DAMASCUS: Rebels pressed the "Battle of the airports" in north Syria, striking three key facilities, as the main opposition bloc on Sunday accused Lebanon's Hezbollah of fighting alongside its regime allies in Damascus.

Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi urged backing for an opposition offer of talks with President Bashar al-Assad's regime after the UN rights chief called for international action against the Syrian leader.

In Aleppo, fierce clashes raged between Syrian troops and several rebel battalions, with insurgents seizing an army checkpoint near Nayrab military airbase, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Nayrab is adjacent to Aleppo international airport, a key target for the rebels who have also been battling troops guarding Kwiyres military airbase east of the city and Menegh airbase to the north.

The opposition Syrian National Council, meanwhile, accused members of Lebanon's powerful Shiite militant group Hezbollah of intervening in the two-year conflict in Syria.

Hezbollah fighters crossed into Homs province of central Syria on Saturday and attacked "three Syrian villages in the Qusayr region near the Lebanese border," the SNC said.

The operation resulted in "civilian casualties and the exodus of hundreds of people," and it has also "stoked sectarian tensions" in the area, the opposition said.

The SNC said Hezbollah was using heavy weapons "under the auspices of the Syrian regime army," adding that Beirut was responsible for ending this "aggression."

[link to www.channelnewsasia.com]