After weeks of sieges in the area, Syrian military forces backed by Hezbollah have taken the rebel stronghold of Yabroud, the last of the rebels’ possessions along the borer with Lebanon.
The rebels had lost most of the rest of the towns in the area in recent weeks, and this weekend finally took Yabroud itself after an intense multi-day battle.
The last rebel reports were that Yabroud was facing heavy air strikes, including with barrel bombs. Yabroud was initially a Christian-majority town but has been a rebel arms smuggling depot for months.
After the loss of Yabroud, a suicide car bomb killed two people in a Shi’ite village across the border in Lebanon. Syrian al-Qaeda faction Jabhat al-Nusra claim credit for the bombing, calling it “revenge” against Hezbollah.