I found an old wooden chess set in a cupboard the other day.

Turning over the board to see a Made In Syria stamp on its base reminded me it was an old souvenir bought in a Damascus souk during better days.

I dare say the city's craftsmen are still churning out such objects, but certainly there are other far more malevolent things also being produced in Syria right now.

The conflict there has, without doubt, now spilled across the wider region in precisely the way many international observers feared.

Anyone who doubts this should just consider the extent to which Lebanese Hezbollah fighters now deployed inside Syria are throwing themselves behind President Bashar al-Assad's government forces in the crucial battle for the key city of Qusair.

What's more, much of the most modern weaponry used by these pro-regime forces is supplied by both Iran and Russia. Then there is the long-contested and potential territorial timebomb that is the Golan Heights.

There, Syrian and Israeli troops are now exchanging fire, while the Israeli airforce is also busy launching strikes against suspected chemical weapons plants and arms dumps deep inside Syria itself.

Meanwhile, over in Lebanon, the Syrian war has provoked increasing clashes between pro- and anti-Assad factions in the city of Tripoli.

And all this before yet more security fears in Turkey, where bombings killed 51 people in the town of Reyhanli earlier this month, prompting Ankara on Wednesday to close a nearby border crossing with Syria. Turkey has accused Syria of involvement in the attacks; Damascus has denied any role.

If all this doesn't constitute a conflict clearly spilling out of control into the wider region, what does? Certainly those living in this volatile Middle Eastern neighbourhood seem to view it that way.

In a recent survey by the respected US-based "fact tank" Pew Research Centre, people living in predominantly Muslim countries that share a border with Syria appear deeply concerned.

More than nine in ten Lebanese (95%) worry Syria's violence may spill over into their nation. Such fears are shared by all the principal religious groups in Lebanon: the Christians (99%), Shia (95%) and Sunni (91%).

Then there is Jordan, where roughly 400,000 Syrian refugees are already seeking shelter. There, 80% of Jordanians express concern about the Syrian fighting spreading into their country. As for Turkey, which already harbours nearly 300,000 Syrians who have fled the civil war, 62% say they are worried the violence could infect their society.

As for the Israelis, who have fought four major wars with the Syrians, they too look on with unease.

Perhaps more than anything, it has been the recent bitter battle for the Syrian city of Qusair that has helped throw the spotlight on the degree of external patronage for both sides in this conflict and the way in which Syria's civil war is leaching into the region as a whole.

The battle for Qusair is actually part of a larger contest for the highly coveted Homs governorate. For the Syrian rebels and pro-Assad forces alike, this battle has wide-reaching ramifications.

For the rebels it straddles a major transit point for their supplies and reinforcements coming in from Lebanon.

For the government its loss would effectively cut off the Syrian capital Damascus from Aleppo and Assad's Alawite (an offshoot of Shia Islam) stronghold on the coast, which would limit the regime's access to supply lines from port cities.

Qusair is a also a vital piece of real estate for the Lebanese Shi'a Islamic militant group Hezbollah, given the city is a strategic link in the communications chain between their heartland in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley and Damascus.

For that reason Hezbollah has long been involved in the fight over Homs, but their role in the Qusair offensive marks a clear escalation in the group's deployment.

While Hezbollah remains very secretive about its forces, evidence is mounting that they are taking considerable casualties in Syria. This has been revealed by the escalating number of the carefully orchestrated funerals they are known to give dead Hezbollah fighters back in Lebanon.

Over the last few days, US Secretary of State John Kerry has gone as far as to say several thousand Hezbollah fighters are now engaged in combat inside Syria.

This external help by Hezbollah and Iran has also enabled Syria to create a new militia, known as the National Defence Force, to offset the losses incurred by the army, while Russia continues to deliver economic and material support.

Faced with watching this outside patronage for the Assad regime and seeing a Syrian rebel force under increasing pressure on the battlefield, Washington and its partners look set to widen their own support for rebel fighters, possibly by sending more weapons of their own or taking other measures short of sending American forces.

With virtually no diplomatic process aimed at peace worth talking about, both sides in Syria's conflict are now in regular receipt of an influx of foreign supplied weapons and volunteer fighters.

The genie of war is now well and truly out of the bottle in Syria and its creeping malign presence is sure to be felt far and wide for some time to come.