Hezbollah units leave Aleppo to help defeat ISIS in eastern Homs

On Thursday morning, over a hundred Hezbollah fighters left Aleppo in a handful of buses, traveling along the Khanasser highway en route to Homs.

Upon arrival in central Syria, the elite Lebanese fighters will reinforce the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) 5th Legion, 60th Brigade of the 11th Armored Division, 67th Brigade of the 18th Tank Division, National Defence Forces (NDF) and the Al-Badia Commandos Regiment, the latter of which is commanded by Sheikh Sulaiman Al Shawwakh.

The seasoned paramilitary reinforcements will join forces with a Hezbollah contingent already deployed on the axis, active on both the eastern Homs and Palmyra fronts.

Several predominately Shi’ite paramilitary groups are also stationed in the region, including the Iraqi ‘Harakat al-Nujaba’ and Afghani ‘Liwa Fatemiyoun’.

These foreign factions – sometimes accused of sectarianism – nevertheless fight alongside the mostly Sunni SAA and NDF against hardline ISIS jihadists. A checkpoint set up on the M-20 highway by Liwa Fatemiyoun overlooking Palmyra Castle can be found below:

The Hezbollah unit was freed from service in the southern Aleppo countryside after a safe-zone agreement was brokered in the region by Turkey, Russia and Iran.