Same jihad U.S. taxpayers are funding to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Via Bloomberg News:

Two Lebanese clerics have called for a holy war to defend Sunni Muslims in Syria, saying they are coming under attack from Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim Hezbollah.

Syrian opposition groups have warned of Hezbollah involvement in the country’s 2-year-old civil war, saying it threatens to propel the bloodletting into neighboring Lebanon. The Iranian-backed militant group, a major force in Lebanese politics, denies it is fighting alongside the Syrian government that once dominated Lebanon.

The two Lebanese Sunni clerics, Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir and Sheikh Salem al-Rafei, called on supporters to embark upon a holy war, or jihad, to help defend the Al-Qusair area in Homs province in central Syria against Hezbollah fighters. Battles have been raging for days in the area, which is strategically placed near the highway linking the capital, Damascus, to the coast.

Al-Assir called on “those who see themselves threatened by Hezbollah to form cells made up of five people each to defend themselves,” according to the official National News Agency.

Al-Rafei said by joining the fight in Syria, Hezbollah has violated the Lebanese government’s policy of distancing itself from the Syrian conflict, according to a statement he issued carried by An-Nahar newspaper. “The call for jihad will deter Hezbollah from supporting the killers,” he said.