Syria says it has ended killings linked to Hezbollah | Articles of Controversy

Officials say the group is planning to ‘kill government officials’.

Syrian authorities have said they have arrested a Hezbollah-linked group accused of plotting to kill government officials, a claim dismissed by the Lebanese army as “false”.

Syria’s Interior Ministry said late on Tuesday it had carried out “several security operations simultaneously” in the countryside of Damascus and in the provinces of Aleppo, Homs, Tartous and Latakia.

According to the ministry, the attacks led to the “downfall of an army affiliated to the Hezbollah army, whose members entered the Syrian territory after receiving special training in Lebanon”.

Since the ouster of former dictator Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, the new authorities in Syria have repeatedly announced the discovery and disruption of alleged security plots, allegedly originating from Hezbollah – which the group has consistently denied.

Initial investigations revealed that the cell was planning to “kill government officials”, the ministry said, adding that they had seized weapons, including explosives and RPGs.

The ministry released photos of 11 suspects, without revealing their nationalities, saying they included a man in charge of planning and overseeing terrorist attacks.

Hezbollah issued a statement “contradicting in detail the false accusations from the Syrian Ministry of Interior”.

“The repetition of Syrian security officials’ repeated claims that Hezbollah is not in Syrian territory … raises serious questions,” the Iran-backed group said.

“It shows that there are those who want to create conflicts and conflicts between the people of Syria and Lebanon”, the group said.

Hezbollah was a key ally of al-Assad, and its intervention was seen as crucial in turning the Syrian conflict into a political power in the years before he was ousted.

Prior to this, Syria served as an important conduit for the transfer of Iranian weapons to Hezbollah.