Jabhat a-Nusra spokesman Abdallah Azzam a-Shami announced early Monday morning that rebel fighters had mounted a suicide attack and ground operation to “demolish Hezbollah and [Iranian] Republican Guard strongholds” in the town of Ras al-Ain, southwest of the strategic town of Yabroud in Syria’s Qalamoun mountain range, of which regime and Hezbollah forces gained control last month.
Pro-Assad Syrian daily al-Watan also reported fresh fighting near Yabroud, stating Monday that the Syrian army carried out an operation southwest of the town that killed and injured many “terrorists” and destroyed their weapons.
Al-Watan also cited an anonymous source reporting that a regime military patrol along the Syrian-Lebanese border had arrested four Syrian militants near the Sunni Lebanese village of Arsal, which has been a key refuge and resupply point for rebels.
The fighting comes roughly three weeks after regime and Hezbollah forces uprooted rebel fighters from Yabroud, their main military base in the Qalamoun mountain range north of Damascus, as pro-Assad forces have pushed to extent their control to areas west of Yabroud.
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