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Hezbollah

  • The town, near the border with Lebanon, had been under rebel control for more than a year. The fight for the town was especially fierce, because Hezbollah sent its fighters from Lebanon.
  • The strikes came hours after the leader of the militant group, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, vowed to continue its fight to keep Syrian president Bashar Assad in power. It heightened fears that the sectarian violence central to the Syrian civil war could spread to Lebanon.
  • The Australian Broadcasting Co., which originally broke the story, reports Prisoner X sabotaged an Israeli mission to bring back the remains of captured Israeli soldiers thought to be buried in Lebanon.
  • The Justice Department says about half of all international criminal organizations have links to extremist groups, such as Hezbollah, the Taliban and FARC rebels in Colombia. But diffuse priorities are hindering U.S. efforts to combat this growing problem of transnational, organized crime.
  • Audie Cornish talks to Nicholas Kulish, a New York Times reporter, about the trial of Hezbollah member Hossam Yaakoub earlier this week in Cyprus and what it has revealed about the inner workings of the organization.
  • The attack at a Black Sea resort town last July killed five Israeli tourists and one Bulgarian citizen. In response, the White House called Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, a "real and growing threat not only to Europe, but to the rest of the world."
  • In the Beirut cemetery where martyrs of Hezbollah are buried, new graves are appearing more frequently. It's unclear where the men were killed, but members of Syria's opposition accuse the militant group, allied with Iran, of sending fighters into Syria to aid the Bashar Assad regime. It's an accusation that Hezbollah denies. One Shiite analyst says Hezbollah members have been disappearing since last year and families have been instructed not to speak about it.
  • Little-known Sunni Sheik Ahmad Assir has gained prominence recently with his public protests against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Assir says Iran is using the militant Shiite group to expand its influence, and he is calling for the group to surrender its weapons, as the crisis in Syria — another Hezbollah backer — unfolds.
  • In a bid to get to better know Hezbollah's fighters, the group challenged them to a paintball game. There were some moments of bonding, others that were chilling.