The Qalamoun offensive (2014) was launched by the Syrian Army, in coordination with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, during the Syrian Civil War against remnant rebel forces following the previous Battle of Qalamoun which resulted in the military securing all of the towns in the region.
In mid-November 2013, the Syrian military, backed up by Hezbollah, launched an offensive against the rebel-held Qalamoun Mountains in an attempt to cut rebel supply lines to Damascus from Lebanon.[18] The strategic region had been used by rebel forces as a rear base for its operations around the capital Damascus.[19] The battle was primarily led on the rebel side by the Al-Nusra Front.[20] By late April 2014, the last major rebel stronghold in the region fell to the military as it secured all of the towns in the region.[21] However, 3,000 rebels retreated into the mountains to conduct guerrilla hit-and-run attacks.[1]
Offensive
Surrounding of Tfail
On 14 June, a rebel commander claimed that 29 Hezbollah fighters were killed (11 by an ambush) in and around Rankous over a period of two days. Hezbollah sources confirmed that fighting was taking place in Rankous.[22][23]
Four days later, the Army advanced to within a kilometer from the Lebanese border village of Tfail, which is surrounded on three sides by Syria, with fears that government forces, including Hezbollah, would tighten their grip on the village.[24] On 21 June, the military captured the Syrian territory surrounding the village as 70 rebels surrendered. This advance left the outskirts of Tfail on the Syrian side under Syrian Army control. Rebels in the village were allowed to return to Syria along with their families.[25] That morning, Hezbollah fighters entered Tfail in search of opposition fighters reportedly seeking refuge in the village.[26]
On 22 June, government forces launched an assault on the foothills of the Qalamoun mountains and state TV claimed the troops had captured some hills overlooking the Rankous plain and cut the route used by rebels to periodically return to the region. At this point, it was confirmed 14 Hezbollah fighters had been killed in the previous two weeks in the area. The rebels had been hiding in the heights and caves after the offensive, but started to conduct hit-and-run attacks on government positions in the previous weeks and managing to retake some positions.[27]
On 27 June, Syrian state TV stated that government forces captured areas near the Lebanese border, cutting rebel supply lines. Syrian troops had also reached the edge of Tfail.[28]
Battle for the hills
In mid-July, Hezbollah started an operation to clear the border area of remnant rebel forces. At the start of the operation, Hezbollah forces were ambushed but soon called up reinforcements.[29] After two days of fighting, Hezbollah took control of the hills near the Lebanese village of Youneen. It was confirmed 6–7 Hezbollah and 17–32 rebel fighters were killed and 31 Hezbollah and 23 rebel fighters were wounded. 14 rebels were also captured.[30][31] According to another report, Hezbollah lost 14 fighters, while 104 rebels of the Al-Nusra Front were killed and 40 rebels were captured.[32][33]
Days later, another round of fighting along the outskirts of Arsal and the Lebanese town of Al-Fakiha left two Hezbollah militiamen and dozens of rebels dead, with an additional seven rebels captured.[31] The Syrian army unleashed rocket salvos on rebel pockets as warplanes provided aerial cover for Hezbollah fighters working to cut off supply routes from Arsal.[34] A security source confirmed more than 100 people had been killed since the start of the Hezbollah operation, including an aid to the rebel spokesman of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades.[35]
In one instance during the battle for the hills, a Hezbollah squad seized a hill, east of the Lebanese village of Nahle, from the rebels. They were then replaced with a 40-man unit that lacked ammunition and radio batteries. Soon, 250 Syrian rebels launched a counter-attack, using the rugged terrain to approach right up to the Hezbollah positions. At one point, the rebels were only 10 meters from the Hezbollah fighters. The five-hour battle ended after Hezbollah reinforcements arrived, who were alerted to the battle by the sound of gunfire, and the rebel attack was repelled. 10 Hezbollah militiamen were killed and 20 wounded.[36]
On 25 July, the Syrian air force struck rebel forces east of Arsal, killing 20 rebels.[8] Two days later, Hezbollah repelled an attempt by rebels to capture a strategic hill between Arsal and Flitah.[37]
By the end of July, Hezbollah captured the hills around rebel hideouts in both the Qalamoun region and in the mountains bordering Shiite villages in northeastern Lebanon, thus establishing a siege on the rebel forces. Hezbollah monitored the rebel supply lines and fired at any groups attempting to provide the rebels with aid.[2]
During the night between 1 and 2 August,[38] government troops, backed up by Hezbollah militiamen, ambushed rebel forces near the town of al-Jobeh, around 10km from the border. The attack also included artillery strikes. As a result of the ambush, 50–170 rebels[39] and 7[38]–11 government fighters, including 2 Hezbollah members, were killed.[39] Other sources claimed 200 rebels, 20 soldiers and two Hezbollah militiamen were killed.[9]
