{"id":153083,"date":"2025-11-16T17:03:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T00:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=153083"},"modified":"2025-11-16T17:03:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T00:03:24","slug":"syria-deploys-foreign-fighters-to-lebanon-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/11\/16\/syria-deploys-foreign-fighters-to-lebanon-border\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria deploys foreign fighters to Lebanon border"},"content":{"rendered":"

World<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

NOV 13, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deployments come as part of an alleged \u2018crackdown\u2019 on ISIS cells across Syria, including near the Lebanese border<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign fighters from the Syrian army have recently been transferred from the country\u2019s north to the border area with Lebanon, sources told The Cradle<\/em> on 13 November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent days, groups of foreign fighters have been transferred from the Harem area in Idlib province to the city of Al-Qusayr, near the Syrian\u2013Lebanese border, coinciding with the movement of heavy military equipment, including vehicles and armored units,\u201d the sources said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, forces affiliated with the Ministry of Defense of the \u2018Syrian Transitional Government\u2019 attempted to advance and take positions inside Lebanese territory, specifically in the Wadi al-Thalajat area of Ras al-Maara, along the Syrian\u2013Lebanese border in the Damascus countryside,\u201d the sources said, referring to barren areas where the Lebanese army is not present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Lebanese media reports from the last two days, the deployments come as part of clashes between the Syrian army and ISIS cells facing the Lebanese town of Arsal, in border areas on the Syrian side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just days ago, the US announced Syria\u2019s official entry<\/a> into Washington\u2019s \u2018anti-ISIS\u2019 coalition, which was formed in 2014 and followed by a widespread US military occupation of Syrian oil fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As self-appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa arrived in Washington on Sunday, Damascus\u2019s forces began<\/a> what they said was a widespread campaign against ISIS. Some of the images and videos released by state media appeared to be staged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Syrian military itself is made up of several extremist factions with links to both Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Scores of former ISIS fighters and commanders occupy positions in many of the Syrian army\u2019s brigades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, Al Mayadeen <\/em>cited<\/a> diplomatic sources as saying that unusual\u201d movements of thousands of armed extremists, including fighters from Uzbekistanis, Muslim minority Chechens from Russia, and Muslim Uyghurs from China, were being observed along the Syrian\u2013Lebanese border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tens of thousands of foreign fighters entered Syria illegally to join the US-backed war to topple former president Bashar al-Assad\u2019s government, which began in 2011. The new authorities in Damascus have given some of these Muslim foreigners and mercenaries top positions in the army, and said they are considering giving them Syrian citizenship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syria is an US-backed incubator to draw in and circulate global Islamist militia networks to destabilize countries, including China and Russia, where there are Muslim minorities. Reports of a buildup of Syrian<\/a> army forces near the Lebanese border coincide with new US threats that they could be used against Hezbollah in Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Damascus will now actively assist us in confronting and dismantling the remnants of ISIS, the [Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] IRGC, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist networks, and will stand as a committed partner in the global effort to secure peace,\u201d US envoy Tom Barrack<\/a> said on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the start of the Syrian war, ISIS and Al-Qaeda\u2019s Nusra Front (headed by Sharaa at the time) occupied large swathes of the northern and eastern Lebanese border region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were eventually expelled by Hezbollah and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in 2017.
.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World NOV 13, 2025 The deployments come as part of an alleged \u2018crackdown\u2019 on ISIS cells across Syria, including near the Lebanese border Foreign fighters from the Syrian army have recently been transferred from the country\u2019s north to the border area with Lebanon, sources told The Cradle on 13 November. In recent days, groups of foreign fighters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153084,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153083\/revisions\/153084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}