Rif Dimashq | Hezbollah deploy in new positions in Sarghaya, and imposes strict security measures on civilians

Reliable sources have informed the Syrian Observatory that groups of the Lebanese Hezbollah have  stationed in new positions in Sarghaya town in Rif Dimashq, near the Syria-Lebanon border. According to SOHR sources, military groups of the Lebanese Hezbollah have seized several farms in barren mountains of Sarghaya town in Al-Kharrabat area, and blocked all agricultural roads to these farms but one where they established a checkpoint with soil and cement barriers. Besides, the military groups camouflaged the heavy weapons at the checkpoint using tree branches and cloths.

 

Moreover, the members of Hezbollah parked their vehicles on the seized farms’ cellars and forced the owners of surrounding farms and orchards to get permits to resume working on their orchards and check their farms, after security check on all farmers and farms’ owners around a farm where a commander of Hezbollah is located with some local members from the area.

 

In mid 2019, SOHR sources reported that the Lebanese Hezbollah continued to prevent tens of families, particularly those belonging to the Sunni community, from returning to Maaloula city in western Qalamoun in the north-east of the capital, Damascus, for the 5th consecutive year. As the Syrian Observatory tracked the developments in the area, several reliable reported that Hezbollah completely exiled one of the city’s largest families, after arresting 15 young man of this family and prosecuting others for “coordinating with Jabhat al-Nusra organization”, which had controlled the city in December 2013. Meanwhile, Hezbollah prevented more than 32 families from returning to their homes in the area, although they lived in regime-controlled areas in Damascus.

 

Furthermore, members and commanders of Hezbollah burnt tens of houses, after these houses’ owners had been displaced to north Syria from the villages of western Qalamoun, under the pretext that “these houses’ owners belonged to Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham and opposition factions”.

 

Also, Hezbollah established military headquarters and security posts at several mosques in the city, the most prominent of which were the Old Mosque and al-Majd Mosque, as well as not allowing the city’s people who were in Maaloula to practice their religious rituals. SOHR sources also reported that Hezbollah, during the previous month, resettled families of its fighters who were deployed in the city in homes of people who had been displaced to north Syria.

 

Hezbollah and affiliated local militias deployed checkpoints and security posts at all entrances of Maaloula, as there were about 30 members with several vehicles, including vehicle with submachine guns installed over them, are stationed at each checkpoint. There were also military barracks in the eastern neighbourhood of the city, and the surrounding areas of the historic monastery Deir Mar Takla (Saint Takla), which is one of the most important tourist Christian landmarks in Syria. Besides, Hezbollah established centers for training its members as well as ammunition depots in the barren mountains of Maaloula.