On 2 August, after Lebanese security forces arrested an Al-Nusra Front commander, Syrian rebels surrounded Lebanese Army checkpoints in the region before attacking them and storming Arsal's police station.[40] The rebels than proceeded to take control of the town.[41] 16 policemen were taken hostage,[42] as well as two soldiers who were freed by the military later in the day.[40] The fighting continued into the next day.[43]
On 4 August, the military had advanced and captured[12] the technical institute building, which was seized by the militants the previous day,[44] as the town came under heavy shell fire from multiple directions.[45] In the evening, the Army also managed to capture Ras al-Serj hill.[16]
On 5 August, the military was attempting to capture two government buildings.[16] During the day's fighting, the ISIS commander for the Arsal area was reportedly killed,[4] while al-Nusra forces retreated from the town.[46] In the evening, a 24-hour cease-fire started.[41]
By 7 August, ISIS forces had also retreated from the town and a fragile truce was established and redeployed along the border with Syria.[3][47][48] Their hideouts there were subsequently bombed by the Syrian Air Force, resulting in dozens of wounded militants.[49] Two days later, the Lebanese Army entered Arsal in full force and re-established control over checkpoints that the militants had previously seized. By this point, the military death toll had risen to 18,[50] which was updated to 19 by 12 August. 60 militants were also confirmed dead,[10] as well as 42 civilians. The total number of civilians wounded was estimated at 400.[51]
The arrival of an ISIS expeditionary force in December 2014, lead to a wave of FSA defections into ISIS numbering in the hundreds, further boosting the Islamic State's presence in the region, which reached approximately 1,000 fighters. Al-Nusra maintained 600 militants in Qalamoun's eastern areas, forging an alliance with ISIS in the region.[52]
On 4 January 2015, ISIS captured the village of Flita, but a joint government and Hezbollah counter-attack recaptured the village.[53] On 23 January 2015, Lebanese armed forces closed the Jdaydet Yabous border crossing, following clashes during which rebels captured a Lebanese military base at Tallet al-Hamra. The following day, the rebels also seized a Syrian Army base adjacent to the crossing.[52]
In late January 2015, ISIS announced its intention to further reinforce its positions in the Qalamoun region, in order to gain a launch pad for future operations in Lebanon. Sheikh Ahmed Assir was also appointed as an ISIS emir in Lebanon.[52]
Between 25 and 28 March 2015, the Syrian Army and Hezbollah captured two hills near Flita and several others in the Zabadani region. The fighting left 30 rebels dead. The Lebanese Army also seized some positions on the outskirts of Arsal from jihadist fighters.[54][55] By 3 April, the Syrian military had advanced on three axes towards Zabadani, securing the western and eastern approaches to the city, and relatively paralyzing the defending rebels. 15 al-Nusra fighters attempting to reinforce the rebels in Zabadani were killed trying to breach the cordon.[56]
In mid-April, opposition forces captured a strategic hill overlooking Flita that had been held by Hezbollah fighters.[57] At this time, Hezbollah was preparing for a new offensive, considered to be a decisive battle for Qalamoun,[54] while the rebels were making efforts to unite different warring opposition groups in an effort to take control of the Qalamoun region.[57] However, ISIS and al-Nusra were still competing to win over communities in the Arsal area and the rebels in both Zabadani’s mountains range and in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains switched from offense to defense. They were preparing trenches, tunnels, bunkers and barricades in anticipation of a possible battle in the spring.[56]
In late April, a series of Israeli Air Force airstrikes (April 2015 Qalamoun incident) hit targets and bases in the Qalamoun region, killing several Syrian soldiers and Hezbollah members.[58] Also, 6 Hezbollah members were reportedly killed in an al-Nusra Front ambush.[59]
In early May, al-Nusra Front and allied Islamists launched a preemptive attack against SAA and Hezbollah forces, capturing several positions.[60] The same day, Hezbollah ambushed an al-Nusra convoy near Tfail, killing 15 and wounding 30 militants.[61] A few days later, the Syrian Army and Hezbollah seized control of a number of hilltops overlooking Assal al-Ward, reportedly killing dozens of rebels.[62] At the same time, Hezbollah reportedly decided following an in-depth military assessment study to cancel their long-awaited offensive in the region after determining there was no need for a costly assault and instead to focus on cutting off all access ISIS and the al-Nusra Front might have to any Lebanese or Syrian towns.[60] Also, the Army of Conquest announced a branch in Qalamoun that would battle both the SAA, Hezbollah and ISIS.[63]
Between 2011 and 2017, fighting from the Syrian civil war spilled over into Lebanon as opponents and supporters of the Syrian Arab Republic traveled to Lebanon to fight and attack each other on Lebanese soil. The Syrian conflict stoked a resurgence of sectarian violence in Lebanon, with many of Lebanon's Sunni Muslims supporting the rebels in Syria, while many of Lebanon's Shi'a Muslims and some Lebanon's Christians supporting the Ba'athist government of Bashar Al-Assad, whose Alawite minority is usually described as a heterodox offshoot of Shi'ism. Killings, unrest and sectarian kidnappings across Lebanon resulted.
