23 Hezbollah Militants Killed in Syria

{{Syrian government forces pushed deeper into a strategic rebel-held town near the Lebanese border, battling rebels in fierce street fighting, Syrian state-media said Monday. }}

An activist group said at least 23 elite fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group have been killed in the clashes.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the country’s civil war, said that in addition to the deaths more than 100 Hezbollah members have been wounded in the fighting around the town of Qusair.

If confirmed, it would be a blow to the Shiite group that has come under harsh criticism in Lebanon for its involvement in Syria’s civil war.

Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman cited “sources close to the militant group” for the death toll but declined to reveal their identity. The Observatory relies on a wide network of activists in the ground in Syria.

For weeks, fighting has raged around Qusair, located in the central province of Homs. The regime launched a push Sunday to regain control of the town, which has been in rebel hands since early last year.

Before Sunday’s offensive, Qusair had been ringed by regime troops and fighters from the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, an Assad ally, for several weeks.

The town lies along a land corridor between Damascus and the Mediterranean coast, the heartland of Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Many rebel fighters are Sunni Muslims and Qusair, overwhelmingly Sunni, had served as a conduit for shipments of weapons and supplies smuggled from Lebanon to the rebels.

Lebanese security officials confirmed at least four funerals were being held Monday morning for Hezbollah fighters killed in Syria. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.

{AP}