(CNSNews.com) – In a further sign that Syria’s civil war is increasingly becoming a theater of battle between Shi’ite and Sunni extremists – under the respective flags of Hezbollah and al-Qaeda – a group of Sunni radicals in Egypt is citing the Syrian situation in its appeal to Sunnis everywhere to support a jihad against Shi’ites.
Twenty Egyptian Salafists including Mohammed al-Zawahiri, the brother of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, urged Sunnis to target Hezbollah and others involved in the fighting in the Syrian town of al-Qusair (al-Qusayr).
According to U.S. and Syrian opposition officials, thousands of Shi’ite fighters from Hezbollah, Iran and Iraq have been involved in the fighting around the rebel-held town near the Syria-Lebanon border in recent weeks.
“Hezbollah and all who participated in the attack on Qusayr and other Muslim countries must be fought,” said the message, which was translated by the SITE Intelligence Group. “Iran and Hezbollah seek to divide the region into mini-states that follow their brand of Shi’ism.”
