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Syrian rebels conceded that they have withdrawn overnight Wednesday from the Syrian town of
Qusayr near the border with Lebanon. A rebel statement said that this happened after an onslaught by the Syrian
army and Hezbollah fighters, and 'in the face of lack of supplies and the blatant
intervention of Hezbollah'.
Syrian state television said that the Syrian army had
overrun the strategic region."The Syrian army totally controls the Qusayr region in Homs province
after killing a large number of terrorists and capturing others," the
television report said, using the regime's terminology for the rebels.’ SANA said regime forces had seized a number of tunnels where rebels
had been hiding, and that "they surrendered in large numbers.”
President Bashar al-Assad's army, reportedly backed by thousands of fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, launched an offensive to retake Qusayr, a key region on the Lebanon border, on May 19. Rebels fighting to retain control of Qusayr were later joined by hundreds of reinforcements from Lebanon leading to pitched battles in which civilians, many of them wounded, became trapped.Doctors had appealed for the Red Cross to be allowed in to treat the wounded but Syrian officials said this would only be permitted once the rebels had been defeated.
Qusayr in april 2013 (AFP)
Civilians who had managed to flee Qusayr described it as "a ghost town, heavily damaged and filled with the sound of bombs," the UN refugee agency UNHCR said Tuesday. Those who had escaped were mainly women and children because men risked being killed at checkpoints, said spokeswoman Melissa Fleming.
Both the rebels and the government view the town in the central Homs province as a key strategic prize, because it lies near the Lebanese border and by the road connecting Damascus to the coast.
President Bashar al-Assad's army, reportedly backed by thousands of fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, launched an offensive to retake Qusayr, a key region on the Lebanon border, on May 19. Rebels fighting to retain control of Qusayr were later joined by hundreds of reinforcements from Lebanon leading to pitched battles in which civilians, many of them wounded, became trapped.Doctors had appealed for the Red Cross to be allowed in to treat the wounded but Syrian officials said this would only be permitted once the rebels had been defeated.
Qusayr in april 2013 (AFP)
Civilians who had managed to flee Qusayr described it as "a ghost town, heavily damaged and filled with the sound of bombs," the UN refugee agency UNHCR said Tuesday. Those who had escaped were mainly women and children because men risked being killed at checkpoints, said spokeswoman Melissa Fleming.
Both the rebels and the government view the town in the central Homs province as a key strategic prize, because it lies near the Lebanese border and by the road connecting Damascus to the coast.
Qusayr on 23 May 2013 (AFP)
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