With the week-long offensive on both sides of the Lebanon-Syria border against ISIS territory having wrapped up over the weekend, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah issued a statement today reporting that all told, 11 Hezbollah fighters and seven Syrian military soldiers were killed.
This only covers the Qalamoun region, which is to say the Syrian side of the border, but there do not appear to have been major casualties on the Lebanese side, where the Lebanese Army was able to quickly advance and overrun ISIS in just a matter of days.
The fight ended over the weekend with a ceasefire and a negotiated settlement. Under the deal, ISIS agreed to withdraw from the area outright, and the return the bodies of Lebanese soldiers captured years ago, and the remaining ISIS force would be evacuated to eastern Syria, where they still hold territory.
Hasrallah’s statement reflects that Hezbollah’s involvement was heavily on the Syrian side of the border, unusual despite them being Lebanon-based. Either way, the emphasis of his statement was on the limited losses sustained in routing a fairly large ISIS force.
