19 August, 2017
Separately on Saturday, the Hezbollah resistance movement said that it had started a joint operation with the Syrian army inside Syrian territory, according to al-Manar TV station. "It's the most hard battle so far waged by the Lebanese army against terrorist groups - the nature of the terrain and the enemy", he said, characterizing the 600 Islamic State fighters in the area as 600 "suicide bombers".
The Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah declared its own assault against Islamic State militants from the Syrian side of the border on Saturday, in collaboration with the Syrian army. The U.S.is a key patron of the Lebanese army, and top brass from the Pentagon visited Lebanon in the run-up to the operation.
Meanwhile, a Lebanese security official told Reuters news agency that the Lebanese military has begun a similar military operation against ISIS on the Lebanese side of the border.
Small groups of Daesh militants are surrendering to Lebanese militia Hezbollah near a checkpoint at the Syrian-Lebanese border, a source in Hezbollah told Sputnik on Friday. Hizbollah has been fighting alongside Mr Al Assad's forces since 2013. "Jroud" refers to the barren, mountainous border area between Lebanon and Syria.
The presence of extremists in the border area has brought suffering to neighbouring towns and villages, from shelling to kidnappings of villagers for ransom.
Lebanon has been spared the wars and chaos that engulfed several countries in the region since the so-called Arab Spring uprisings of 2011. But it has not been able to evade threats to its security, including sectarian infighting and random vehicle bombings, particularly in 2014, when militants linked to al-Qaeda and IS overran the border region, kidnapping Lebanese soldiers.
"In the name of Lebanon, in the name of kidnapped Lebanese soldiers, in the name of martyrs of the army, I announce the launch of "Fajr al-Joroud Operation" in the outskirts of Ras Baalbek and al-Qaa (towns)", General Aoun said in a statement.
About 600 jihadists, including snipers, are holed up in the Lebanese portion of the enclave, according to Qanso.
This stretch of the Lebanese-Syrian border has been used by Islamists to smuggle weapons and fresh recruits into Syria.
