WarSclerotic

As Hezbollah fighters battled alongside Syrian troops in a Syrian rebel-held town on Sunday, Israel threatened more attacks on Syria to rein in the terrorist group, highlighting the risks of a wider regional conflict if planned peace talks fail.

Activists in Syria said it was the fiercest fighting involving Hezbollah in the country’s two-year civil war. They said that Hezbollah appeared to be helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad secure a vital corridor in case Syria fragments.

Speaking from Qusair, near the border with Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, activist Hadi Abdallah said Syrian warplanes bombed the town in the morning and shells were hitting the town at a rate of up to 50 per minute. At least 52 people were killed.

“The army is hitting Qusair with tanks and artillery from the north and east while Hezbollah is firing mortar rounds and multiple rocket launchers from the south and west,” he said.

Assad rejected the idea that a U.S. and Russian-sponsored peace conference planned for Geneva next month would end fighting that is deepening the sectarian fault lines between Sunnis and Shiites across the Middle East.

“They think a political conference will halt terrorists in the country. That is unrealistic,” he told the Argentine newspaper Clarin, in reference to the mainly Sunni groups seeking to unseat him.

Assad declared “no dialogue with terrorists,” but it was not clear from his remarks whether he would agree to send delegates to a conference that may falter before it starts due to disagreements between its two main sponsors and their allies.

The Syrian opposition will formulate its stance on the proposed peace conference in a meeting due to start in Istanbul on Thursday, during which it will also appoint new leadership.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said Israel was “preparing for every possible scenario” in Syria and held out the prospect of more Israeli strikes inside Syria to stop Hezbollah from receiving advanced weapons.

“We will act to ensure the security interests of Israel’s citizens in the future as well,” Netanyahu said.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied foreign reports that it attacked Iranian-supplied missiles stored near Damascus this month that it believed were awaiting delivery to Hezbollah.

Attacks by troops and militias loyal to Assad have put rebel brigades under pressure in several of their strongholds across the majority-Sunni country of 21 million people.

In one attempt to strike back, opposition sources said rebel fighters had kidnapped the father of Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in the province of Deraa, one of many tit-for-tat abductions being carried out by both sides.

“Mekdad’s nephew was taken before, and exchanged for Free Syrian Army (rebel) prisoners. The speculation is that a similar deal will be struck for his father,” said activist Al-Mutassem Billah of the opposition Sham News Network.

In the fighting near Lebanon, rebel fighters clashed with mechanized Syrian army units and Hezbollah guerillas in nine points in and around Qusair, 10 kilometers (six miles) from the border, activists said.

The region is needed by Assad to secure a route from Hezbollah’s strongholds in the Bekaa to areas near Syria’s Mediterranean coast where many Alawites live, they said.

Opposition sources say Syria’s coastal region could serve as an Alawite statelet if Assad should lose control of Damascus, while a potential fragmentation of Syria along ethnic and sectarian lines raises the prospect of many more deaths.

Sources in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley said shells fired by rebels had hit the edges of the town of Hermel, a Hezbollah stronghold, but no casualties were reported.

Syrian Television said troops “leading an operation against terrorists in Qusair” had reached the town center.

“Our heroic forces are advancing toward Qusair and are chasing the remnants of the terrorists and have hoisted the Syrian flag on the municipality building. In the next few hours we will give you joyous news,” the television outlet reported.

But the al-Siddiq Brigade, one of several Islamist units defending Qusair, including the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front, said in a statement that attempts to storm the town had failed and that 45 government troops and Hezbollah guerrillas had been killed in the battles.

Abu Imad, another activist in the Qusair region, said the rebel grip was tenuous but the army was far from in control.

“If Qusair falls, it will be a big problem because the regime will be in control of most of the countryside south of the city of Homs and the rebel forces holding Old Homs will be squeezed,” he said.

The United Nations says at least 80,000 people have been killed so far in the conflict.