The Lebanese–Syrian border clashes were a series of clashes on the Lebanon–Syria border caused by the ongoing Syrian Civil War.
The Rif Dimashq offensive was a Syrian government forces and allies offensive in the Rif Dimashq Governorate, that was launched in mid-September 2013, as part of the Syrian Civil War.
The Battle of Qalamoun started on 15 November 2013, with air strikes on the town of Qara, in the strategic Qalamoun region, in an attempt by the Syrian Army to cut rebel supply lines to Damascus from Lebanon. The strategic region had been used by rebel forces as a rear base for its operations around the capital Damascus. For its part, government forces had been using the nearby highway to link Damascus with the central Homs province and had multiple weapons depots in the area. The battle was primarily led on the rebel side by the Al-Nusra Front.
Following the outbreak of the protests of Syrian revolution during the Arab Spring in 2011 and the escalation of the ensuing conflict into a full-scale civil war by mid-2012, the Syrian Civil War became a theatre of proxy warfare between various regional powers such as Turkey and Iran. Spillover of the Syrian civil war into the wider region began when the Iraqi insurgent group known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) started intervening in the conflict in 2012.
On 2 August 2014, after Lebanese security forces arrested an al-Nusra Front commander, fighters from al-Nusra Front and ISIL surrounded Lebanese Army checkpoints in Arsal before attacking them and storming the northeastern town's police station, where they took at least 16 policemen hostage. The militants then proceeded to take control of the town, and captured two soldiers who were freed by the military later in the day. The fighting continued into the next day and left 30 militants, 10 soldiers and two civilians dead. 25 soldiers were wounded and 13 were missing and presumed captured. Two of the missing soldiers were rescued the same day.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war from August to December 2014. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
The Deir ez-Zor offensive was executed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS, against all other opposition forces in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate as part of the Inter-rebel conflict during the Syrian Civil War.
The following lists some remarkable events that happened in 2014 in Lebanon on a monthly basis.
From its inception, the Syrian Civil War has produced and inspired a great deal of strife and unrest in the nation of Lebanon. Prior to the Battle of Arsal in August 2014, the Lebanese Army has tried to keep out of it and the violence has been mostly between various factions within the country and overt Syrian involvement has been limited to airstrikes and occasional accidental incursions. Since then, the Lebanese armed forces have taken a major part in the frey within Lebanon, and there have been jihadist attempts at invasion which have been repulsed by both the Army and Hezbullah.
The Sham Liberation Army, originally called the Sham Liberation Brigade, is an armed rebel group active in the Syrian Civil War. It was founded and is led by Firas Bitar, a former Syrian Army captain who defected from the Syrian Army in 2012. Until 2016, its sole opponent was the Syrian Armed Forces and its allied militias; it rejected any fighting with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant until ISIL attacked its fighters in February 2016.
Hezbollah involvement in the Syrian civil war has been substantial since the beginning of armed insurgency phase of the Syrian civil war in 2011, and evolved into active support for Syrian government forces and troop deployment from 2012 onwards. By 2014, Hezbollah was deployed across Syria. Hezbollah has also been very active in preventing Al-Nusra Front and Islamic State penetration into Lebanon, being one of the most active forces in the Syrian civil war spillover in Lebanon.
The Qalamoun offensive was an offensive led by the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah, supported by the Syrian Army, during the Syrian Civil War, against the al-Nusra Front and other Syrian opposition forces entrenched in the mountains of the Qalamoun region.
The Battle of Zabadani (2015) started in early July 2015, during the Syrian Civil War, as a military offensive launched by the Syrian Army, and Hezbollah to capture the rebel-held town of Al-Zabadani.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to July 2015. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
The 2015 Zabadani ceasefire agreement between Syrian opposition forces and the Syrian Armed Forces was achieved on 24 September 2015, with mediation from the United Nations, following the Battle of Zabadani (2015). The agreement was fulfilled in April 2017.
The Qalamoun offensive (2017) was a military operation launched by Hezbollah, the Syrian Armed Forces, and later the Lebanese Armed Forces, against members of Tahrir al-Sham and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on the Lebanon–Syria border. The Lebanese Army denied any coordination with Hezbollah or the Syrian Army.
Opposition–ISIL conflict during the Syrian Civil War started after fighting erupted between Syrian opposition groups and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). In early January 2014, serious clashes between the groups erupted in the north of the country. Opposition groups near Aleppo attacked ISIL in two areas, Atarib and Anadan, which were both strongholds of the fundamentalist Sunni organization. Despite the conflict between ISIL and other rebels, one faction of ISIL has cooperated with the al-Nusra Front and the Green Battalion to combat Hezbollah in the Battle of Qalamoun. By 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant 
Al-Nusra Front 
Lebanon 
