A security source told LBCI on Sunday that the Syrian army captured the city of Yabroud in Syria’s Qalamoun, after taking control of St. Maron Hill, noting that a large number of gunmen fled toward the town of Rankous and Flita, as well as toward the mountainous region of Lebanon’s Arsal.
In this regard, 13 commanders of al-Nusra Front were killed in a military operation carried out by the Syrian army troops in Yabroud, while the towns of Rankous and Flita remained under the control of the rebels. Meanwhile, sources told LBCI that thousands of gunmen who fled Syria's Yabroud deployed across Arsal's mountainous regions, as the Lebanese Armed Forces started implementing additional security measures. The army "restored security and stability to Yabroud...after eliminating a large number of terrorist mercenaries", the Syrian military said in a statement hailing the strategic victory. A military source told Reuters that about 1,400 rebels from the Free Syrian Army, Ahrar al-Sham and other factions had fled Yabroud in the past two days. Another 1,000 militants from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front had held out on Saturday to fight government forces which had entered eastern districts of Yabroud and captured several hilltops. "They fought a fierce battle and then from last night until the early hours of today they all pulled out," he said. The source said the militants had withdrawn to the nearby villages of Hosh Arab, Fleita and Rankos as well as Arsal, a Lebanese border town 20 km (13 miles) to the northwest. Hezbollah-operated Al Manar television broadcast scenes from Yabroud's main square where people walked around and talked in apparent safety. Soldiers replaced the three-star flag of the Syrian revolution with the government's two-star banner. Footage from earlier in the day showed empty streets, shuttered shops and abandoned homes in a main thoroughfare. Heavy gunfire could be heard in the background. The anti-Assad Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said fighters from the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah, who supported the Syrian army and pro-government fighters in sealing off the frontier area with Lebanon, were now in charge of large parts of Yabroud. "The Nusra Front had a lot of influence in the region, but their influence has now ended," Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Observatory, told Reuters. He said it was unclear where the more than 2,000 foreign fighters in the area had ended up.