Hezbollah Fund-Raisers Blacklisted by U.S. Retribution against Hezbollah for helping the Syrian government fight rebels intensified on Tuesday, as the United States blacklisted four fund-raising operatives and warned of further steps to choke the group's financing. The action against the operatives, who the Treasury Department said were based in West Africa, bans them from any dealings with Americans and freezes any assets they may have under American jurisdiction. While the financial impact on Hezbollah was unclear, the department said the move reflected "the alarming reach of Hezbollah activities and its determination to create a worldwide funding and recruitment network to support its violence and criminal enterprises around the world." There was no immediate reaction by Hezbollah, a militant Lebanese Shiite organization backed by Iran and Syria that Washington has long regarded as a terrorist group. Hezbollah, which plays a broad social and political role in Lebanon, rejects the American portrayal. The Treasury rebuke came one day after the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, a group of affluent Arab nations, promised sanctions against Hezbollah for its forceful intervention to assist President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in combating a two-year-old insurgency that is shaking the Middle East. Declaring common cause with Mr. Assad, Hezbollah fighters last week helped the Syrian military rout rebels from Qusayr, a rebel stronghold near the Lebanese border. That battle may have turned the momentum of the conflict in Mr. Assad's favor, and the rebels have sought to retaliate ever since. On Tuesday, Lebanon's National News Agency reported that rocket fire from Syria struck the Shiite border village of Hermel, in what appeared to be a rebel reprisal. In Syria's capital, Damascus, two suicide bombers killed at least 14 people, which Syria's state news agency, Sana, called a cowardly retaliation that illustrated "the bankruptcy of the armed terrorist groups and those who stand behind them." Its repudiation by the Gulf Arab countries underscored Hezbollah's increasingly problematic image in the Arab world, which once exalted it as a liberation movement for its aggressive challenges to Israel. More and more, the Arab states refer to Hezbollah as an Iran ally supporting Mr. Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, against an array of Sunni insurgents, including some Islamic extremists that claim allegiance to Al Qaeda. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are major military backers of the Syrian insurgents, and Europe and the Obama administration are debating whether to help arm them as well. The Treasury Department painted a dark picture of Hezbollah in announcing the sanctions against four Lebanese men, who it said had carried out the group's outreach in Sierra Leone, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Gambia. The Treasury said that the four, identified as Ali Ibrahim al-Watfa, Abbas Loutfe Fawaz, Ali Ahmad Chehade and Hicham Nmer Khanafer, had "organized fund-raising efforts, recruited members, and in some cases styled themselves as ambassadors of Hezbollah's Foreign Relations Department." David S. Cohen, the Treasury under secretary in charge of administering sanctions, rejected Hezbollah's depiction of itself as a resistance organization, noting that three of Europe's biggest countries - Britain, Germany and France - now support an effort within the European Union to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist group. Such a change could hurt Hezbollah's fund-raising in Europe. Mr. Cohen said the four blacklisted Lebanese had helped raise "millions of dollars" for Hezbollah's cause but would not further specify the amount. "Whether this is a particularly lucrative area, as compared with other mechanisms, is not really the point," he said. What we're trying to do is try to disrupt Hezbollah's fund-raising. Hezbollah had come under international pressure before it intervened in Syria, largely because of lobbying by the United States and Israel. Hezbollah operatives were implicated in a bus bombing in Bulgaria in July that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian driver. Hezbollah denied involvement. In March, a court in Cyprus found a Hezbollah member guilty of participating in a plot to attack Israeli tourists there. That court case proved important in turning sentiment against Hezbollah among some European countries. Israeli officials have long blamed Hezbollah for organizing attacks on Israelis worldwide, including a series of plots last year targeting Israeli diplomatic personnel in Thailand, India and Georgia.