Hezbollah Opens Workshops to Repair Drones in Homs Countryside

The highway linking the Syrian capital Damascus to Homs. (AFP)
The highway linking the Syrian capital Damascus to Homs. (AFP)
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Hezbollah Opens Workshops to Repair Drones in Homs Countryside

The highway linking the Syrian capital Damascus to Homs. (AFP)
The highway linking the Syrian capital Damascus to Homs. (AFP)

Lebanon’s Hezbollah has recently established workshops in Syria to manufacture artillery, rockets, and landmines and repair drones and various kinds of weapons, said sources in the southeastern countryside of Homs.

Sources said the workshops were established under the supervision of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) experts in a fortified depot of armories and ammunition in Maheen “strategic” area in the southeastern countryside of Homs, which is the second-largest arms warehouse in Syria.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) sources, many Maheen citizens are now working for local Iranian-backed militias, following the regime and yjr militias’ control of the area in early 2017, supported by Russian aerial bombardment.

Earlier this week, reliable sources informed the war monitor that Russian forces had withdrawn completely from Palmyra military airport in the eastern countryside of Homs.

“All Russian troops left the airport by a military hovercraft before Russian troops pulled their helicopters out of the airport,” the sources said.

However, the nature of this withdrawal remained unidentified. It is not clear whether it is a tactical withdrawal and forces will return anytime, or whether it is a complete withdrawal for specific purposes.

SOHR sources said the Russian helicopters and forces that left Palmyra airport headed to Tifor airport in the countryside of Homs.

Therefore, Hezbollah and Iran-backed Afghan “Fatemiyoun” militia now control the Palmyra military airport, where some regime soldiers and officers are also present.



Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Syrian Youth Will Resist Incoming Government

A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Syrian Youth Will Resist Incoming Government

A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)

Iran's supreme leader on Sunday said that young Syrians will resist the new government emerging after the overthrow of President Bashar sl-Assad as he again accused the United States and Israel of sowing chaos in the country.

Iran had provided crucial support to Assad throughout Syria's nearly 14-year civil war, which erupted after he launched a violent crackdown on a popular uprising against his family's decades-long rule. Syria had long served as a key conduit for Iranian aid to Lebanon's armed group Hezbollah.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in an address on Sunday that the “young Syrian has nothing to lose" and suffers from insecurity following Assad's fall.

“What can he do? He should stand with strong will against those who designed and those who implemented the insecurity," Khamenei said. “God willing, he will overcome them.”

He accused the United States and Israel of plotting against Assad's government in order to seize resources, saying: “Now they feel victory, the Americans, the Zionist regime and those who accompanied them.”

Iran and its armed proxies in the region have suffered a series of major setbacks over the past year, with Israel battering Hamas in Gaza and landing heavy blows on Hezbollah before they agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon last month.

Khamenei denied that such groups were proxies of Iran, saying they fought because of their own beliefs and that Tehran did not depend on them. “If one day we plan to take action, we do not need proxy force,” he said.