Yesterday’s clash at the border between the Lebanese Army and the Syrian Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) government’s forces seemingly ended with a ceasefire overnight. Eight Syrian soldiers were killed in the Monday fighting, along with five (some unconfirmed reports say seven) on the Lebanese side. A Lebanese boy was also reported killed, and scores were wounded.
The expectation was that the situation would be calming down somewhat, but it didn’t last. HTS fighters once again invaded Lebanon overnight, and by 2 AM they had gone five kilometers deep, occupying much of the Lebanese side of the border town of Hawsh al-Sayyid Ali.
Neither HTS nor Syrian state media have indicated why they invaded again so soon after a ceasefire, which said that both defense ministers should consult before any moves along the border. Lebanon’s Army is sending a growing number of reinforcements to areas all throughout the border area, unsure of what is to come.
On top of occupying the border town, the mayor of Hawsh al-Sayyid Ali reported that the troops occupied the public school in the area, and over 500 residents have been displaced, fleeing deeper into Lebanon from the invading forces.
The HTS forces in the town are reportedly ransacking and burning homes as they go. Though Lebanese forces are deployed to that area, they have so far not gone into the town into the areas the HTS is already occupying.
The fighting erupted yesterday when HTS forces on the outskirts of al-Qusayr, a major town near the border, started shelling al-Qasr. Over the weekend, al-Qasr was the site of the deaths of three HTS fighters, who were allegedly kidnapped and summarily executed. The HTS has blamed Hezbollah, though Hezbollah maintains they were involved in anything going on.
The fighting raged around al-Qasr for much of Monday, leading civilians to flee toward the bigger town of Hermel. The Lebanese Army forces in the area returned fire at the Syrian security forces attacking, and gunmen reportedly from Lebanese clans also participated in the fighting.
The HTS has been conducting crackdowns among the Shi’ite and Alawite population living in the area along the Lebanon border since they took power in December. The area around al-Qusayr was targeted as a drug smuggling route, with allegations large amount of Captagon had been traversing the border. HTS blamed that on Hezbollah as well.
In reality, it seems much of the drug smuggling was being done by clans on both sides of the border, and the crackdowns very much rubbed them the wrong way. This led to some fighting in early February just across the border from al-Qasr, with the clans briefly kidnapping some HTS members. Syria briefly invaded Lebanon at the time.
Though this new fighting is broadly over the same issue, official Syrian statements continue to push the narrative that they’re fighting Hezbollah, while in reality it seems it is primarily clans who have at most tangential relationships to them who are resisting HTS incursions into their territory on both sides of the border.
The difficulties with getting a ceasefire to stick continue to give Lebanon difficulties. They have an active ceasefire with Israel since November 26, which has seen Israel kill large numbers of civilians and continue to carry out daily attacks. Now they also have a ceasefire with Syria while Syria is actively occupying a border town.
