The town of Qara in the Qalamoun region, in Damascus Countryside Governorate, is reportedly witnessing rising tensions between Assad’s forces and Hezbollah.

According to local activists, the latest hostilities began when Hezbollah fighters stormed the regime-run private Qara Hospital and expelled Assad’s forces from it last week.

By Mario Abou Zeid, Al Jazeera

The long-planned spring battle of Qalamoun - between Hezbollah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces on one hand, and Syrian rebels on the other hand - started last weekend. Though the Assad regime and Hezbollah are striving for a victory to regain momentum, it will be a lengthy and costly one that will further degrade their capabilities. Furthermore, it has exposed the reality of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Qalamoun; that it is operated by the Syrian regime's intelligence.

Hezbollah's al Manar TV has been tirelessly broadcasting triumphal reports of its 'victories' in the Qalamoun region of Damascus province in coordination with Assad's forces. The Tehran-backed militia's media arm hasn't, however, been reporting the less than dignified return to Lebanon of the heaped bodies of Hezbollah mercenaries, killed there while fighting for Assad and Tehran, in the backs of pick-up trucks, as shown in this photograph taken by activists in the area.

Photo from Ahmed Mansour