Our journey begins at a small Shia mosque outside the Lebanese hill village of Qasr, 10km to the strategic Syrian town of Qusayr retaken on June 5th by the Syrian army bolstered by seasoned Hizbullah fighters. Usama, our driver and guide, flashes an identity card at the Lebanese checkpoint before plunging the Jeep along the narrow winding back road to Qusayr. No passports are shown, no questions asked.
We whizz past fields of stumpy golden wheat, cherry and apricot orchards, olives and figs, jouncing over potholes, slowing for a bailey bridge over the fast-flowing Orontes River that irrigates this rich agricultural area.
Usama, a portly young local, says, “Hizbullah first came here to defend 25 Lebanese villages on the Syrian side of the border and had to take part in the battle for Qusayr because the extremists were kidnapping, looting, and killing Lebanese.”