Violence from Syria's four-year war has regularly tipped over into Lebanon, and militiamen from the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah have been fighting on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Syrian state news agency SANA, citing a Syrian military source, said the army had gained control of at least ten "strategic areas" to the west of Zabadani. The military had "managed to kill and injure a large number of terrorists" and destroyed many of their bases, it said.