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Lebanese Gangs Control Crossings on Syria Border

Lebanese-Syrian border crossing (Central News Agency)
Lebanese-Syrian border crossing (Central News Agency)
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Lebanese Gangs Control Crossings on Syria Border

Lebanese-Syrian border crossing (Central News Agency)
Lebanese-Syrian border crossing (Central News Agency)

The story of Lebanese Forces coordinator Pascal Sleiman’s murder on April 7 is still unfolding. His body was found in a Syrian village near Lebanon’s Hermel district, where stolen cars often cross into Syria from Lebanon due to lax border control.

This incident isn’t isolated; investigations show the perpetrators moved freely from Jbeil to Lebanese villages near Hermel.

Recently, during daylight hours, unidentified individuals kidnapped Syrian Mohammed Ghasab on the international road between the Lebanese towns of Riyaq and Baalbek, near Brital town’s entrance.

They took him into Syria through an illegal crossing, having lured him via social media ads about traveling to Europe. The General Directorate of Internal Security Forces had warned against such traps set by professional gangs.

Ghasab’s wife, Nariman Al-Munawar, received a ransom demand of $35,000 to release him, with instructions to send photos of the cash.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Al-Munawar reaffirmed that she’s struggling to provide for her five children and wonders how she’ll come up with the ransom money.

Lebanon still struggles to control its border with Syria, where Syrian villages have become havens for criminal gangs involved in drug trafficking, car theft, and even human trafficking.

These areas, inhabited mostly by Lebanese, operate independently from state control.

They're connected to Lebanon and Syria by 17 illegal crossings, each with names like Alam Crossing and Nasser al-Din Crossing.

Lebanese authorities can only access these areas by coordinating with Syrian security, and vice versa.

Around 8,000 people live in these villages.

An unnamed security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that smuggling of humans, food, and stolen cars between Syria and Lebanon is rampant through these border crossings.

Gangs dealing in drugs and weapons operate freely in these areas, with visible weapons and no authority to stop them.

This activity spans a 22-kilometer border stretch from Al-Qaa to Saqiet al-Jisr, reaching the North Lebanon Governorate’s borders.

Despite efforts to control the borders, the situation remains chaotic.

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Arab World

US Forces Withdraw from Syria's Al-Tanf Base

An American soldier shakes hands with a member of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the Al-Tanf region - December 28, 2024 (US Army)
An American soldier shakes hands with a member of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the Al-Tanf region - December 28, 2024 (US Army)
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US Forces Withdraw from Syria's Al-Tanf Base

An American soldier shakes hands with a member of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the Al-Tanf region - December 28, 2024 (US Army)
An American soldier shakes hands with a member of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the Al-Tanf region - December 28, 2024 (US Army)

US forces have withdrawn to Jordan from Syria's Al-Tanf base, where they had been deployed as part of the international coalition against the ISIS group, two Syrian military sources told AFP on Wednesday.

One source said "the American forces withdrew entirely from Al-Tanf base today" and decamped to another in Jordan, adding Syrian forces were being deployed to replace them.

A second source confirmed the withdrawal, adding the Americans had been moving equipment out for the past 15 days.

The second source said the US troops would "continue to coordinate with the base in Al-Tanf from Jordan".

During the Syrian civil war and the fight against ISIS, US forces were deployed in the country's Kurdish-controlled northeast and at Al-Tanf, near the borders with Jordan and Iraq.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had been a major partner of the anti-ISIS coalition, and were instrumental in the group's territorial defeat in Syria in 2019.

However, after the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad over a year ago, the United States has drawn closer to the new government in Damascus, recently declaring that the need for its alliance with the Kurds had largely passed.

Syria agreed to join the anti-ISIS coalition when President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited the White House in November.

As Sharaa's authorities seek to extend their control over all of Syria, the Kurds have come under pressure to integrate their forces and de facto autonomous administration into the state, striking an agreement to do so last month after losing territory to advancing government troops.

Since then, the US has been conducting an operation to transfer around 7,000 suspected extremists from Syria -- where many were being held in detention facilities by Kurdish fighters -- to neighboring Iraq.

Following the withdrawal from Al-Tanf and the government's advances in the northeast, US troops are mainly now based at the Qasrak base in Hasakeh, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Despite ISIS's territorial defeat, the group remains active.

It was blamed for a December attack in Palmyra in which a lone gunman opened fire on American personnel, killing two US soldiers and a US civilian.

Washington later conducted retaliatory strikes on ISIS targets in Syria.

Arab World

UN: Syria's President and 2 Top Ministers Were Targets of 5 Foiled Assassination Attempts

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa gestures speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 28 January 2026. MAXIM SHIPENKOV/Pool via REUTERS
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa gestures speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 28 January 2026. MAXIM SHIPENKOV/Pool via REUTERS
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UN: Syria's President and 2 Top Ministers Were Targets of 5 Foiled Assassination Attempts

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa gestures speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 28 January 2026. MAXIM SHIPENKOV/Pool via REUTERS
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa gestures speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 28 January 2026. MAXIM SHIPENKOV/Pool via REUTERS

Syria’s president, interior minister and foreign minister were the targets of five foiled assassination attempts last year, the UN chief said in a report on threats posed by ISIS militants released Wednesday.

