Jeff Neumann

Lebanon, which lived under Syrian occupation for 30 years and has battled its own bloody sectarian wars, is now in the crosshairs of a spiraling regional conflict.

Hezbollah fighters are assisting Syria’s government in taking on rebels across the country.

Lebanon’s army said it lost 16 soldiers in a battle with gunmen loyal to Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, a once-obscure Salafi cleric who has seen his profile rise by verbally attacking Hezbollah.

Aarsal in many ways illustrates the Syrian conflict’s transformation from an uprising against an authoritarian regime into a sectarian civil war with reverberations around the region.