After three weeks of fighting between Assad’s troops backed by Hezbollah fighters and Syrian rebels, the strategic town of Qusair, located along Lebanese border, was taken control of by Syrian Army on Wednesday, said Syrian state TV.

Syria’s Sana state news agency declared that “heroic armed forces have returned security and stability to all of the town”, quoted the BBC.

“The Syrian army totally controls the Qusayr region in Homs province after killing a large number of terrorists and capturing others,” said the state TV, using the term of terrorists for rebels.

[Read more…]

Hundreds of rebels from northern Syria managed to enter the besieged city of Qusair on Friday, activists said, to help opposition forces battling government troops backed by the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said hundreds of fighters from the Tawheed brigade, an Islamist group that is powerful in Aleppo in the north, had entered the town.

The brigade confirmed the report on its Facebook page.

[Read more…]

Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah appears to be shrugging off a 24-hour ultimatum set on Tuesday by a Free Syrian Army (FSA) official to end the group’s involvement in the Syrian conflict.

Syrian elite forces and extra fighters from Hezbollah have been sent to reinforce government troops battling rebels in the strategic border town of Qusair, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday.

Government fighter jets early Wednesday bombed rebel zones of the town as regime forces readied to launch a major assault, according to the watchdog.

[Read more…]

A senior US official, citing “multiple” rebel commanders, said Iranians were fighting alongside Hezbollah and Syrian government troops in the continuing battle for the border town of Qusair.

In a briefing to reporters the official said: “It is the most visible effort we have seen of Hezbollah to engage directly in the fighting in Syria as a foreign force. We understand there are also Iranians up there. That is what the Free Syrian Army commanders are telling us. I think this is an important thing to note, the direct implication of foreigners fighting on Syrian soil now for the regime.”

[Read more…]

Israeli soldiers returned fire into Syria on Tuesday in response to shots that reportedly damaged a military vehicle in the third cross-border shooting this week in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights.

There were no injuries reported. An Israeli spokesperson said, the shots “most likely were stray bullets, we don’t know if it was intentional.”

[Read more…]