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The battle at Qalamoun

Hezbollah and the Syrian regime army have been fighting militants for control of the Qalamoun area near the border.
Forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad are seen at al-Sakhra village in Qalamoun Mountains, northeast of Damascus, after taking control of the village from rebel fighters April 14, 2014. Syrian soldiers backed by Hezbollah fighters recaptured the town of Maaloula, north of Damascus, on Monday, military sources and state television said, further squeezing rebels' supply routes through the Qalamoun mountains into Lebanon.   REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA - Tags: MILITARY POLITICS CONFLICT CIVIL UN
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BEIRUT — Clashes have been raging along the Lebanese-Syrian border since May 6 between Hezbollah militants and the Syrian army, on the one hand, and the militants of the Islamic State (IS) and Jabhat al-Nusra, on the other. These clashes are highly significant and might have various outcomes and dimensions for what has become known as the Qalamoun battle. To understand the situation, some factors should be put into perspective.

Qalamoun is a mountainous region along Syria's western border with Lebanon. Its rough barren lands stretch along 600 square kilometers (231 square miles) and includes a mountain range that rises over 2,000 meters above sea level. The region stretches from Syria's Zabadani region in the southwest to an-Nabek in the northeast. Given the area's wide range, it includes a pathway to Damascus in the southeast and to Homs in the north.

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