Hezbollah headaches - Lebanese foreign minister accuses group of inviting Israeli invasion

Fighting was reported along the Lebanon-Syria border overnight, after the new Syrian government accused Hezbollah fighters of kidnapping three Syrian soldiers in Syrian territory, taking them into Lebanon, and killing them there. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that the Hezbollah fighters were likely members of groups used to smuggle weapons, money, and other equipment to Hezbollah. 

The Syrian army responded by shelling villages near the border in the Beqaa Valley area of eastern Lebanon. Early Monday morning, a Syrian soldier was reported killed and several people injured when a rocket, apparently fired by Hezbollah, struck a village on the Syrian-Lebanese border just as a film crew from the Saudi Al Arabiya network were filming an update on the fighting. 

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The Lebanese army deployed large numbers of troops near the border with Syria, as well as heavy artillery, however, the two governments indicated the militaries are communicating with each other to avoid an escalation of the conflict. 

A Lebanese security source told Reuters that the Syrian soldiers crossed into Lebanese territory first and were killed by armed members of a Shia tribe in northeastern Lebanon who feared their town was under attack by the Sunni forces. 

The Lebanese army said it delivered the bodies of the three killed fighters to Syrian authorities on Monday morning. SOHR reported that a fourth Syrian soldier died this morning from wounds he sustained in the attack yesterday. 

Hezbollah denied any official responsibility for the act in a statement, however, the incident took place in an area with a large Shia population that has been very supportive of the terror group. 

Tensions have been high along the border since the fall of Syria's Bashar al-Assad at the hands of the Sunni jihadist forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). There have been several outbreaks of violence between the Syrian military and armed Lebanese Shiite clans in the border village of Al-Qasr. The Shiite clans were closely allied with former Syrian dictator Assad, and helped to smuggle supplies to Hezbollah across the border. 

Meanwhile, newly installed Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Rajii caused a bit of a stir in the country recently, when he accused Hezbollah of “giving the international community an excuse not to pressure Israel.” 

Rajii, who is not friendly towards Israel, was asked about the continued Israel Defense Forces (IDF) presence at five points along the border, and whether it gives support to Hezbollah’s claim to be defending Lebanon. 

When Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem responded by accusing Rajii of providing Israel with the excuse to stay in Lebanese territory, the foreign minister’s office responded with a statement challenging Qassem’s remarks. 

“Yesterday, Sheikh Naim appeared in a statement in which he poured out all his anger on the Lebanese foreign minister for no reason, except for the fact that Reggie [Rajii] told the truth, that there can be reconstruction only under a state that holds the sole decision to wage war, has a monopoly on weapons and expands its control over all Lebanese lands,” the statement said. 

“The one who gives the excuse to Israel is not the foreign minister or the state of Lebanon, but the one who clings to his weapon and divides roles between himself and Israel,” the statement continued. It went on to claim that the foreign minister had not started a war in support of Gaza, “call for the conquest of the Galilee”, or “involve Lebanon in the war that led to the Israeli occupation.”