Report: Arsal Battle Achieving Coveted Gains Fast

The results achieved on the first day of an operation launched by Hizbullah against militants on both sides of the country's border with Syria, indicate that the “battle could reach fruition in a time period shorter than anticipated,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

The outcome of the battle achieved by Hizbullah so far “indicate that the battle could be over in a shorter time than anticipated in light of the evident collapse among the terrorists' ranks. On the first day, the party was able to grasp control of a series of strategic hills which formed strength points for the terrorists mainly Tallet al-Burkan in Flita," Hizbullah sources told the daily.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Hizbullah has kick started "its military operation at dawn on Friday to purge Arsal's outskirts and Qalamoun of armed terrorists.”

They said the operation had been launched on two axes -- from the Syrian town of Flita and from the southern part of outskirts of Arsal.

Arsal's outskirts is a mountainous area around the Lebanese border town of Arsal, which lies directly across from the Syrian Qalamoun region

The operation has been anticipated for several weeks, and comes after Lebanese soldiers carrying out raids on Syrian refugee camps in the area were met with suicide bombings and a grenade attack.

That attack heightened tensions over the presence in Lebanon of more than a million refugees from the civil war across the border.