Lebanese Army reinforces its deployment along Syrian border

The Lebanese Army established checkpoints and conducted patrols as part of strict security measures, with significant deployments along border areas in Akkar, northern Lebanon, and across various villages and towns near Syria, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Friday.

These enhanced measures were implemented as thousands of people fled the central Syrian city of Homs overnight and into Friday morning, according to a war monitoring group and residents, as rebel forces advanced their rapid offensive against government forces further south, Reuters reported Friday.

Rebel forces have already captured the key cities of Aleppo in the north and Hama in central Syria, delivering successive blows to President Bashar al-Assad, nearly 14 years after protests against his rule erupted across the country.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, reported that thousands of people began fleeing on Thursday night toward western coastal regions, a government stronghold.

The Israeli army announced it had reinforced the mobilization of its air and infantry forces in the occupied Golan Heights due to advances by rebels in Syria, according to a message posted on X by the army's Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee.

Meanwhile, Jordan announced the closure of its border with Syria.