Damascus, Feb 7 (IANS): Syria's interim Defence Ministry has said that its forces are continuing operations against remnants of the ousted Bashar al-Assad government and drug traffickers along the Syrian-Lebanese border.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, the military on Thursday also deployed heavy weaponry and drones to eliminate entrenched fighters linked to the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and a drug cartel.
The military targeted militant positions in the village of Hawik in the central province of Homs with artillery, reportedly resulting in casualties and the capture of combatants on both sides, Xinhua news agency reported.
The observatory added that the offensive extended across several border villages and rugged areas, leading to at least one fatality.
In an update, the media office in Homs Province confirmed that security forces launched an extensive operation to close illicit arms and contraband smuggling routes to curb illegal activities that threaten both Syrian and Lebanese stability.
According to the office, Syrian authorities have so far detained several individuals suspected of smuggling and seized stockpiles of weapons and contraband.
On December 8, 2024, the Bashar al-Assad regime fell following a ten-day offensive carried out by rebel forces, beginning with the rebels' seizure of Aleppo on November 30.
The armed coalition was led by Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA).
The upheaval put an end to more than fifty years of the Assad family's rule of Syria and four years of largely frozen dynamics in the Syrian civil war, which has been ongoing since 2011.
Amid the fall of the capital city, Damascus, to HTS and aligned forces, deposed President Assad fled to Moscow.
Rebels freed Assad regime prisoners throughout the offensive as they seized new territory.
Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah—longtime supporters of Assad's government -- did not send significant support to his Syrian Arab Army (SA) during the rebel offensive.
Concurrently, the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Defense Forces (SDF), which controls parts of northeastern Syria, continue to clash with Arab tribes that accuse the group of discrimination while Turkey and its proxies continue attacks on Kurdish forces.
Factionalised fighting has made space for the self-proclaimed Islamic State to maintain a presence and launch attacks.
Additionally, Israel regularly strikes Iranian and Syrian military positions in Syria and has increased attacks, including hitting the Damascus and Aleppo airports, since Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel.