While Syrian rebels are reportedly making significant gains in the key northern city of Aleppo, they are struggling along the Lebanese border, where several rebel-held villages have fallen in recent weeks.
The Free Syrian Army (FSA) is blaming Hezbollah for this stark shift in fortunes, saying that Hezbollah fighters launched a major assault from inside Lebanon against Syrian border towns, and claiming that air strikes are launched regularly from Lebanon against rebel positions.
“Everyone knows they have fighters there,” one rebel fighter noted. The FSA has repeatedly made such allegations, and has threatened to attack the Lebanese capital city of Beirut to “punish” Hezbollah for interference in the Syrian Civil War.
Hezbollah is close with the Assad government in Syria, and has been known to have some commanders inside Syria to maintain those ties. Exactly how involved they are in the civil war, however, is a matter of considerable dispute. Inside Lebanon the allegations have spawned growing sectarian violence, threatening to bring the Syrian war into the country.