Syrian troops backed by Hezbollah fighters pressed on with their offensive today in the country's opposition heartland, taking two small villages near a strategic town that was captured by the government this week.
The leader of Syria's main opposition group, meanwhile, warned that the involvement of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah is transforming the war into a sectarian conflict pitting Shiites against Sunnis, saying it is impossible to hold peace talks as long as Hezbollah and Iran fight alongside Assad's regime.
Following Wednesday's capture of Qusair, Assad's forces aided by Hezbollah fighters have directed their efforts toward driving rebels from the country's densely populated heartland, including the cities of Homs and Aleppo.
Government forces faced little resistance today as they took control of the central villages of Salhiyeh and Masoudiyeh, just north of Qusair, activists and the state news agency SANA said. Yesterday, the rebels also lost control the nearby village of Dabaa.
The push brought Assad's troops to the edge of al-Buweida village, also north of Qusair, where most of the rebels who withdrew from Qusair took up positions and regrouped. State TV reported government troops were pursuing rebels there.
Casualties from today's clashes were not immediately known but the past three weeks of fierce fighting have left dozens of rebels, troops and Hezbollah fighters dead.
Since joining the battle in Qusair in full force in April, Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, has helped tip the balance of power to Assad's side, enabling the regime to take most of the towns and villages near the border with Lebanon.
The militant group's growing role in the conflict has come under sharp criticism by the opposition.
"The intervention of Hezbollah starts to transfer the problem into a sectarian conflict, a sectarian war between Sunnis and Shiites," said George Sabra, acting head of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition.
"The problem will (spread) all over the Middle East, to Lebanon, to Turkey, to Iraq, to Jordan and maybe to the Gulf," he told The Associated Press in an interview in Copenhagen.
Hezbollah soldiers who back Assad's regime, he added, are now "all over the country" including in Aleppo and Damascus. His claims could not be independently verified, although activists have said that Hezbollah members were deployed in two Shiite villages in the northern Aleppo province.
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah is a Shiite group while the Syrian rebels are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslims.
