A security source told The Daily Star that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command has recently fortified its military posts over a 14-kilometer-stretch of the Lebanese border in the Bekaa Valley, in coordination with Hezbollah and Syrian military figures.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said that the recent security measures were aimed at protecting border areas in the western and eastern Bekaa Valley from possible attacks by the Nusra Front, ISIS and the Free Syrian Army.
The militants are expected to first attack from Syria’s Zabadani region and then be joined by sleeper cells in the Lebanese areas of Majdal Anjar, Barr Elias, Suweiri and Deir Znoun.
The sources said that a new leadership for the PFLP-GC had been appointed and tasked with supervising military operations and deploying Palestinian fighters at their bases in Qousaya, Deir al-Ghazzal, Bayyad and Deir Znoun.
The fighters are reportedly equipped with various medium and light weapons as well as anti-aircraft weaponry, while in the post of Jabal al-Muaysira, PFLP-GC personnel are said to be armed with tanks and rocket launchers, and are connected to Syria by way of a paved road.
The posts receive food from cold storage trucks and water from tankers, while fighters use Syrian mobile lines to communicate with each other.
The sources said that the group, assisted by Iranian experts, had strengthened its fortifications and tunnels in Jamal Hashmesh, a hill located to the northeast of Qousaya.
Over a month ago, the PFLP-GC also received weapons such as anti-tank missiles, anti-aircraft weapons and heavy machine guns from Hezbollah.
The weaponry reportedly came from one of Hezbollah’s secret caches in the western Bekaa Valley village of Mashghara.
Members of the new PFLP-GC leadership in Qousaya include Brig. Issam H., whose nom de guerre is Abu Wael.
He was appointed as a general military commander.
Brig. Ammar Q. is now head of operations, while Brig. Khaled A., who is better known as Abu Karam, has been put in charge of military tunnels.
Also among the newly appointed leaders is Captain Riad K., better known as Abu Kayed.
Meanwhile, residents of the northeastern Bekaa are reportedly complaining about the deterioration in economic activity in the area due to ongoing battles between Hezbollah and radical Syrian groups on the border.
The violence has negatively impacted business in the city of Baalbek and various other Bekaa Valley villages, towns and cities.
Eight Hezbollah fighters were killed when fighters from the Nusra Front attacked party military posts on the outskirts of the Baalbek village of Brital earlier this month.
During a visit to the region this month, Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah held meetings with party commanders there and stressed that his party would not show leniency in its war on takfiri groups.
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