Hezbollah acknowledged the deaths of eight fighters and said it would hold funeral processions later Monday for at least two that were killed in the Bekaa Valley town of Labweh.
Security sources said at least 20 Hezbollah fighters were wounded in the clashes that broke out Sunday evening outside the village of Brital. They were taken to hospitals in Baalbek, particularly the Hezbollah-run Dar al-Hikmeh, the sources told The Daily Star.
They said 14 Nusra Front jihadists were killed in the clashes that ebbed around 3 a.m. Monday.
Hezbollah captured five Nusra militants, the sources said.
They said Hezbollah fighters repelled Nusra Front attacks on the party’s two main posts – Ain al-Saaa and Mihfara – on the farthest edge of Brital Sunday afternoon.
Later in the evening, Hezbollah also attacked Nusra hideouts on the outermost edge of Brital.
A source from Hezbollah told The Daily Star that militants had briefly taken over one of the posts but the party swiftly regained control of the site.
“All the fighting is taking place inside Syrian territories as militants are seeking to gain a foothold in Qalamoun, where their presence is weak,” the source said. “They have been launching intermittent attacks.”
The Nusra Front, however, claimed that it had been attacked by Hezbollah. The group tweeted Monday morning that jihadists had repulsed a Hezbollah attack on the outskirts of Nahleh, a village northeast of Baalbek, killing and wounding dozens of fighters from the “resistance and rejectionist party.”
