Levant in September 2026: the most important developments in security
In the Levant in September 2026 the main security story was fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, months after a ceasefire. Hezbollah launched explosive drones at Israeli troops on 2 September, and Israel struck Hezbollah positions and cleared tunnels. The Israeli army said it seized the Ali al-Taher ridge, and on 10 September it announced the destruction of an underground Hezbollah complex there. Israeli strikes in the south killed at least seven people on 6 and 7 September, and Lebanese reports put the toll for early September at up to 27, including two children. Israel also detained farmers and later carried out further shelling, including with phosphorus munitions on 20 September. On 15 September the Israeli army warned that Hezbollah was regrouping for a significant attack.
A second theme was Iran's strikes on US forces in the region. Iran launched strikes on US bases in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq. A television report said Jordan intercepted 18 of 20 ballistic missiles fired at its airbases, and reports citing CBS said several US fighter jets were damaged at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan; Donald Trump denied that Iran had damaged US aircraft.
In Syria, the IAEA said it had secured 73 tons of uranium from the Assad era and that a secret reactor built under Assad was nearly complete and configured to produce weapons-grade plutonium before Israel destroyed it in 2007. Explosions hit Syrian ammunition depots: at least 14 people were killed in one blast on 9 September, and an explosion near Al-Is south of Aleppo on 21 September injured at least four, the fourth such blast that month. Government forces and an armed Druze group exchanged fire in Sweida province, with 10 security personnel wounded. Syria arrested former Assad-era officers, including a former air force general and the chief of staff of the Republican Guard, and Israel shelled and demolished sites in southern Syria.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
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