Surrounded by a group of armed men and villagers, Ahmad, a fighter from the hamlet of Blouza, Syria, located 1 kilometer from the Lebanese border, savored the moment: "Until two days ago, the territory of Hezbollah and the drug traffickers started here and extended through the mountains into Lebanon. We dislodged them."

Not since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime on December 8, 2024, has the situation at the Lebanon-Syria border been so explosive. The new Syrian army, made up of fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group that seized power in Damascus, has been battling Lebanese militia fighters. These militia groups are linked to drug and arms smuggling with the Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah. The clashes have been concentrated around a string of three villages in an area straddling the two countries, near the town of Qusair, located some 30 kilometers southwest of Homs, the capital of central Syria.

While Hezbollah's direct involvement in the fighting – something that, according to the Syrians, has been "proven" – could not be independently verified, the shadow of the Lebanese Shiite militia continues to loom over the region. For Damascus, retaking this territory, which the country's new defense minister, Murhaf Abu Qasra, has headed to, would be a symbol of their renewed sovereignty.

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