BICOM

Syrian government forces and Hezbollah fighters yesterday took full control of the strategic town of Yabroud, near the Syria-Lebanon border, giving President Assad a significant military victory over opposition groups.

Syrian state television said that government forces are in “complete control” of Yabroud and Reuters reports that most opposition fighters pulled out of the town and are regrouping in nearby villages. Yabroud has been an important supply route for opposition groups to receive weaponry and food from Lebanon and it overlooks the major routes between Damascus and Homs. According to the Independent, the fall of Yabroud was celebrated with gunfire in Shia-dominated areas of the Lebanese capital Beirut.

Hezbollah, which is the dominant Lebanese Shia political grouping, is largely bankrolled, trained and armed by Iran, It has fought side by side with Syrian government troops loyal to Assad on numerous occasions, most notably helping recapture the crucial town of Qusair last year. There is significant disquiet among Lebanon’s Sunni population over Hezbollah’s close support for the Assad regime and several deadly car bombs have been targeted Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut in recent months.

In another example of Syrian tensions spilling into neighbouring Lebanon, a suicide car bomb yesterday evening killed four people including a Hezbollah official in a Shiite village in the Bekaa Valley. AFP says that the extremist Sunni opposition group in Syria, the Al-Nusra Front took responsibility for the attack, specifying that it was a “quick response to the bravado… of the party of Iran (Hezbollah) for their rape of Yabrud.” Another extremist Sunni group also claimed that it had carried out the attack.

Meanwhile, on Friday evening, three Israeli soldiers were lightly injured by an explosive device in the Har Dov area of the Israel-Lebanon border. Israeli Channel Two news said that Hezbollah was believed responsible for the explosion. The IDF fired on several strategic targets across the border in response, including a Hezbollah position in the Lebanese village Kfar Kileh.