Rebels kill another Lebanese occupier in al Qusair as Iranian efforts to occupy the province continue

19-08-2015: A number of the Lebanese Shiites resettled in and around al Qusair in Homs province after Hezbollah ethnically cleansed most of the Syrian population there are now growing olives on the farms stolen from Syrian residents in the area who were slaughtered or driven out by Hezbollah, with another of the illegitimate settlers reportedly killed on Tuesday.

The Lebanese militia has established heavily manned ‘safe corridors’ for hundreds of Shiite families from south Lebanon who are being resettled in Al Qusair and the surrounding area, along with the families of Assad’s Tehran-backed ‘National Defence Force’ Shiite militias, in a move to connect the area with the Hezbollah-controlled Shiite Bekaa valley region in Lebanon and regime-controlled coastal areas in Syria.

Shiite sources report that the man killed on Tuesday, named as Ashraf Hassan Ayad (pictured), was eulogised by the Hezbollah leadership who claimed that he represented a model for the ‘pioneer’ families in Al Qusair. He was reportedly killed by gunfire from Free Syrian Army forces in the area while cultivating olive trees on the farm there illegitimately occupied by the Lebanese settlers.

Hezbollah now has a massive presence in the south of Syria extending from the Lebanese border all the way to Homs city after it seized control of Al Qusair (located around 15 miles from the border) and the surrounding area with the help of Assad’s forces and other Tehran-backed foreign militias, massacring, terrorising and expelling most of the majority-Sunni population.
Hezbollah also played a leading role in helping the regime in 2012 to destroy the registry office in Homs which contained all the ownership records and documents for homes and land in the province in order to deny any legal or other rights to the rightful owners of the confiscated properties. Unfortunately the records had not yet been computerised. This was a prelude to seizing the land and properties and transferring ownership to Lebanese Shiites and some Assad regime loyalists chosen by Hezbollah.

Speaking to ‘All4Syria’, a Shiite dissident familiar with events said that the Assad regime had pursued a very deliberate policy of ethno-sectarian forced displacement against residents of Homs city and province as part of Iran’s occupation project in Syria. The Lebanese Shiite families being moved to the ‘cleansed’ areas are provided with funding and financial incentives by the Iranian regime to encourage them to stay in these areas and thus expand Iranian influence over the Syrian-Lebanese border areas. As well as being offered money by Iran, the foreign occupiers are given (stolen) homes and land and further incentives to live there.

This in turn has allowed Bashar al-Assad to move many of the remaining regime loyalists to Homs city and province since they will be supportive of Iranian occupation rather than supporting the return of the indigenous peoples to their homes. Speaking to All4Syria, Wael Abu Rayan of the City of Rastan’s media office said that more details of this project have been emerging since a truce between regime forces and the FSA in the area led to the mass exodus of rebels and residents from Homs city to the northern countryside of Homs province following a brutal months-long siege which saw the regime cut off all supplies of food, water and humanitarian aid.