Syrians Capture Hezbollah Operatives and Weapons

The Syrian military has just captured members of a Hezbollah cell in towns near Damascus and seized large caches of weapons belonging to the Shia terror group. There are many reasons for this seizure, which is discussed here: “Syrian government captures Hezbollah cells operating near Israel,” by Seth J. Frantzman, Jerusalem Post, September 11, 2025:

The Syrian transitional government’s Ministry of Interior announced that they have detained a “terrorist cell affiliated with the Hezbollah militia” operating in the towns of Sasa and Kanaker in the western Damascus countryside.

The two towns are around 10 miles from the outskirts of Damascus and also about five miles from the 1974 ceasefire line of Israeli control on the Golan. As such, they are very close to Israel’s current forces operating in the ceasefire zone between Israel and Syria. Sasa is on Route 7, which goes from Damascus to Kfar Arnabeh. Kanaker is a town a mile from Route 7.

According to Syria’s Al-Ikhbariah media, the commander of the Internal Security Forces in the Damascus Countryside Governorate, Brigadier General Ahmed Al-Dalati, “explained that the arrest of the terrorist cell was carried out in cooperation with specialized units and the General Intelligence Service, following close monitoring and intensive field work.”

Dalati was recently moved to command this area of the Damascus countryside after having run security in Suwayda province. His role in Suwayda oversaw the clashes in July and led to a reshuffle in Syrian security forces. This high-profile arrest of Hezbollah activity is one of the first fruits of moving Dalati to the Damascus area.

The report noted, “according to Al-Dalati, initial investigations revealed that the cell members received training in camps inside Lebanese territory and were planning to carry out operations inside Syrian territory that would threaten the security and stability of citizens.”

These operations by Hezbollah, of course, would include attacks launched at Israeli troops now ensconced in several outposts in southern Syria, just north of the Golan, and at Israeli civilians in the northern Galilee. The Syrians want to prevent such attacks because, of course, if carried out, the IDF would immediately respond, and that response could do great damage to Syrian infrastructure at a time when Ahmed al-Sharaa is focusing all of his energies on beginning the rebuilding of Syria, so much of which was destroyed in the Syrian civil war.

In the past, the IDF has attacked Hezbollah cells in southern Syria, near the Golan. Assad, who depended on Iran for military help during the civil long war, was obligated to collaborate with Hezbollah, which has been Iran’s most important proxy in its war with Israel.

In Lebanon, the government of President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has made clear that Hezbollah must surrender its arms so that the Lebanese National Army (also called the Lebanese Armed Forces, or LAF) will be the only authorized military force in the country. Hezbollah refuses, but there are signs that the LNA will now dare to start seizing Hezbollah’s arms. This is now deemed possible only because the IDF has greatly weakened Hezbollah, destroying 80-90% of the terror group’s once-vast arsenal of 150,000 rockets and missiles.

And the “exploding pagers” operation of Mossad has led to nearly 3,000 Hezbollah members being so severely wounded that they are no longer capable of combat. Furthermore, the American government has recently been providing the Lebanese army with weapons worth hundreds of millions of dollars. These include A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft and Huey II helicopters; armored High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs), Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTVs), and Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks (HEMMTs) to support combat logistics. Other military aid to the Lebanese army has included grenade launchers, small arms, night-vision goggles, body armor, and various types of ammunition. At no time has Hezbollah been so weak in Lebanon, nor the Lebanese army so strong.

One problem for the Syrians that limits their ability to confront Hezbollah in the south of the country is, ironically, Israel’s insistence that southern Syria be demilitarized. It is that insistence that keeps Syrian forces weaker than they might be in southern Syria, and thus it is harder for them to challenge Hezbollah. Perhaps the Israelis should for now drop their objection to Syrian troops carrying weapons in southern Syria as long as those weapons are used exclusively against Hezbollah. Once Hezbollah has been disarmed, by both the IDF and the Syrian army working independently, the Israelis can then demand that the Syrians remove all of their weaponry from the area in southern Syria close to the Golan.