Violence in Syria’s Homs and Hama Governorates have now spread across the border into neighboring Lebanon, and Syria’s new Islamist government has reported sent ground troops into the Lebanese border town of Hermel, sparking massive clashes. Both Lebanese clans and by some accounts Hezbollah were involved in the fighting.
Since taking over Syria in December, the al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has made much of its priority to move against Hezbollah inside Syria, as well as promising to combat the drug trade. That appears to be a major source of this new violence.
HTS was cracking down on many places in Anti-Lebanon, particularly the town of Haweek, which spans both sides of the Syria-Lebanon border near Qusayr. Haweek’s population is largely Lebanese on both sides of the border. HTS has presented this crackdown as having to do with Captagon pill smuggling.
The crackdown has rubbed some Lebanese clans the wrong way, notable the Zaiter and Jaafar clans, both of whom have long been accused of being involved in the Syrian Captagon trade. The clans reported raided the Syrian side of Haweek, killing two or three HTS members and capturing two others.
This only led to further escalation, with the HTS shelling areas inside the Lebanon border, including Hermel and the border village of Qasr. HTS forces reportedly captured three Lebanese in a new raid on Haweek, and looted several homes, burning another. One Lebanese soldier was reported wounded in the shelling in Qasr. Lebanese soldiers are reportedly rushing reinforcements to the area, though since then Syrian Army forces have entered Lebanon.
Where this all leads still remains to be seen, but so far Hezbollah and the clans appear to be doing most of the fighting on the Lebanese side. The Zaiter and Jafaar clans reportedly have close ties to Hezbollah, and their involvement in the fighting in the early stages probably isn’t accidental.
Neither side is really in the best of positions for a new border war. Syria just got done with a protracted civil war a few months ago, and has multiple internal clashes ongoing related to that. Israel has also invaded and occupied parts of southern Syria. Lebanon is in the midst of a ceasefire after an Israeli invasion, and Israel continues to occupy much of southern Lebanon.
