On Tuesday afternoon, Hezbollah – in coordination with the Syrian Arab Army’s 1st Armored Division and the National Defense Forces (NDF) – carried out a powerful assault on the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” at Qurnah Al-Musharawa’, where they captured the imperative hill of Ghali Murtafat after a brief firefight with the armed Islamist group in the Rif Dimashq Governorate.
Hezbollah and their allies have advanced further west of the strategic town of Ras Al-Marra, as the militants from Jabhat Al-Nusra struggle to maintain their ground amid the multiple airstrikes from Syrian Arab Air Force (SAAF) and the heavy shelling from the Lebanese Resistance and the Syrian Armed Forces in the Qalamoun Mountains.
In addition to their success at Qurnah Al-Musharawa’, Hezbollah and their allies advanced to Beit ‘Abdel-Haqq, where they asserted full control over this rugged village controlled by Jabhat Al-Nusra, killing a confirmed 18 enemy combatants and destroying two armored vehicles mounted with anti-aircraft machine guns near the Lebanese province of Ba’albak.
According to a military source in Damascus, Jabhat Al-Nusra has lost over 130 militants since the advent of their failed offensive at the Qalamoun Mountains; this number includes the Islamist combatants killed in east Lebanon over the last seven days.
The source in Damascus was unable to confirm the official number of Hezbollah fighters killed at the counter-offensive in the Qalamoun Mountains; however, he did confirm 18 SAA soldiers and 6 NDF fighters were killed-in-action.
