Hizballah and the Turkish terrorist group PKK are doing Syria's dirty work in Lebanon, causing 12 Syrian dissidents to disappear since September, according the Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper. The group's actions point to Syria's reliance on foreign terrorists organizations to control dissent and prevent the flow of weapons to Syrian protesters.

"Hizballah and the Kurdistan Workers' Party [PKK] have surveyed several Lebanese areas looking for Syrian opposition members, [and] Hizballah has surveyed Beirut's southern suburbs where many cases of disappearances have been reported," said Nabil Halabi, head of the Lebanese Institute for Democracy and Human Rights. According to the Daily Star, Hizballah's efforts have focused on Syrian Arab dissenters, and the PKK has been used to "blackmail and threaten Syrian Kurds" in Lebanon. Both have passed information to Syria's embassy about the activities of expatriate dissidents.

The report comes after enormous pressure has been exerted on the Syrian regime, which has killed more than 3,500 people since anti-government demonstrations began earlier this year. The head of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces Maj-Gen Ashraf Rifi released a report last month implicating the Syrian embassy and members of the ISF of involvement in the kidnapping of Syrian opposition members.

Syria has also tried to silence expatriate dissidents as far away as the United States, which was detailed in the indictment of a suspected Syrian intelligence mole in Virginia last month. The regime has also been threatened by crippling sanctions by the EU and America, who have called on President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

Hizballah has remained silent about the accusations against it, with no comment appearing on the group's media website.