[Al Ahram] At least 16 fighters were killed in festivities between Syrian rebels and Leb's Shiite bad boy group Hezbollah on the Lebanese border over the weekend, a monitoring group said Monday. "Seven members of Hezbollah were killed and 31 maimed" in the festivities which raged from Saturday until Sunday night, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
He told AFP that the Syrian rebels lost nine fighters and 23 of them were maimed in the battle waged in an undemarcated area of the border between Qalamun in Syria and Leb's Arsal.
Hezbollah initiated the showdown in a bid to rid the region of rebel fighters following a string of daily festivities, said Abdel Rahman.
"But they fell into an ambush by rebels ... before Hezbollah reinforcements arrived and the fighting intensified," he said, adding that the Shiite group captured 11 rebels.
On Sunday, a Hezbollah source and a Lebanese security official gave a preliminary toll of three Hezbollah fighters and three Syrian rebels killed.
The long and mostly non-existent border region is often used by smugglers, refugees and fighters.
Arsal and the area around it are largely Sunni Mohammedan, and residents sympathise with the Sunni-led uprising against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
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