On early Monday morning, the militants from the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” launched a surprise attack on Hezbollah positions in the villages of ‘Assal Al-Ward and Jaroud, attempting to overwhelm the Lebanese Resistance Army with a large contingent of combatants to take these areas in the Qalamoun Mountains.
Unfortunately for Jabhat Al-Nusra, Hezbollah’s frontline defenses were impregnable on Monday, as the attack quickly turned sour for the Al-Qaeda group, resulting in the death of a confirmed 26 enemy combatants and 42 others that were reportedly wounded during the fierce engagement.
At the village of Jaroud, Hezbollah destroyed a convoy of three armored vehicles mounted with 14.5mm anti-aircraft machine guns that belonged to Jabhat Al-Nusra; this coincided with the latter’s failed infiltration attempt to break-into this Hezbollah stronghold near the Lebanese border with Syria.
Early reports from Jabhat Al-Nusra social media activists stated that dozens of Hezbollah soldiers were killed and much of the territory captured; however, a source in the Qalamoun Mountains confirmed that this news was in fact false, as Hezbollah suffered only four casualties during the firefight with the enemy combatants.
The news in ‘Assal Al-Ward and Jaroud came three hours before a large convoy of Hezbollah soldiers crossed the Lebanese border from Ba’albak and entered Syria via the Al-Zabadani crossing – despite media reports of thousands of Hezbollah soldiers entering Syria, the Lebanese Resistance Forces have only begun the process of gradually redeploying their men to the Qalamoun.
