Head Of Syrian Jihadi Group Calls Rebel Factions To Join Forces To Eliminate Lebanese Hizbullah

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On June 22, 2024, Major Jamil Al-Saleh, commander of Syrian jihadi group Jaysh Al-'Izzah, commented on a report by the British daily The Guardian,[1] translated into Arabic by Qatar's Al-Jazeera,[2] that an escalation of the war between Israel and Lebanese Hizbullah "looms." Jaysh Al-'Izzah is a member of the Al-Fath Al-Mubin operations room based in the rebel-controlled Idlib area of northwestern Syria, which includes Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) and a few other rebel factions.

Al-Saleh wrote on X (formerly Twitter): "For years we have been fighting the Party of Satan [ a pejorative term for Hizbullah, whose name means 'The Party of Allah'] to defend our land and holy sites, on behalf of all the free people of the world. Now all the forces of the world are joining together to uproot this cancer from southern Lebanon. Isn’t this atmosphere conducive to cracking down on the remnants of this cancer in southern Lebanon, the Hama countryside, western Aleppo countryside, and Syrian coast? Isn’t it incumbent on the dozens of factions in northern and southern [Syria] to seize this opportunity, circumvent international agreements, and try to change the status quo?"[3]

The Iran-backed Hizbullah maintains a military presence in various parts of Syria, where it fights alongside Assad regime forces against rebel factions.[4] The Al-Fath Al-Mubin operations room has fought Hizbullah forces, most recently claiming killing three of the group's operatives in a commando-style raid in March 2023 in the countryside west of Aleppo.[5]