In a pickle

TWO years ago, times were good for Hizbullah, the Lebanese Shia militia-cum-party with strong links to Iran and Syria. The group had risen from humble origins fighting Israeli soldiers in Lebanon in the 1980s to becoming a well-armed force that dominated the government. After holding its own in a brief 2006 war with Israel, the group’s appeal expanded beyond Lebanon’s Shias to include many of the region’s Sunnis, who make up the bulk of the opposition to President Bashar Assad in neighbouring Syria.

Today the group is in a more precarious position thanks to its backing for Mr Assad. Western officials have long said Hizbullah members are advising Mr Assad’s regime (America regards it as a terror group and is pushing the EU to label it similarly). A number of its members, including a senior commander, Ali Hussein Nassif, have been killed in Syria. But in recent weeks the group appears to have expanded its operations. Along the Syrian border with Lebanon, which has never been properly demarcated, Hizbullah men patrol Shia villages. Anti-Assad fighters accuse Hizbullah of shelling Syria from the Lebanese town of Hermel in co-ordination with the Syrian army. They also report fighting against its men at the border close to Qusayr, a town in the central Homs province.