Syrian areas loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were quiet and calm on the evening of Wednesday, June 5, the same as they have been on any other evening for the past 27 months that this violent war that plagues the country has gone on.

But, in contrast, Beirut’s southern suburb, the main stronghold of Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah, was the scene of unusual occurrences: streets filled with car convoys and thousands of jubilant young men firing their weapons in the air, as sweets were distributed to passersby on the roads. The occasion for this celebration? The fall of the Syrian city of Qusair!

Any observer watching these events cannot fail to see that the identity of the victor in that Syrian town — situated a few kilometers northeast of the Lebanese border — is none other than Hezbollah. It led the battle, and thus it deserves the victory. Hezbollah is the most affected by its results and aftermath, and beyond its aftermath, as the party’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah is famous for saying.

Sources with knowledge of the events told Al-Monitor that the next few days will reveal many military and front-line facts concerning that battle, the quick resolution of which can be attributed to several tactical factors. First is the overwhelming firepower employed by the Syrian army against the last pockets of opposition militants and Jabhat al-Nusra fighters. Second is the pinpointing and targeting of the hiding places used by commanders of the main fighting factions, as well as the destruction of the central operational command of Jabhat al-Nusra jihadists, who lead the opposition in the city. These two factors damaged the command-and-control capability of the militants, and devastated their ability to communicate. These developments occurred as the siege imposed upon the militants began to take its toll, especially on their ability to provide themselves with fuel, while their human losses escalated to unsustainable levels.