On July 1, unidentified gunmen attacked a checkpoint of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in the town of Talfita in the Western Qalamun region along the border with Lebanon.
According to opposition sources, the gunmen, who were armed with assault rifles, attacked the checkpoint in the early morning. The clashes lasted for a half hour. Eventually, the gunmen escaped.
As a result of the attack, a service member, identified as Hilal Ottoman, was killed and three others were wounded. One of the wounded service members is reportedly in a critical condition.
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After the attack, the SAA and security forces dispatched large reinforcements to Talfita. Units of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which is active in Western Qalamun, also patrolled the region.
The Western Qalamun region was a stronghold of al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, which is now known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham. The SAA and Hezbollah liberated the region in a joint operation in 2013.
The Talfita attack was not the first operation against government forces near Lebanon’s border. In December of last year, a similar attack targeted a checkpoint of the army in the town of Rankos in the Eastern Qalamun Region. Within a few weeks after this, the perpetrators were eliminated in a special operation.
