The defense ministers of Lebanon and Syria agreed to a cease-fire on March 17 after two days of border clashes that reportedly left at least 10 people dead.
In separate statements, Lebanese Defense Minister Michel Menassa and his Syrian counterpart, Murhaf Abu Qasra, also agreed to maintain contact between the two countries’ militaries to prevent further clashes.
According to Syria’s defense ministry, three members of the country’s military apparatus were killed in the recent cross-border violence.
Lebanon’s health ministry said seven Lebanese civilians were killed—and 52 injured—in two days of clashes near the border.
Late last year, HTS—with Turkish support—led a lightning offensive that effectively toppled the long-ruling regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Despite its terrorist designation, HTS now runs Syria’s post-Assad government, while its leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa (formerly known as Mohamed al-Golani), has been named the country’s interim president.
Before the abrupt collapse of Assad’s government and the disintegration of the national army, Syria had been a key ally of both Tehran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group.
In the three months since HTS assumed power in Damascus, tensions have steadily mounted along Syria’s roughly 245-mile border with Lebanon.
On March 16, Syria’s HTS-run defense ministry accused Hezbollah of crossing the border and abducting three members of Syria’s reconstituted military.
It went on to claim that the three were later killed inside Lebanese territory. Hezbollah denied the accusations.
Other reports have suggested that the three Syrians voluntarily entered Lebanese territory, where they were killed by armed Shiite tribesman who feared an impending attack on their village.
In televised remarks, Hussein Haj Hassan, a Hezbollah-affiliated member of Lebanon’s parliament, said that those from the Syrian side of the border had illegally entered Lebanese territory and attacked several villages.
Syrian authorities responded by shelling Lebanese border towns, according to both Syria’s defense ministry and the Lebanese army.
In a statement, the latter said that it had responded to artillery fire from Syrian territory and had sent its reinforcements to the border area.
It also said that the bodies of the three slain Syrian fighters had been handed over to the Syrian authorities.
On the same day, Syria’s military apparatus had deployed troops and tanks near the Lebanese border.
“Large military reinforcements were brought in to reinforce positions along the ... border and prevent any breaches,” Maher Ziwani, the head of a Syrian army contingent deployed near the border, told Reuters.
Sectarian Violence
Local tensions have escalated since March 7, when the HTS-led military apparatus allegedly killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in Syria’s northwestern coastal region, prompting fears of continued sectarian violence.Most of the victims were from Syria’s minority Alawite community, from which Assad, the ousted president, and his family hailed.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Syrian authorities on March 9 to “hold the perpetrators of these massacres” accountable.
“We won’t accept that any blood be shed unjustly, or goes without punishment or accountability,” he said in a March 10 interview.
While conceding that “many violations occurred” against civilians, Sharaa claimed that the violence had been provoked by elements loyal to the ousted Assad regime.
