WORLD_ Hezbollah sends new fighters to Syria

Hezbollah sends new fighters to Syria

AAP
May 22, 2013 4:10AM


ELITE Hezbollah fighters have poured across the border from Lebanon into Syria, a watchdog and others say, bolstering Syrian regime forces battling to retake the key rebel stronghold of Qusayr.

Washington expressed concern about Hezbollah's role and diplomats said the EU was poised to place the powerful Shi'ite militant group's military wing on its list of international terrorist groups.

Separately, Israeli and Syrian forces traded fire on the Golan Heights. The Syrian army said it had destroyed an Israeli military vehicle that crossed the armistice line but the Jewish state denied the claim.

In central Homs province, Hezbollah fighters were reportedly leading the battle for Qusayr, three days after the Syrian regime began an assault to regain control of the town.

"It's clear Hezbollah is leading the assault," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP, adding that government aircraft were pressing a bombardment and "much of the town is now destroyed."

A source close to Hezbollah told AFP it "has sent new elite troops to Qusayr".

Hezbollah's television channel broadcast images of funerals for five fighters it said were killed carrying out their "jihadist duty".

The Observatory said more than 100 people have been killed in Qusayr since the fighting began on Sunday, including 31 Hezbollah fighters, 70 rebels and nine soldiers.

Abdel Rahman described the rebel response to the assault in Qusayr as "fierce," but expressed concern for the fate of some 25,000 trapped civilians.

Pro-regime daily Al-Watan said loyalists had taken control of all Qusayr's official buildings and "raised the Syrian flag" above them.

The town is a key strategic prize as it sits on the main highway between Damascus and the Mediterranean coast, and also controls rebel supply routes from the mainly Sunni Muslim port of Tripoli in neighbouring Lebanon.

"It is important for the Syrians, the Iranians and Hezbollah to control the road" linking Tripoli to Syria, Lebanese analyst Waddah Sharara told AFP.

Tripoli is also home to a minority of Alawites, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam to which Assad belongs. There have been repeated clashes in the city between the rival communities.

On Tuesday, a security source confirmed the death of a Sunni man from the city in the latest fighting.

US President Barack Obama expressed concern on Monday over Hezbollah's "active and growing role" in Syria in a phone call to Lebanese President Michel Sleiman.

The US State Department also warned that the group's actions "exacerbate and inflame regional sectarian tensions and perpetuate the regime's campaign of terror."

Lebanon is officially neutral on the violence in Syria, but a range of Lebanese groups are openly intervening in the conflict.

The conflict is also raising tensions in the Golan Heights, with Syrian and Israeli troops exchanging fire on the strategic plateau early on Tuesday.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/hezbollah-sends-new-fighters-to-syria/story-e6frfkui-1226647997876#ixzz2U0a1qRsV




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