The militant Shi’ite organization Hezbollah is redeploying its fighters in Syria to help embattled ally Bashar Assad defend Damascus, Lebanese news agency NOW reported Saturday. The report says that the Assad regime is struggling to defeat opposition forces around the Syrian capital.
Quoting Arabic-language pro-opposition website All4Syria, NOW says that Hezbollah fighters and Syrian National Defense Force militiamen are redeploying “en masse” from positions in the mountains west of Zabadani, a former rebel bastion near the Lebanese border that has been reclaimed by Assad-allied forces. Much of Hezbollah’s fighting had been concentrated in that area.
According to NOW, a rebel source told All4Syria that the forces were headed toward Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus, where the rebel fighters have bisected the Damascus-Homs highway, and Darayya, a suburb of the capital that the regime recently failed to retake.
The Lebanese media reported in September that the Lebanon-based Hezbollah planned to shift to a defensive posture after helping Assad win back Zabadani. Officials from the organization informed the Assad regime that they would no longer help with offensives against rebel groups.