BEIRUT: Militants (click here) have been driven out of Syria’s strategic Qalamoun region near the undemarcated border with Lebanon, Hezbollah's deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said Friday.
“We are causing losses among [the ranks] of the takfiris, and they are now outside the entire Qalamoun region near the Bekaa,” he said during a Hezbollah ceremony Friday.
Terrorists are being chased down into valleys and mountainous regions, Qassem added, noting that militants would not be able to secure warm refuge in Qalamoun. Qassem's comments refer to a common assumption that that weather conditions in winter would drive out militants, who are not well equipped to handle the harsh climate.
Syrian troops backed by Hezbollah have been engaging in fierce clashes with rebels in the Syrian Qalamoun region. Hezbollah is now trying to tighten the noose on Nusra whose fighters fled to the Lebanese border during the offensive....

There are no reliable allies to anyone in Syria. I believe the Shi'ite presence in Syria is questionable. There is a lot of infighting. It is nearly impossible to tell who has the greatest influence in the Syrian Civil War besides the Islamic State.