Syrian authorities say they have seized numerous drug farms, warehouses, and drug manufacturing and packaging facilities [Photo by Fadel Itani/NurPhoto via Getty Images]
Syrian authorities announced they have started laying landmines at illegal border crossings and roads with Lebanon following a security sweep of the areas that led to clashes.
The move is aimed at curbing smuggling into Syria and preventing further border-related tensions between the two countries, authorities said.
“After completing the sweeping of the border with Lebanon, we have begun mining all illegal crossings and roads within our borders to prevent smuggling and issues with Lebanon,” the Syrian Military Operations Command said in a statement carried by local media.
The announcement came amid fighting between the Syrian forces affiliated with the new government in Damascus and Lebanese smuggling gangs on the border, particularly in the villages of Hawik, Jermash, Wadi al-Hourani, and Akoum in the western countryside of Homs, Central Syria.
Lieutenant Colonel Moayad al-Salama, commander of the western region in Syria’s border security administration, claimed that most of the gangs were affiliated with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The former regime and Hezbollah turned the border into a major drug trafficking route, bolstering the area with armed gangs, he told state news agency SANA.
During the beginning of Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria in support of the Assad regime, the group took part in major battles against Syrian rebels and secured its presence in the border area, including in the city of Qusayr which it seized from Syrian rebels in 2013.
As a result of the sweeping operations, al-Salama said that the authorities had seized numerous drug farms, warehouses, and drug manufacturing and packaging facilities, along with printing presses used for counterfeiting currency.
Cross-border shipments of weapons and narcotics were confiscated, he added.
Meanwhile, the clashes also spurred on negotiations between the Lebanese government and Syria’s transitional administration, according to sources speaking with The New Arab’s Arabic language service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
“Intensive efforts are underway to restore calm along the Lebanese-Syrian border,” the source said, adding that “Lebanese authorities have issued strict directives to secure the border and remove Lebanese militants, which has been carried out”.
On Sunday the Lebanese army said it had deployed to the Syrian-Lebanon border following clashes with suspected Syrian forces, with a Lebanese army source telling Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that President Joseph Aoun had instructed the military to respond to any gunfire coming from Syria. Syrian authorities deny shelling Lebanon.
