Lebanese Army jouns forces with Hezbollah in crushing al Qaeda's amalgam of forces in Lebanon

"... SIDON, Lebanon — Fighters from the militant Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah joined forces with commandos from the Lebanese army Monday to battle followers of an extremist Sunni Muslim cleric ...Hezbollah fighters said that in addition to Lebanese supporters of Sheikh Ahmad al Assir, who’s a staunch opponent of Hezbollah and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, they’d battled radical Islamists from a nearby Palestinian refugee camp and suspected rebels from neighboring Syria..
Such open cooperation between the army and Hezbollah seemed likely to inflame Sunni partisans in Lebanon, where the army is seen as a neutral arbiter among the country’s religious sects. But after sustaining heavy casualties on the first day of the fighting, the army may have had little choice but to accept a massive influx of Hezbollah’s highly trained and well-equipped fighters...."