BEIRUT: The Nusra Front was seeking to drain Hezbollah’s resources and secure supply lines in its brazen attack on Hezbollah outposts over the weekend, experts say.
“The Nusra Front is specifically seeking to bleed Hezbollah as much as possible, create new supply lines, and regain control of Arsal and adjacent areas to recreate a command center that would be used to target Hezbollah’s interests across the country,” said Bilal Saab, a senior fellow for Middle East Security at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcraft Center on International Security.
For weeks, battles have raged along the porous border between forces loyal to the Syrian regime, including Hezbollah, and various Syrian opposition factions. The calm of West Bekaa towns is not infrequently punctuated by the distant echoes of blasts, which residents say come from border clashes.