Iran-backed militia continue to seize more Syrian lands

Since 2021, Iran-backed militia groups have seized more than 1,900 plots of land in parts of Syria near the Lebanese border, where Hezbollah strike forces are stationed, a new report says.

In a July 11 report, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said non-Syrian Iran-backed militia groups have purchased more than 640 plots of land in and around Zabadani in rural Damascus, adjacent to the Lebanese border.

According to the Observatory, they have also bought about 720 plots near the border village of Tufail in the eastern Bekaa Valley of Lebanon.

Hadi al-Abdullah, a Syrian journalist and activist residing in al-Qusayr, claimed that Hezbollah’s acquisition of land in al-Qalamoun, al-Qusayr, and other towns close to the Syrian-Lebanese border was nothing new.

He told Al-Mashareq that this has been going on ever since the group sponsored by Iran intervened in the Syrian crisis to back Bashar al-Assad’s government.

He said it was obvious that Hezbollah’s goal in joining the al-Qusayr conflict in 2013 was to drive out the area’s original occupants and replace them with people who would be more supportive of the regime and Hezbollah.

Al-Abdullah claimed that Hezbollah had driven out all of the city’s people, including himself, his family, and his relatives from their residences and orchards. “Very few residents are left.”

Al-Abdullah, a field reporter who covered the fight of al-Qusayr, repeatedly warned that Hezbollah intended to alter the demographics of al-Qalamoun and al-Qusayr.

Hezbollah, Iranian militias, and Iranian officials buy land, houses, and resorts in al-Qalamoun to use as summer villas, according to intelligence that is regularly provided to us, he said.

Al-Abdullah claimed that Hezbollah and the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC-QF) have also been acquiring property in Damascus.

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