Press TV- The Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement says its battle to eliminate members of the foreign-sponsored and Takfiri Jabhat Fatah al-Sham – previously known as the Nusra Front – militant group from the Syria-Lebanon border is 85 percent complete as it is continuing its campaign to take their last remaining footholds on the frontier.

Hezbollah’s media bureau announced in a statement on Tuesday that resistance fighters had regained control over Komail plains as well as Hamoudi, Baidar and Shoabat al-Nihla areas on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal, located 124 kilometers (77 miles) northeast of the capital Beirut, on Tuesday.

Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Manar television network later broadcast a video footage, showing the hideout of the self-proclaimed Fatah al-Sham governor of the strategic al-Qalamoun region in Wadi al-Kheil.

Press TV correspondent in Arsal, Mariam Saleh, also said Hezbollah artillery units have been shelling terrorist positions in the area since Tuesday morning as Fatah al-Sham extremists are fleeing to save their lives.

She added that the operation has inflicted heavy losses on militant ranks, noting that Hezbollah fighters have raised the movement’s and the national Lebanese flags in the areas they have dislodged Fatah al-Sham terrorists from.

The Arabic-language al-Joumhouria (The Republic) daily newspaper, quoting an unnamed security source, reported on Monday that the Lebanese army has adopted precautionary measures along Arsal in the wake of suggestions that militants may attempt to kidnap military personnel.


[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="555"] A picture released by the media office of Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement on July 21, 2017 shows an artillery gun firing towards the position of Takfiri militants in Jurud Arsal, a mountainous region bordering Syria.[/caption]
Hezbollah launched a major push last Friday to clear both sides of Lebanon's border with Syria from “armed terrorists.”

In August 2014, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and Daesh terrorist groups overran the eastern Lebanese town of Arsal, killing a number of Lebanese forces. They took 30 soldiers hostage, most of whom have been released.

Since then, Hezbollah and the Lebanese military have been defending Lebanon on the country’s northeastern frontier against foreign-backed terrorist groups from neighboring Syria.

Hezbollah fighters have fended off several Daesh attacks inside Lebanon. They have also been providing assistance to Syrian army forces to counter the ongoing foreign-sponsored militancy.

The movement has accused Israel of supporting Takfiri terrorists operating in the Middle East.

Israel, which continues to occupy Lebanon’s Shebaa Farms and Syria’s Golan Heights, is widely reported to be offering medical help to Takfiri terrorists injured in Syria. In December 2015, British newspaper the Daily Mail said Israel had saved the lives of more than 2,000 Takfiri militants since 2013.