5,000 Hezbollah members are fighting in Damascus on Assad's side, 300 have been killed in the last few days

(Nahamet) Hizbullah held a funeral on Saturday for Hussein Mohammed Nether in the southern town of Arabsalim, a member who died while “performing his Jihadi duty”, the party said in a released statement.

“The funeral procession marched from Ragheb Harb Hospital in Nabatieh towards Arabsalim where the martyr was buried,” it explained.

The procession was lead by party official Ali Daoun and the member of the central political bureau Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid, in addition to prominent figures in Hizbullah.

The party has been accused of allegedly sending members to fight alongside the Syrian army in the neighboring country's conflict.

The pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported in January that around 1,500 men are receiving salaries and being trained in the Bekaa camps to fight in Syria and defend Shiite villages and towns against the rebels.

Meanwhile, the Saudi al-Watan daily had reported that some 5,000 Hizbullah members have been fighting alongside regime troops in the restive suburbs of Damascus.

The newspaper quoted sources as saying that the fighters crossed the border into Syria last month. But they said that around 300 of them were killed in the fighting in the past few days.

Battles have flared in areas around Damascus as rebels seeking to topple Assad try to push into the city itself.

The United Nations estimates more than 60,000 people have been killed since the revolt against Assad's rule erupted in March 2011.