(JNi.media) Eyewitnesses have reported that Hezbollah forces in Al-Zabadani, on Lebanon’s border with southwestern Syria, have begun distributing gas masks to their fighters on this front.
Apparently, the Hezbollah Command estimates that as their pressure on ISIS rebel forces besieged in Al-Zabadani increases, so will the chance that ISIS will try more desperate measures to alleviate the pressure.
In May and June, ISIS forces launched a surprise, fierce attack on Hezbollah forces in Jabal Qalamun, some 45 miles east of Al-Zabadani, in order to force Hezbollah to move troops from Zabadani to Qalamun, to eases the pressure on the defenders of Zabadani.
The fighting between Hezbollah and ISIS has become an all-out, savage war, without rules or restrictions, and there have been several unconfirmed reports that ISIS is using chemical weapons against its opponents in Syria.
Back in February, Islamist fighters in Libya captured chemical weapons from storage areas in southern and central parts of the country, according to several reports in the Arab media. A Libyan military official told the London-based daily Asharq al-Awsat that “before his death, Gaddafi left approximately one thousand cubic tons worth of material used for manufacturing chemical weapons and about 20,000 cubic tons of mustard gas.”
Those stockpiles also included the nerve agent Sarin, the Syrian Army’s favorite last-resort weapon. It was estimated at the time that some of the Libyan chemical weapons found their way to Hezbollah hands, as well as to the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah casualties in Al-Zabadani are mounting, according to reports, and the organization has inaugurated a new cemetery near the town.
The “Syrian Rebels Gathering” Facebook page published the list of casualties in Syria for the holy month of Ramadan that just ended, a month when, traditionally, wars are not waged.
1,689 were killed in Syria during Ramadan, 1,394 of them civilians, 176 children. These figures do not include non-Syrian combatants.
Some estimates suggest Hezbollah casualties in Syria have reached 1,000 as of last June.