PHOTO: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a televised speech on Friday


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Op-Ed: The Deadly Consequences of Mis-Labeling Rebels


Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said that the Lebanese organization’s campaigns throughout Syria are necessary for the liberation of Jerusalem.

Speaking on Friday on al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, Nasrallah declared, “The road to al-Quds passes through Qalamoun, Zabadani, Homs, Aleppo, Daraa, Hasakah, and Suwaida, because if Syria was lost, Palestine would be lost too.”

Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria since spring 2013 has been essential in propping up the Syrian military and militia. Its fighters gave the Assad regime a badly-needed victory in June 2013 with the capture of Qusayr near the Lebanese border. Two years, Hezbollah is leading an offensive — countering rebel advances in other parts of Syria — in the Qalamoun region from the border to Zabadani, the town northwest of Damascus now under attack by Hezbollah-regime forces.

Nasrallah said on Friday, “Every martyr falling for us in Syria and laid to rest here in Lebanon is a martyr for the sake of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.”

He also made a lengthy defense of Iran, which has also intervened militarily for Assad as well as providing vital economic assistance:

You cannot be with Palestine unless you are with Iran, and if you are an enemy of Iran, you are an enemy of Palestine and Jerusalem. The only entity that Israel considers an existential threat is the Islamic Republic of Iran.

However, the Hezbollah leader insisted that the campaign for President Assad did not seek military victory over the rebels: “Put aside all the foreign fighters in Syria and ask the Syrians, real Syrians….All of them want a political solution to their country and know there is no military solution.”

Activists have responded by mocking Nasrallah’s approach to geography:

NASRALLAH SYRIA QUDS MAP

And they have portrayed the Hezbollah leader chopping down the cedar trees of Lebanon to fuel the fire inside Syria:

NASRALLAH LEBANON SYRIA


Rebels: We Repelled Another Attack on Zabadani, Killed 30+ Hezbollah and Regime Troops

Rebels claim that they repelled another Hezbollah-regime attempt to capture Zabadani, northwest of Damascus, on Friday.

The rebel coalition defending the town, held by the opposition since January 2012, said that they blocked the latest assault from the Zahra Castle. They claimed that more than 30 Hezbollah and Syrian fighters wre killed.

The Hezbollah-regime offensive began last week. State media and pro-Assad outlets claim part of the town has been taken, but confirmation has been sketchy.

Meanwhile, rebels say they have withstood more than 500 shells and rockets, more than 50 barrel bombs, and 30 air raids. Some activists claim that rebel units have counter-attacked and taken Hezbollah-regime checkpoints.

See Syria Daily, July 10: Rebels in Zabadani — “We Will Not Kneel to the Regime”


Kurds Declare Victory Over Islamic State in 2-Month Campaign Across North

The Kurdish YPG militia has declared victory over the Islamic State in a two-month campaign in northern Syria.

Since the start of May, Kurdish forces — assisted by Free Syrian Army units and US airstrikes — have moved along the Turkish border to close a 90-km (56-mile) gap between the Kobane and Cezire cantons, taken Islamic State territory west of the Euphrates River, and advanced south towards the militants’ main Syrian position, the city of Raqqa.

The campaign followed the successful Kurdish resistance at the start of 2015 against a four-month Islamic State attempt to take the Kurds’ center of Kobane on the Turkish border.

The YPG declared, “We believe this great victory will be a firm foundation for a democratic Syria and a free Rojava [Syrian Kurdistan].”

Commenting on latest events, the YPG hailed the successful defense of the town of Ain Issa, between Kobane and Raqqa.

Having taken Ain Issa last month, the Kurdish forces facing an Islamic State counter-attack this week in which the militants briefly occupied part of the town. The assault was repelled after four days.

The Kurdish militia said that, in the past 65 days, more than 1300 Islamic State fighters were killed while the YPG lost 118 men.