Hezbollah leads fight in Qusayr

BEIRUT: Elite fighters from the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, a staunch ally of the Syrian regime, are leading the fight against opposition fighters in the region of Qusayr in the central province of Homs, a watchdog said yesterday.
“It’s Hezbollah that is leading the battle in Qusayr, with its elite forces,” Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.
“It’s not necessarily fighters coming from Lebanon. It’s Hezbollah fighters from Shiite villages on the Syrian side which are inhabited by Lebanese,” he said.
Over the weekend, Syrian regime forces retook control of a string of strategic villages in the region, which is along the border with Lebanon.
The Observatory said fighting was raging yesterday morning between rebels and Hezbollah fighters around several other villages in the area, leaving two rebels dead.