Syrian army and Hezbollah launch major assault on border city: TV station

AMMAN - The Syrian army and its allied militia have launched a major assault on the rebel-held Syrian city of Zabadani, the Lebanese Shi'ite Hezbollah group's television station said on Saturday.

It said heavy artillery and aerial bombardment were being deployed to capture the city, located west of the Syrian capital near the frontier with Lebanon. An announcement of the start of a military campaign by the Syrian army and "resistance forces", a term used by the Lebanese group to describe Hezbollah's forces, had been expected in recent days.

The group that is fighting alongside the Syrian army in Syria against radical jihadists, has in recent months stepped up its assault on their outposts along the Qalamoun mountain region straddling the Lebanese Syrian border.