Syrian Military and Hezbollah Work Together to Retake Border Town

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The Syrian army, in cooperation with volunteers from the Lebanese based terrorist group Hezbollah, has moved into the rebel held town of Zabadani on the border with Lebanon, this according to Syrian officials. The news comes after reports that Hezbollah has been pulling its people out of Syria.

Rebel groups have held Zabadani since 2012.

The Syrian civil war seems to have devolved into a four, or even five sided fight. The Syrian government is up against the main rebel forces and Islamic State, which has moved into the country taking advantage of the power vacuum. In addition, the Kurds in the north of the country are fighting to protect themselves from not only the rebels and IS, but also Syrian forces. And now the Druse community in the West of Syria along the border with Israel has come under threat of being overrun by IS.

Al Manar television, which is operated by Hezbollah, reported that the group’s fighters and the Syrian army on Sunday had moved into the Jamaiyat district in the western part of Zabadani, about 30 miles northwest of the Syrian capital of Damascus. The Syrian military calimed on state television that it had captured the Sultani district, east of Zabadani and that it had killed dozens of rebel fighters.

Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim group. Al Qaeda and its Syrian organ the rebel group Nusra Front are Sunni and as such see Hezbollah as their enemy. This, in part, is why Hezbollah has been fighting alongside government troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in that country’s 4 year long civil war. The organization claims that it is committed to protecting Lebanon from threats based in neighboring Syria.