(Reuters) - Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas have fought their biggest battle yet for Syria's beleaguered president, prompting international alarm that the civil war may spread and an urgent call for restraint from the United States.About 30 Hezbollah fighters were killed on Sunday, Syrian activists said, along with 20 Syrian troops and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad during the fiercest fighting this year in the rebel stronghold of Qusair, near the Lebanon border.
That would be the highest daily loss for the Iranian-backed movement in Syria, highlighting how it is increasing its efforts to bolster Assad; it prompted U.S. President Barack Obama to voice his concern to his Lebanese counterpart, Michel Suleiman.
If confirmed, the Hezbollah losses reflect how Syria is becoming a proxy conflict between Shi'ite Iran and Arab states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which back Assad's mostly Sunni enemies. Dozens of dead in sectarian bombings in Iraq on Monday and killings in the Lebanese city of Tripoli compounded a sense of spreading regional confrontation.
Hezbollah (pronounced /ˌhɛzbəˈlɑː/;[4][5] Arabic: حزب الله Ḥizbu 'llāh, literally "Party of Allah" or "Party of God")
— also transliterated Hizbullah, Hizballah, etc.[6]
— is a Shi'a Islamic militant group and political party based in Lebanon.[7][8][9]
It receives financial and political support from Iran and Syria, and its paramilitary wing is regarded as a resistance movement throughout much of the Arab and Muslim worlds.[7]
The governments of the U.S.,[10] Netherlands,[11][12][13][14] Bahrain,[15][16][17] France,[18] U.K., Australia, Canada, and Israel classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, in whole or in part.[19][20]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah
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