Al-Joumhouria newspaper quoted the joint military command of the Free Syrian army as saying that the bodies of 38 Hezbollah fighters that were killed inside the Syrian territory have been sent to Lebanon to be buried secretly in in various villages .

“Most of them were killed in the Reef of Homs while four fighters were killed in Damascus,” the media head of the Free Syrian Army Fahed al-Masri revealed.

“The corpses were transferred secretly to Lebanon and arrangements for the burial were being made after buying the silence of the deceased’s relatives,” the newspaper reported.

It was hard to identify 10 corpses as a result of severe burns and injures, it added.

Hezbollah has in recent months allegedly buried a number of fighters killed in Syria, without publicly disclosing how the men were killed, or where.

On Sunday, a Hezbollah member that was killed while fighting in Syria was buried in southern Lebanon, several residents of the man’s village told AFP.

The residents said that the funeral of Hassan Nimr Shartouni, 25, was held in Mays al-Jabal after the arrival of his body from Syria where he was killed in fighting on Saturday.

Residents of Mays al-Jabal also told Future TV on Monday that 20 of their sons are missing and they don’t know their whereabouts.They have been asking Hezbollah about their whereabouts, but the party has been maintaining silence.

Photo: Funeral of Hezbollah fighter Hassan Nimr Shartouni who was killed in Syria. Sunday March 17, 2013