A Free Syrian Army fighter carries his weapon as he walks amongst rubble near Nairab military airport in Aleppo yesterday. Photo: Reuters

Sunni Muslim insurgents have killed about 60 Shi’ite Muslims in a rebel-held eastern Syrian town where President Bashar al-Assad’s agents had been trying to recruit and arm fighters for his cause, according to opposition sources yesterday.

The attack was another sign of how a revolt that began more than two years ago with peaceful protests against four decades of Assad family rule is descending into sectarian bloodshed.

A video posted by rebels showed gunmen carrying black Islamist flags celebrating and firing guns in the streets of a small town as smoke curled above several buildings.

“We have raised the banner ‘There is no God but God’ above the houses of the apostate rejectionists, the Shi’ites, and the holy warriors are celebrating,” the voice of the cameraman says.

The revolt is descending into sectarian bloodshed

In the Damascus area, rebels reported that 27 of their comrades had been killed in an ambush near the town of al-Maraj. Video uploaded by activists showed victims shot in the face or head. The camera scanned over several bloodied and dirt-coated corpses as men called out for help washing the bodies.

Musaab Abu Qutada, an opposition activist, said the men had been trying to break through a military blockade to bring supplies into rebel strongholds in suburbs of the capital.

Assad’s forces, backed by the Lebanese Shi’ite group Hizbollah, won a significant victory by seizing the border town of Qusair last week and are now believed to be preparing offensives on rebel-held areas near Damascus and Aleppo.

Meanwhile a Syrian helicopter opened fire on a Lebanese border town in the eastern Bekaa Valley yesterday, wounding two people, the Lebanese army said in a statement.

The incident took place in the mainly Sunni Muslim town of Arsal, whose residents strongly support the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad in neighbouring Syria.

“A Syrian helicopter fired two rockets towards the square of the town, two people were wounded,” the army statement said.

Arsal has also sheltered fighters who fled the Syrian border town of Qusair, captured by Assad’s forces and Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas after more than two weeks of fierce fighting with rebels.

Violence from Syria has increasingly spilled into Lebanon. Rocket fire from rebel-held border areas has fallen on the pro-Hizbollah, Shi’ite town of Hermel in recent weeks, in apparent response to the group’s battle across the border in Qusair.

Syrian forces have also frequently crossed the poorly defined border in pursuit of rebels. Deeper inside Lebanon, street fighting fuelled by tensions over Syria has killed dozens of people in the northern city of Tripoli, and two rockets were fired last month towards Hizbollah-controlled south Beirut.

With regards to the Hatla attack many of the fighters involved were said to be from the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. Hardline Sunni groups often refer to Shi’ites as rejectionists because they deny the legitimacy of Prophet Mohammad’s first successors. An activist said only 20 people had been confirmed killed in Hatla but another 20 had been taken hostage by the rebels.