Syria's opposition is accusing the Lebanese
Hezbollah movement of declaring war on the Syrian people amid reports the
Shi'ite militia's fighters have joined government forces in a battle against
rebels in the central province of Homs.
Anti-government activists in the Syrian town of
al-Qusayr, outside Homs, have reported mounting Hezbollah casualties in the
last week as fighting heats up in the strategic pocket along the Lebanese
border.
The opposition Syrian Revolution General Commission
said Free Syrian Army forces killed 18 Hezbollah fighters in clashes earlier
this week.
An activist who uses the pseudonym Abo Emad said
that Hezbollah has been firing rockets into the area from the hills above
Lebanon's northern Bekaa Valley for months. He said FSA fighters retook
two villages in the fighting, capturing 10 Hezbollah militiamen and killing a
commander.
"We took some prisoners and have their
[identification cards]," said Abo Emad. "Because of the clashes
and the battle we now have 10 prisoners and a lot of [additional Hezbollah fighters]
were killed," he said.
Recruitment
The extent of Hezbollah's engagement in Syria cannot
be independently verified.
Long an ally of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad,
Hezbollah has denied involvement in the Syrian fighting, saying it is helping
Lebanese Shi'ites living in border towns and villages to defend themselves
against rebel assaults.
But the group's recruitment efforts have increased
the flow of Shi'ite fighters crossing the border, according to Matthew Levitt,
director of the Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and
Intelligence.
"Some of the people who are going to fight are
actually Hezbollah. Some of the people more recently who are going to fight are
Hezbollah militias they have created - popular committees they call them,"
Levitt said.
He put at 200 the number of known Lebanese Shi'ites
killed in Syria over the last two years - an estimate he said comes by a count
of reported martyrs' funerals for those with a "clear connection to
Hezbollah."
Most experts agree the Lebanese militia has been
involved in the Syrian conflict almost from the start.
The U.S. Treasury Department last August announced
an extension of sanctions against Hezbollah for its support of the Syrian
government, accusing the group of providing training, advice and extensive
logistical support to Assad's military campaign.
Strategic
corridor
Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East
Center in Beirut, said the Assad government "some time ago effectively
handed over defensive security responsibilities" to Hezbollah for a number
of Shi'ite villages in the al-Nabak area north of Damascus.
But he said the militia's involvement in offensive
operations in rebel-held territory has escalated mostly in the last 10 days.
"What's new is the fighting in a slightly
different area, near Qusayr, further north, between the city of Homs and the
region further west," Salem said. "That is not an area of
Shi'ite villages, not an area where Hezbollah previously had a social and political
presence," he added.
Liberating Sunni-held territory around Homs is
crucial to preparing a possible retreat for Syrian government leaders to
coastal provinces that are a stronghold Assad's minority Alawite sect, an
offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
"Hezbollah has a particular role in helping the
Syrian regime maintain a strategic belt that links the capital to the northwest
Alawi homeland," said Salem.
Weapons
resupply
Among Hezbollah's numerous reasons to want a
so-called "Alawistan" along Syria's western coast, Levitt said, the
most important is to "maintain a land bridge for the resupply of Iranian
weapons."
Traditionally, most of Hezbollah's arsenal is
smuggled into Lebanon from Syria. But the fall of the Assad government
would complicate Hezbollah's ability to restock following a future war with
Israel.
Creating and maintaining an Alawite enclave would
ensure continued access to the sea through the ports of Tartous, Banias and
Latakia, allowing the weapons flow to continue via the secured corridor.
"The group is part of a broader Iranian
alliance system [and] it doesn't want that system to break in Damascus.
The Iranians are helping, Hezbollah is helping, Iraq's Maliki government is reluctantly
helping," Salem said.
A major political and military force, Hezbollah was
assisted by the Syrian regime when it occupied Lebanon during its civil
war. Syria, too, has been a conduit for helping Hezbollah maintain its strong
relationship with Iran.
Hezbollah is considered a terrorist group by the
United States and Israel.
Fears for
Lebanon
The Syrian opposition's new interim leader, George
Sabra, said in Istanbul this week that "the Lebanese president and the
Lebanese government should realize the danger" that Hezbollah poses to the
lives of Syrians and regional relations.
Days later, two Lebanese Sunni sheikhs issued fatwas
urging their followers to join Syrian rebels fighting to oust Assad, calling
their struggle a "jihadist duty."
The Syrian government has attacked suspected rebel
supply routes inside Lebanon with artillery and warplanes. But conditions
in Syria are also pushing pro-Assad forces into the northern Bekaa Valley.
"If you want to move from Damascus into
[Syria's] Alawi areas now, whether you are Hezbollah or the Syrians, the only
assured way to go is through the Bekaa because the territory between the
capital and traditional coastal Alawi enclaves is not controlled by the
regime," Levitt said.
Sources :
http://www.voanews.com/content/syria-opposition-accuses-hezbollah-of-widening-war/1648619.html
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