Summary Elite Hezbollah fighters poured across the border from Lebanon into Syria on Tuesday.
DAMASCUS (AFP) - Elite Hezbollah fighters poured across the border from Lebanon into Syria on Tuesday, a watchdog and others said, bolstering Syrian regime forces battling to retake the key rebel stronghold of Qusayr.
Washington condemned Hezbollah s direct intervention on the side of President Bashar al-Assad s regime and diplomats said the European Union was poised to place the Shiite militant group s military wing on its terror blacklist.
Separately, Israeli and Syrian forces traded fire on the Golan Heights. The Syrian army said it had destroyed an Israeli military vehicle that crossed the armistice line, a claim denied by Israel which nonetheless warned Damascus of "consequences" if there was further fire from the Syrian side.
In central Homs province, Hezbollah fighters were reportedly leading the battle for Qusayr, three days after the Syrian regime began an assault to regain control of the town.
"It s clear Hezbollah is leading the assault," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP, adding that government aircraft were pressing a bombardment and "much of the town is now destroyed."
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP it "has sent new elite troops to Qusayr".
Hezbollah s television channel broadcast images of funerals for five fighters it said were killed carrying out their "jihadist duty".
The Observatory said more than 100 people have been killed in Qusayr since the fighting began on Sunday, including 31 Hezbollah fighters, 70 rebels and nine soldiers.
Abdel Rahman described the rebel response to the assault in Qusayr as "fierce," but expressed concern for the fate of some 25,000 trapped civilians.
Pro-regime daily Al-Watan said loyalists had taken control of all Qusayr s official buildings and "raised the Syrian flag" above them.
