Syrian forces, Hezbollah storm key city near Lebanon

The Syrian army backed by the Lebanese Hezbollah on Sunday stormed the western part of the rebel-held city of Zabadani, close to the Lebanese borders, the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV reported.

The army forces and Hezbollah also captured the entire district of Jamyiat in the western part of that key city.

A day earlier, the Syrian forces and Hezbollah launched a major offensive to drive out the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and likeminded groups from Zabadani.

The wide-scale offensive on Zabadani, in the western part of the rugged Qalamoun region north of the capital Damascus, came after the Syrian forces and allied fighters tightened the siege on the rebels there, the TV said.

The battle aimed at clearing the city and the entire region of Qalamoun of the Nusra Front and its allied militants, who used the city as a conduit to smuggle militants and weapons from Lebanon into the western countryside of Damascus.

Winning the battle by the Syrian forces and Hezbollah would shield the Lebanese borders of the threat of the Nusra Front, amid reports that most of the blasts that targeted Lebanon recently were planned by the rebels in Syria and the cars were booby-trapped in Qalamoun. Endit