Explainer-Ali al-Taher ridge emerges as flashpoint in Israel-Hezbollah war

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The Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon has become a strategic hotspot in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, due to its geographic importance and suspected militant constructions beneath it. The ridge is named after a Shi'ite Muslim scholar whose shrine is at its summit, making it symbolically significant as well.

By Nayera Abdallah BEIRUT, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, which is named after a Shi'ite Muslim scholar whose shrine sits at its summit, has become one of the most contested pieces of ground in the Israel-Hezbollah war. The cluster of hills is not especially large. But what it overlooks in southern Lebanon — and what Hezbollah is suspected to have built beneath it — thrust it to the centre of the fight between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group. WHERE IS IT?