Syrian army and Hezbollah lay siege to rebel-held border city

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia said they had launched a major ground and air assault on the rebel-held Syrian city of Zabadani on Saturday and were closing in on insurgents holed up inside.

The army, with its Shi'ite ally Hezbollah, has long sought to wrest control of Zabadani from Sunni rebels who have held it since 2012, a year after the start of the Syrian civil war. The city is near the Lebanese border and the Beirut-Damascus highway that links the countries, and so capturing it would be a major strategic gain for Syrian President Bashar al Assad's government.