'4,000 well-armed, prepared to die' Hezbollah fighters in Syria

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Wednesday that his country's intelligence services believed 3-4,000 Hezbollah guerillas were inside Syria partaking in the fighting.

"As far as Hezbollah militants present in the battlefield, the figures range from 3,000 to 10,000, our estimates are between 3,000 and 4,000," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told lawmakers.

At the United Nations, human rights chief Navi Pillay said Hezbollah's increased role in the Syrian civil war was inflaming regional tensions, without giving numbers.

"When you have fighters that are really well armed that are prepared to die and they are several thousand that makes a difference," he said.

Fabius pointed the finger at Iran for pushing Hezbollah into the Syrian conflict and has dismissed any suggestion that Iran could be involved in resolving the Syrian crisis, because of its backing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.

"There has been a change on the ground. The involvement of Hezbollah and the fact the Russians have delivered weapons has changed things," he said. "Even if many elements that are fighting are Syrian, they are being guided by Iranian officials."

Lebanese newspaper, al-Akhbar, quoted Assad as saying that "Syria and Hezbollah are part of the same axis. The Syrian army is the one fighting and leading the battles against the armed group, and this fight will continue until all those who are called terrorists are eliminated."

Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department on Wednesday called on Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters from Syria immediately, saying their involvement on the side of Assad signaled a dangerous broadening of the war.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki condemned the declaration last weekend by the leader of the Lebanese terrorist organization, Hassan Nasrallah, who confirmed his combatants were in Syria and vowed they would stay in the war "to the end of the road."

"This is an unacceptable and extremely dangerous escalation. We demand that Hezbollah withdraw its fighters from Syria immediately," Psaki said at a daily news briefing.

Psaki also condemned the killing of three Lebanese soldiers at an army checkpoint in the eastern Bekaa Valley on Tuesday. The gunmen fled toward the Syrian border, but it was not clear who carried out the attack.

"We remain deeply concerned about reports of multiple cross-border security incidents in recent days," she said.

Asked what the United States would do if Hezbollah did not withdraw, Psaki said Washington was pursuing diplomatic solutions but was also "continuing to increase and escalate our aid and support for the (Syrian) opposition."

She said Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman and Acting Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, Beth Jones, would travel to Geneva in the coming week to meet Russian and U.N. diplomats and work on bringing together an international conference on Syria.  IsraelHyom