http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/International/2013/May-25/218306-syria-regime-unleashes-artillery-barrage-on-qusair.ashx#axzz2UNGrIRdg
May 25, 2013 09:34 AM (Last updated: May 25, 2013 10:03 PM)
Hezbollah, Syrian government forces advance in border town
By Erika Solomon
BEIRUT: Syrian government forces and Hezbollah launched a fierce campaign to
seize more rebel territory in the border town of Qusair on Saturday, sources on
both sides of the conflict said.
Rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad said additional tanks and
artillery had been deployed around opposition-held territory in Qusair, a
Syrian town close to the Lebanese border.
"I've never seen a day like this since the battle started," said Malek Ammar,
an activist speaking from the town by Skype. "The shelling is so violent and
heavy. It's like they're trying to destroy the city house by house."
At least 30 people were killed in opposition-held areas on Saturday, most of
them rebels, and dozens were injured, according to the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights.
Rebels are largely surrounded in Qusair, a town of 30,000 that has become a
strategic battleground. Assad's forces want to take the area to secure a route
between the capital Damascus and his stronghold on the Mediterranean coast,
effectively dividing rebel-held territories in the north and south.
The opposition has been fighting back, seeing it as critical to maintain
cross-border supply routes and stop Assad from gaining a victory they fear
would give him the upper hand in proposed U.S.-Russia led peace talks next
month.
Assad's forces are believed to have seized about two-thirds of Qusair, but the
price has been high and rebels insist they are preventing any further advances.
"We are in the second phase of our plan of attack but the advance has been
quite slow and difficult," an official close to Hezbollah told Reuters.
"The rebels have mined everything, the streets, the houses. Even the
refrigerators are mined."
Hezbollah's Manar TV said the Syrian army had recaptured the Dabaa airport near
the town, which rebels had seized several weeks ago.
There is an increasingly sectarian tone of Syria's political struggle, which is
not only overshadowing the revolt but threatening to destabilize the region.
Israel has launched two air strikes in Syria, and Lebanon has seen a rise in
Syria-linked violence.
Syria's Sunni Muslim majority has led the struggle to topple Assad, which has
been joined by Islamist fighters across the region, some of them linked to the
militant group al Qaeda.
Assad comes from the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, and
has relied on an army led mostly by Alawite forces. He has been bankrolled by
Shiite power Iran and now increasingly by Iran's Lebanese proxy, Shiite
Hezbollah.
The British-based Observatory, which has a network of activists across Syria,
said Assad forces led by Hezbollah were trying to advance from three directions
in Qusair.
"Every area they didn't have a foothold in, they are trying to gain one now,"
said Rami Abdelraham, head of the Observatory.
Rebels from across Syria say they have sent units into Qusair.
Colonel Abdeljabbar al-Okaidi, the Aleppo-based regional leader of the
moderate, internationally-backed rebel Supreme Military Council said he and
Islamist brigade al-Tawheed had sent forces to the outskirts of the town to
help the Qusair fighters.
But activist Malek Ammar said no forces had arrived and insisted the rebels
surrounded in Qusair were on their own.
"No one is helping Qusair other than its own men," he said.
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(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
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