Syria’s Al Qaeda Branch Intercepts Iranian Drones and Armaments Being Smuggled to Hezbollah in Lebanon

<p >Militias from the Syrian branch of the international terrorist organisation Al Qaeda, the Al Nusra Front, were reported on January 18 to have intercepted a truck carrying components of Shahed-101 single use drones and other armaments to the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah. The truck was detained at the Tartus border crossing, with all contents confiscated. The Al Nusra Front, which rebranded near the beginning of the decade with the name Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), took power in Syria on December 8 working with other Islamist militia groups, after<a href=" > receiving extensive Israeli</a>, Turkish and Qatari government support to pursue a 13 years war effort against the Syrian state. The fall of the Syrian government was seen to represent a major blow against Hezbollah, which had been considered the leading thorn in the side of Israeli, Western and Turkish objectives in the Middle East since the mid-2000s. The paramilitary group had relied heavily on land routes through Syria to receive armaments from Iran and Iraq.</p><p >It is expected that Islamist groups in Syria, which cooperate closely with and are <a href=" target="_blank">supported</a> by multiple advisors from Turkish intelligence, will intensify efforts to assert control over the Syrian-Lebanese border to ensure a full cutting off of Hezbollah’s land supplies. It is also expected that in the event of a future conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, Islamist groups in Syria could open a second front against the Lebanese paramilitary group. Hezbollah is the only military force in Israel’s history to have <a href=" target="_blank">defeated it</a> in a major war, which was achieved in 2006, with the fall of Syria in December 2024 representing a major game changer for the balance of power between the two longstanding adversaries. Hezbollah has proven highly effective in the use of single use drones like the Shahed-101 to launch precision strikes against Israeli targets, often <a href=" target="_blank">causing major casualties</a>, with its significant drone fleet having heavily compensated for its lack of manned aircraft to allow it to go head to head with Israeli forces.</p>