Syria Fighting Flares Both Sides of Lebanese Border
* Clashes worst in border area since start of the war
* Region is important supply line for rebels
* Signs Hezbollah getting more openly involved (Adds rebel statement)
Syrian troops and Lebanese Shi’ite militias attacked rebel-held areas on the two countries’ border on Sunday, in the heaviest clashes of Syria’s civil war in the strategic region, Lebanese and Syrian sources said.
At least two towns held by Sunni Islamist rebels in the al-Qusair region near the Orontes River were overrun after sectarian clashes escalated early last week, threatening to bring in Iranian-backed Hezbollah openly into the battle, the sources said.
On Saturday, in the first attack well inside Lebanese territory, rockets hit the town of Hermel, a Hezbollah stronghold in the Bekaa Valley, causing damage but no casualties. A Hezbollah fighter was killed in the Shi’ite border town of Zita, inside Syria, residents said.
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