The report said President Ahmad al-Sharaa was targeted in northern Aleppo, the country’s most populous province, and southern Daraa by a group assessed to be a front for the ISIS group.

The report, issued by Secretary-General António Guterres and prepared by the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, gave no dates or details of the attempts against al-Sharaa or Syrian Interior Minister Anas Hasan Khattab and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani.

The assassination attempts are more evidence that the militant group remains intent on undermining the new Syrian government and “actively exploiting security vacuums and uncertainty” in Syria, the report said.

It said al-Sharaa was “assessed to be a primary target” of the ISIS. And it said the front group provided ISIS with plausible deniability and "improved operational capacity.”

Al-Sharaa has led Syria since his opposition forces ousted longtime Syrian President Bashar Assad in December 2024, ending a 14-year civil war.

In November, his government joined the international coalition formed to counter the ISIS group, which once controlled a large part of Syria.

The UN counter-terrorism experts said the militant group still operates across the country, primarily attacking security forces, particularly in the north and northeast.

In one ambush attack on Dec. 13 on US and Syrian forces near Palmyra, two US servicemen and an American civilian were killed and three Americans and three members of Syria's security forces were wounded. President Donald Trump retaliated, launching military operations to eliminate ISIS fighters.

According to the UN counter-terrorism experts, the ISIS group maintains an estimated 3,000 fighters across Iraq and Syria, the majority of them based in Syria.

The US military in late January began transferring ISIS detainees who were held in northeastern Syria to Iraq to ensure they remain in secure facilities. Iraq has said it will prosecute the militants.

Syrian government forces had taken control of a sprawling camp housing thousands of ISIS detainees following the withdrawal of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces as part of a ceasefire with the Kurdish fighters.

The report released Wednesday to the UN Security Council said as of December, before the ceasefire deal, more than 25,740 people remained in the al-Hol and Roj camps in the northeast, more than 60% of them children, with thousands more in other detention centers.

Arab World

Lebanon to Decide on Plan to Control Arms North of Litani Next Week, Minister Says

FILE PHOTO: Lebanese army members stand on a military vehicle during a Lebanese army media tour, to review the army's operations in the southern Litani sector, in Alma Al-Shaab, near the border with Israel, southern Lebanon, November 28, 2025. REUTERS/Aziz Taher/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Lebanese army members stand on a military vehicle during a Lebanese army media tour, to review the army's operations in the southern Litani sector, in Alma Al-Shaab, near the border with Israel, southern Lebanon, November 28, 2025. REUTERS/Aziz Taher/File Photo
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Lebanon to Decide on Plan to Control Arms North of Litani Next Week, Minister Says

FILE PHOTO: Lebanese army members stand on a military vehicle during a Lebanese army media tour, to review the army's operations in the southern Litani sector, in Alma Al-Shaab, near the border with Israel, southern Lebanon, November 28, 2025. REUTERS/Aziz Taher/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Lebanese army members stand on a military vehicle during a Lebanese army media tour, to review the army's operations in the southern Litani sector, in Alma Al-Shaab, near the border with Israel, southern Lebanon, November 28, 2025. REUTERS/Aziz Taher/File Photo

Lebanon’s ‌government will decide next week how to move to the second phase of a plan to extend its authority and place all arms under state control in areas north of the Litani River, its information minister said on Wednesday.

The decision will be based on a presentation by the army outlining its needs and capabilities, the minister, Paul Morcos, told reporters during a visit to Kuwait, where he was attending an ‌Arab meeting.

The ‌Lebanese army said in January that ‌it ⁠had taken operational control ⁠in the area between the Litani River and the border with Israel. The cabinet asked the army to brief it in early February on how to pursue disarmament in other parts of the country, Reuters reported.

"We have completed the first phase, south of the ⁠Litani River. Next week the government will ‌take a decision regarding the ‌second phase considering what the army commander sets out ‌in terms of needs and capabilities, so that ‌we can decide accordingly, based on that explanation," Morcos said.

Lebanon has been seeking to place all arms under state control, in line with a November 2024 US-brokered ceasefire that ended ‌a war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

Morcos ruled out ⁠the ⁠possibility of any confrontation between the Lebanese army and Hezbollah, saying the objective was "to extend state authority and achieve stability, and insofar as these goals can be achieved together, we will proceed".

Israel has carried out regular strikes in Lebanon since the end of the war with Hezbollah, killing around 400 people since the ceasefire, according to a toll from Lebanese security sources.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of seeking to rearm in violation of the ceasefire agreement with Lebanon. Hezbollah says it has respected the ceasefire in southern Lebanon.