Hezbollah leader vows to defeat extremists along Syria-Lebanon border
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The leader of Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah group says Sunni extremists have been pushed out of large areas of a mountain range along the Lebanese-Syrian border in fighting over the past week.
In a televised speech Saturday, he said Hezbollah fighters working with Syrian government forces have seized a large swath of the strategic Qalamoun region.
The Iranian-backed Shiite group and Syrian troops are fighting the Islamic State group and the Nusra Front, an al-Qaida affiliate. The mountain range is close to Syria's capital, Damascus, and links it to the coastal heartland of President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Nasrallah said 13 Hezbollah fighters and seven Syrian soldiers have been killed in Qalamoun over the past week.