killed, the source said.
Later in the evening, Hezbollah attacked Nusra Front hideouts on the outermost edge of Brital.
A source from Hezbollah told The Daily Star that militants had briefly taken over one of the posts but that the party swiftly regained control of the site.
“All the fighting is taking place inside Syrian territories as militants are seeking to gain a foothold in Qalamoun, where their presence is weak,” the source said, referring to the mountainous Syrian area just over Lebanon’s eastern border. “They have been launching intermittent attacks.”
However, the Nusra Front had its own version of the clashes, and there was ambiguity over in which country exactly the clashes took place, as the border is porous and undefined in the area.
In comments to Anadulo News Agency, a Nusra Front commander said the group attacked Hezbollah posts as a pre-emptive strike.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the commander said the group had received information that Hezbollah was fortifying several positions and had been preparing an attack on rebels in coordination with the Lebanese and Syrian armies.“We prepared ourselves and as soon as knew Hezbollah fighters were infiltrating Nahleh’s outskirts, we attacked them and ambushed them,” he said.
“There was a military position for Hezbollah, which we overran, and then we withdrew,” he said.
He denied Hezbollah had taken any Nusra fighters captive.
“What happened yesterday was a warning message to Hezbollah ... If we wanted to continue the battle, we could have attacked Brital.”
“We found U.S.-made weapons still in their wrappings including a rocket launcher. Where did the party of Iran [Hezbollah] get such weapons from?”
Nusra also released what it claimed was footage from the battle with Hezbollah, showing jihadists overrunning the Umm Kharj military post. Bodies of fighters believed to be from Hezbollah could be seen in the footage.
The group said its fighters killed over 11 Hezbollah fighters and wounded dozens during the battles. It said the operation was retaliation for the burning of Syrian refugee camps in Arsal during a Lebanese Army raid late last month. The Army has denied it was responsible for the fire, saying three individuals tried to set the camp ablaze.
Thousands of fighters from the Nusra Front and ISIS have been stuck along the eastern border of Lebanon since spring after the Syrian army and Hezbollah drove them out of most of Qalamoun.
There are expected to be more attacks on warmer Lebanese villages as winter approaches, particularly given that the Lebanese Army has cut off most of the extremist groups’ supply routes.
Fighters from ISIS and the Nusra Front briefly occupied the northeastern town of Arsal in August. They still hold at least 21 soldiers and Internal Security Forces members they captured during the battle for the town.
A security source familiar with the battles taking place between Hezbollah and the Islamist militants on the mountainous outskirts of Baalbek said Nusra Front, ISIS and other extremist groups were resorting to guerrilla tactics to target the party.
The source said that after careful surveillance, the groups would attack a Hezbollah position in the area before withdrawing to their hideouts on the barren mountainous outskirts, all with the aim of destroying the target and inflicting the highest number of casualties.
The fighters are banking on the fact that their hideouts are difficult to locate or invade due to the fact they are scattered over large swathes of rugged terrain that is speckled with caves.
The source said the war of attrition launched by the Islamist groups against Hezbollah was aimed at forcing the party to abandon its positions in the mountainous hinterlands.
This would enable ISIS and the Nusra Front to open a route stretching from the outskirts of Arsal and Tfail to the Zabadani field, which is still under the control of rebels, and reach western rural Damascus and the governorates of Deraa and Qunaitra in Syria’s south, where the opposition also maintains a strong military presence.
During the clashes, dozens of Hezbollah fighters were seen heading from Brital to the scenes of the clashes in four-wheel drives with machine guns mounted on the roofs. Hezbollah gunmen and others from local clans also deployed in streets in northern Bekaa Valley villages.
In Baalbek Sunday, the party held the funerals of Nizar Tarraf and Fouad Mortada, both of whom died during the fighting. In the Baalbek village of Iaat, Hezbollah fighter Maher Zeaiter was also laid to rest.
Commenting on the clashes, Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah said his party had saved the country from a plot by Islamist gunmen to expand into Lebanon, boasting that his colleagues were capable of repelling imminent attacks similar to Sunday’s border violence.
“The resistance is alert day and night and foiled a plan by takfiri groups to attack our villages and towns in the Bekaa,” Fadlallah said during a ceremony in Tibnin, south Lebanon.
“The resistance has proven once again that it is the nation’s armor and it is always ready to defeat any attackers who attempt to attack our northern and southern borders.”
But March 14 officials blamed the clashes on Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria, with the General Secretariat calling for the deployment of an international peacekeeping force along the porous border to protect the country.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea took a particularly strong line. “The attack by the militants on the outskirts of Brital and Nabi Sebat demonstrated once again the need for the Lebanese government to take a decision to force Hezbollah to withdraw from Syria if the government is serious about securing the safety of Lebanese territory,” Geagea told the Central News Agency.
Geagea reiterated a long-standing demand by the March 14 coalition to expand the mandate of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon to cover the border between Lebanon and Syria.
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