Arab sources report that dozens of combatants from both Hezbollah and Free Syrian Army/Jabhat al-Nusra (the Syrian Rebels) have been killed in ongoing fierce fighting in the Qalamoun region. The battle has been dubbed “The Spring Battle” by Arab media.
The area, along the Syrian-Lebanon border is strategically critical. It controls the Lebanon-Damascus supply pipelines and is how Hezbollah supports Bashar Assad’s army and regime in Damascus.
If Assad/Hezbollah loses control of the area, Damascus is more likely to fall to the Syrian Rebels. It will also cut off Assad’s Alawite region in northwest Syria from from Damascus too.
Hezbollah believes that if Assad falls, so will they.
Assad is unable to send significant, if any, forces to assist in this battle, and his army is stretched thin in other areas, in particular around Damascus, which is a primary target for the Syrian Rebels.
At the moment, it is believed that the Syrian Rebel forces are winning in the Qalamoun region.
A source close to Hezbollah told Reuters that Nasrallah has deployed 85% of his combat forces to fight in Syria, leaving only 5% of his forces on the border with Israel.
A Lebanese paper claims that 1500 Hezbollah terrorists have been killed since they joined in the fighting in Syrian’s civil war.
The number of senior Hezbollah commanders killed in Qalmoun fighting has risen to six.