The Syrian Ministry of Defense said it had reinforced its border with Lebanon, and eight Syrian and Lebanese sources said this included rocket units and thousands of soldiers as the conflict spread across the region, including between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The sources included five Syrian military officials, one Syrian security official, and two Lebanese security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Syrian Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Wednesday (local time) that the Army had reinforced its forces along the Syrian borders with Lebanon and Iraq as part of efforts to “protect and control the borders amid the growing regional conflict.”
The highlighted units belong to the border guard and reconnaissance battalions tasked with monitoring border activities and fighting smuggling, the ministry added.
The Syrian officials said the Syrian reinforcement operation began in February, but accelerated in recent days. The Syrian and Lebanese Armed Forces did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
The Syrian officials, including a senior military officer, said the move was aimed at preventing the smuggling of weapons and drugs, as well as blocking infiltration into Syria by the Lebanese Hezbollah, backed by Iran, or by other militants.
A Syrian official told Reuters that formations from several divisions of the Syrian Army, including the 52nd and the 84th Divisions, expanded their presence along the border in the western rural area of Homs and south of Tartus.
The reinforcements include infantry units, armored vehicles, and short-range Grad and Katyusha rocket launchers, the official said.
The Syrian security official said Damascus had no plans for military action against any neighboring country. “But Syria is prepared to deal with any threat to its security or that of its partners,” he said.
Nevertheless, the measure fueled concerns among some European and Lebanese authorities about a possible incursion.
The Syrian military officials vehemently denied any such plan, saying that Syria desires balanced relations with its neighbor after decades of tense ties linked to Syria’s disproportionate influence in Lebanon and Hezbollah’s support for the former government of President Bashar al-Assad during a 14-year civil war.
Syria kept troops stationed in Lebanon from 1976 to 2005, including during the Lebanese Civil War that ended in 1990.
Hezbollah renewed attacks against Israel on Monday, more than a year after the ceasefire that ended a war that lasted months in 2024. Since the ceasefire, Israel has continued almost daily attacks.
This week, Israel ordered a large portion of southern Lebanon’s residents to leave the area, with tens of thousands displaced. Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon and in southern Beirut killed dozens and forced thousands to flee to Syria.
A senior Lebanese security official said Syrian authorities informed Beirut that Syria’s deployment of rocket launchers along the mountains forming the eastern border of Lebanon with Syria was a “defensive measure against any action or attack that Hezbollah could launch against Syria.”
