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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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| Information | | |
Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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20May13
Hezbollah members killed in Syria fighting
Portraits of Hezbollah fighters slain in the weekend battle for the Syrian city of Qusair dotted the roads of villages in northern Lebanon on Monday, evidence of the militant group's increasing entanglement in the Syrian civil war.
The bodies transported back over the border point to heavy losses for the Lebanese Shiite movement since its fighters backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces in an assault on the strategic city, which lies about six miles from the border. Opposition groups say that at least 28 Hezbollah members were among 90 people killed since Sunday.
The involvement of Hezbollah threatens to embroil Lebanon in the Syrian civil war, but it also could help tip control of Qusair back to the regime. The fall of the city could prove pivotal in the two-year-old conflict, providing a staging point for an assault on the central rebel bastion of Homs and assisting the regime in securing a crucial pathway between the capital, Damascus, and the Alawite heartland along the Mediterranean coast, which includes the ports of Latakia and Tartus.
"To lose Qusair would be a disaster; we will lose the whole city of Homs," said Fadi al-Issa, a fighter with the opposition Farouq Brigade who is recovering in the border village of Aarsal after his leg was shattered in shelling just outside Qusair three months ago. But he fears heavy airstrikes teamed with the Hezbollah-backed ground assault have put the opposition on the defensive. "Hezbollah are well trained in street fighting, and they are using their elite," he said.
There are concerns that the entrenchment of the Iranian-backed militant group could inflame a regional struggle between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Hezbollah militants, trained to battle the "Zionist enemy," are known for their prowess in guerrilla warfare, and the group has bolstered its arsenal since a war with Israel in 2006.
But its new struggle against fellow Muslims has proved controversial at home. A Hezbollah spokesman declined to comment on the number of fighters killed since Sunday in the Syria fighting, but the group's deepening role in the conflict is difficult to hide.
A Hezbollah checkpoint blocked access to the center of the largely Shiite village of Labweh in the Bekaa Valley as the body of a local fighter was returned home Monday. Banners hailed the militant's martyrdom in "jihadist duties" as young girls dressed in black thronged the streets and men on scooters draped in yellow Hezbollah flags buzzed through the traffic.
In the nearby town of Nabi Sheet, the Associated Press reported that about 2,000 people attended the funeral of 18-year-old Hezbollah fighter Hassan Shukur, firing weapons in the air as his casket was carried through the streets. He was among those reported killed in the fighting Sunday.
Losses on the rebel side also have been hefty. Qusair has been under siege for weeks, with pro-regime forces seizing control of surrounding villages one by one. One of his brothers was killed four days ago, Issa said, and another, also a fighter with the Farouq Brigade, called in Monday with an update from the battlefield.
[Source: By Loveday Morris, The Washington Post, 20May13]
 | This document has been published on 22May13 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |