11 Hizbullah Fighters Killed During Clashes in Outskirts of Brital, Attack Was on 10 of Its Positions

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11 Hizbullah Fighters Killed During Clashes in Outskirts of Brital, Attack Was on 10 of Its Positions
Agencies
06.10.14
Hizbullah repulsed on Sunday an attack by al-Nusra Front on ten of its positions and they didnt lose any of their positions but Ain Saat for more than an hour.
Hizbullah managed to thwart the attack on its other positions. Eight of its fighters were killed, while al-Nusra Front stated that they attacked a position and killed eleven fighters for Hizbullah.
Al-Nusra front posted a video Monday afternoon showing pictures of its fighters storming positions for Hizbullah while naming it “The battle of revenge for our refugee brothers whose tents were burned in Arsal.”
Al-Nusra was referring to the burning of the refugee camps in Arsal two weeks ago during raids by the army to arrest suspects.
The army assured it opened fire on the suspects for setting the tents in the camp on fire, while al-Nusra insists it was the army who put the fire on.
The Video begins with pictures of gunmen in cars in the outskirts then gunmen walking to “Iran’s party,” as they said.
The video continued to show militants fighting and screaming “Allahu Akbar.” Then the it ends with pictures of Brital and saying that “The fighters are in the outskirts.”
LBCI stated on Monday afternoon that: “What had happened is a comprehensive attack on 10 Hizbullah positions in the outskirts from Ain Saat to Younine, that lasted for almost five hours.”
“The clashes were on two axes the first in Brital – Hamme and the second in Younine – Nahle,” it added.
LBCI quoted a Hizbullah source as saying: “The attack did not succeed and its positions along the roads are under its control.”
“Various types of weapons were used in the process, during which Hizbullah fired artillery on all of the gunmen’s positions,” it added. LBCI revealed that the hills where they clashed had rugged areas.
The battle was very violent and the reinforcements from Brital to Hamme took more than an hour to recover Ain Saat position.
“The snipers froma l-Nusra Front are strongly active from hill to hill and any moving target is in danger,” LBCI quotied Hizbullah fighters at Ain Saat position as saying.
Al-Nusra Front did not report anything until Monday morning.
It wrote on its Twitter: “Your brothers and fighters Aassal al-Ward attacked a position for Hiz Alat al-Irani (Hizbullah) in the outskirts of Brital and killed more than 11 of them and seized weapons.”
It also published pictures of dead men covered with blood and claimed they were Hizbullah fighters.
Sources close to Hizbullah stated: “Martyrs have ascended while doing their sacred line of duty in the outskirts of Brital.”
“The martyrs are: Hamza Aaqsa, Mohammed Abdo Rabah, Mohammed Qasim al-Qalamuni, Fouad Murtada, Maher Zaayter, Ahmed Hussein Saleh, Nizar Tarraf, Ammar Assaf,” it added.
According to al-Manar television, Hizbullah killed dozens of militants and wounded others in Ain al-Saat and was able to take them out of the eastern mountain range.
A suicide car bomber killed on 20 September three people at a checkpoint manned by Hizbullah in the district of Baalbek that lies in eastern Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency reported.
During the last few months several confrontations took place in the outskirts of Brital-Baalbek between Hizbullah and groups of gunmen from Syria. Hizbullah exists in several military points in the outskirts on the border, that are hard to reach.

 

Fierce fighting kills 15 in east Lebanon
The Daily Star/October 05/14

BAALBEK, Lebanon: At least 13 Syrian-based militants and two Hezbollah fighters were killed in fierce fighting in a border area in east Lebanon Sunday after jihadists attacked positions of the Lebanese group in the area, security sources said.
Militant groups attacked Sunday two Hezbollah posts on the Syrian side of the border near the eastern Lebanon villages of Brital and Nahleh, killing two of its members and wounding a number of others, the sources told The Daily Star.
The sources said members of ISIS and the Nusra Front carried out the attacks, leading to clashes between the jihadists and Hezbollah. Thirteen militants were killed in the clashes, the sources said, and several others wounded.
Hezbollah captured five militants, the sources said.
A source from Hezbollah explained to The Daily Star that militants had attacked two Hezbollah posts inside Syria’s Qalamoun region, one near the area of Nahleh and the other near the outskirts of the town of Brital. The militants briefly took over the post near Brital but the party swiftly regained control of the site.
“All the fighting is taking place inside Syrian territories as militants are seeking to gain a foothold in Qalamoun, where their presence is weak,” the source said. “They have been launching intermittent attacks every now and then.”
The source added that the fighting has significantly died down. Hezbollah had pounded militants’ positions in the hillsides of Brital.
The sources said Hezbollah was working on attacking the militants positioned in the hillsides overlooking Brital in a bid to oust them from the area. “The party appears to be preparing to target their hideouts in the hillsides overlooking Brital so as to free the area of the militants,” one source said.
Some reports spoke about an attempt by militants to take over the majority Shiite Baalbek district town, prompting hundreds of men from Brital and neighboring villages to take up arms to defend the area.
The Army and Hezbollah stopped local citizens, who deployed across the town shortly after the attack to prevent militants from advancing on the town, from entering the battle, the source said.
But a source close to the party said that Hezbollah fighters and Syrian Army troops were battling rebels in the border area of Rankous in Qalamoun for several days now.
The source insisted that Hezbollah maintains full control of the area.
Thousands of Hezbollah troops are fighting in Syria alongside government troops in the country’s three and a half year long war.
Hezbollah’s intervention in the neighboring conflict triggered a series of attacks on Lebanon by Syrian rebels and jihadist groups beginning in early 2013.
Brital was among several border region towns targeted by a barrage of rockets fired from Syria as a consequence to Hezbollah’s Syria intervention.