Hezbollah backed Syrian troops take control of Qusair

Damascus: Syrian President Bashar Assad’s troops, backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, regained control on Wednesday of the embattled strategic town of Qusair where fighting has raged with rebels for nearly three weeks, state TV and a local government official said. The capture of the town, which lies close to the Lebanese border, solidifies some of the regime’s recent gains on the ground that have shifted the balance of power in Assad’s favor in the Syrian civil war. [caption id=“attachment_844519” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image for representation only. Reuters[/caption] It comes just a day after France and Britain made back-to-back announcements that the nerve gas sarin was used in Syria’s conflict. A UN probe, also released Tuesday, said it had “reasonable grounds” to suspect small-scale use of toxic chemicals in at least four attacks in March and April in Syria. The statements — which included a confirmed case of the Syrian regime using sarin — leave many questions unanswered, however, because the probes were mostly carried out from outside Syria from samples collected by doctors and journalists. On the ground in the past two months, the Syrian army has moved steadily against rebels in key battleground areas, making advances near the border with Lebanon and considerably lowering the threat to Damascus, the seat of Assad’s government. A wide offensive on Qusair was launched on May 19. The state TV said the army has “restored security and peace” after successfully dismantling “terrorist networks” operating in the town and seized weapons. An official in the governor’s office of Homs province confirmed the report. “At 6.30 a.m., Qusair became secure,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media about an ongoing military operation. State media said government forces flushed rebels out on Tuesday of a key district on the northeastern edge of Damascus from where opposition fighters had been trying to push into the capital. In recent weeks, Assad’s forces also regained control of a key highway linking Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, with its international airport after clearing rebels from villages along the way. Syria is suspected of having one of the world’s largest chemical weapons arsenals, including mustard and nerve gas, including sarin. In recent weeks, the regime and those trying to topple Assad have traded accusations of chemical weapons’ use but offered no solid proof. In the West, the lack of certainty about such allegations is linked to a high stakes political debate over whether the U.S. should get more involved in the Syrian conflict, including by arming rebel fighters. More than 70,000 people have been killed and several million displaced by the Syrian conflict since it erupted more than two years ago. Images broadcast Wednesday in Syria by media embedded with the Syrian army in Qusair showed a deserted town, with heavily damaged buildings. Military bulldozers were removing rubble and clearing roads as armored vehicles whizzed by. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Qusair came under intense overnight shelling, forcing the rebel fighters, short of ammunition, to withdraw. The Observatory said it fears for the fate of over 1,000 wounded. Earlier, doctors in Qusair had said wounded civilians and fighters in need of critical medical attention have been trapped in the town, and pleaded for safe passage to transport them. Both sides in the conflict value Qusair, which lies along a land corridor linking two Assad strongholds, the capital of Damascus and an area along the Mediterranean coast that is the heartland of his minority Alawite sect. For the rebels, who had been in control of the town shortly ever since after the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, holding Qusair meant protecting their supply line to Lebanon, just 10 kilometers (six miles) away. As the battle for Qusair intensified in the past week, rebels in the town called on fighters from all over Syria to come to their aid, and foreign fighters were suspected to be playing a large role in the city’s defense. The Qusair battle has also laid bare Hezbollah’s growing role in the Syrian conflict. The Shiite militant group, which has been fighting alongside Assad’s troops, initially tried to play down its involvement, but could no longer do so after dozens of its fighters were killed in Qusair and buried in large funerals in Lebanon. Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, firmly linked the group’s fate to the survival of the Syrian regime, raising the stakes not just in Syria, but also in Hezbollah’s relations with rival groups in Lebanon. Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen TV, which has reporters embedded with Syrian troops and was reporting live from Qusair, said there was no sign of fighting Wednesday. Hezbollah’s TV channel, Al-Manar, showed pictures of seized weapons, and missiles in the town. A Syrian army officer, speaking to Al-Mayadeen said: “Inside the town, there are no more armed terrorists, only some honorable citizens.” “The (fighters) have either escaped or were killed here,” said the unnamed lieutenant colonel. In the footage, the municipal building in the center of Qusair and the town church appeared to be pockmarked from the fighting. A Syrian flag was raised above it in a show of government control. A witness from the town, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he feared for his security, said the military was removing mines from around Qusair and clearing roads. “The town is empty,” the witness said over the telephone. Associated Press