A photo taken from Lebanon shows Syrian officials inspecting damage on the Syrian side of the Daboussieh border crossing after an Israeli airstrike, Nov. 27, 2024. (Credit: Fathi al-Masri/AFP)
The offensive launched on Nov. 27 by Syrian opposition forces who have seized two major cities in Syria, comes at a time when Lebanon continues to endure Israeli attacks in the South. However, forecasts indicate that the strategic city of Homs may in turn fall to the rebels, bringing them a step closer to the Lebanese border towns in the north-east. In this context, the fear of seeing a replay of the 2014 scenario — which led to the influx of several hundred thousand displaced Syrians, including elements affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State — is very real. One of the first manifestations of this fear was the dispatch on Thursday night by Hezbollah, according to Reuters, of some of its elite forces to Homs, to help Syrian troops block the road to the rebels and prevent them from gaining access to Homs. The city is some 30...
The offensive launched on Nov. 27 by Syrian opposition forces who have seized two major cities in Syria, comes at a time when Lebanon continues to endure Israeli attacks in the South. However, forecasts indicate that the strategic city of Homs may in turn fall to the rebels, bringing them a step closer to the Lebanese border towns in the north-east. In this context, the fear of seeing a replay of the 2014 scenario — which led to the influx of several hundred thousand displaced Syrians, including elements affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State — is very real. One of the first manifestations of this fear was the dispatch on Thursday night by Hezbollah, according to Reuters, of some of its elite forces to Homs, to help Syrian troops block the road to the rebels and prevent them from gaining access to Homs. The city is some 30...
