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The Syrian military says it has recaptured Yabroud, the last rebel stronghold near the Lebanese border, the BBC reported.

Government forces and Lebanese allies from the Hezbollah group have besieged the town for weeks, as part of a battle for control of key transport routes.

Separately, two Hezbollah members were killed in a car bomb in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, near the border with Syria.

The Shia group has increasingly become the target of attacks over its involvement in the Syria conflict.

At least three people died in the suicide car bomb attack that struck a petrol station in Al-Nabi Othman village, security sources say.

A group calling itself the al-Nusra Front in Lebanon put out a statement on Twitter claiming to be behind the attack, saying it was "a quick response to the bragging and boasting of the party of Iran [Hezbollah] over their raping of Yabroud."

It is not clear what links the group has to the al-Nusra Front in Syria - an al-Qaeda-linked force fighting Mr Assad's government.

Another extremist group - Liwa Ahrar al-Sunna in Baalbek - also claimed responsibility for the attack, describing it as "revenge for Yabroud."

The government launched an offensive in mid-November to oust rebel fighters from the Qalamoun mountains near the Lebanese border.

They recaptured the towns of Qara, Deir Attiya and Nabak, to the north-east of Yabroud along the motorway linking Damascus with the city of Homs.

In mid-February, Assad forces launched a full offensive on Yabroud, which had been controlled by the opposition for much of the three-year conflict.