Syria launches major assault on strategic rebel stronghold

BEIRUT — Syrian forces launched a large-scale assault Sunday on the city of Qusair, a rebel stronghold near the Lebanese border, in the government’s latest effort to push back opposition fighters from strategic areas of the country.

The opposition said fighters from Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group allied with the Syrian government, took part in the siege. Hezbollah did not confirm its involvement.

The onslaught commenced with shelling shortly after midnight and continued for hours, with artillery strikes and airborne bombardment targeting both the city and rebel-controlled suburbs, opposition activists said. Pro-government news agencies reported that troops had fought their way to the town center, but rebels said the military’s advance had been halted amid heavy combat. It was impossible to independently reconcile the two accounts.

The bombardment was among the most intense of the more than two-year Syrian conflict, the opposition said.

“It got to 70 shells and at times even 100 shells per minute,” said an activist in Qusair who goes by the nickname Muhammad abu Shamso, reached via Skype. “It went on like this for two hours.”

Pro-regime forces stormed the town from various points and broke through several rebel lines and checkpoints but were later forced back, the activist said.

The situation quieted down by nightfall, but rebels were anticipating a renewed assault Monday.

The opposition Syrian National Coalition warned of an “impending massacre” and called for an emergency session of the Arab League to protect Qusair from what it termed “blatant aggression.”

The pro-government Qusair News Network lauded “our holy rocket launchers, and our blessed cannons … launching a terrifying attack on Qusair.”

Inside the town, largely surrounded by government forces, rebels were said to be running low on ammunition and weapons and unable to receive new supplies.

The opposition reported that more than 50 people had been killed. There was no way to verify casualty figures. Syrian authorities have limited access inside Syria for journalists.

Dozens of civilians were trapped amid the combat, the opposition said.

“There are 40 families in the area that we don’t know what to do with,” said a Qusair -based activist who goes by the nickname Abu Huda Homsi, reached via Skype. “We’ve been putting them in basements.”

The offensive appears part of a government effort to retake strategic areas of the country.

The military has lately mounted targeted attacks near the capital, Damascus; in the south near the Jordanian border; and in the northern province of Idlib.

In a weekend interview with Argentine journalists, President Bashar Assad struck a confident tone.

“We have achieved significant results in recent weeks,” Assad said. “The battle is long and we are making good progress.”

Still, large swaths of Syria remain under rebel control.

The opposition said the assault in Qusair involved regular Syrian forces accompanied by pro-regime militias and combatants from Hezbollah, the Lebanese-based Shiite Muslim group allied with Assad.

Hezbollah has acknowledged that some of its militiamen have been deployed to towns outside Qusair in what it calls a self-defense mission against Sunni Muslim rebels targeting Shiite villagers with familial ties to Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian war has become an explosive issue. Israel is believed to have carried out three aerial bombing strikes on Syria that reportedly targeted missiles destined for Hezbollah, which is listed as a terrorist group by Washington.

Opposition activists have ratcheted up allegations that thousands of Hezbollah militiamen are now fighting in Syria. Hezbollah officials have said their role in Syria has been exaggerated but have provided few specifics.

In what could be a related development, the official Lebanese news agency reported Sunday that six Grad rockets apparently fired from Syria landed in the Lebanese border town of Hermel, just a few miles from Qusair. No damage or casualties were reported. Hezbollah officials in the Hermel area have accused Syrian rebels of firing rockets across the border into Lebanon.

Although Hezbollah’s role in assisting Assad’s forces remains somewhat opaque, there is no question that the rebel ranks in Syria include hundreds and possibly thousands of foreign fighters — Islamic militants from Lebanon, North Africa, the Persian Gulf states, Europe and elsewhere.

The pro-regime Qusair News Network reported that government forces in Qusair had rounded up hundreds of “elements of Nusra and the armed gangs, with the corpses of the armed gunmen on the streets.” Nusra is a reference to Al Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda-linked Syrian rebel group that Washington has labeled a terrorist organization.

Qusair is of strategic significance to both sides in the Syrian conflict.

The town, which has been in rebel hands for more than a year, sits along a corridor used by rebels to smuggle weapons and fighters from nearby Lebanon into the city of Homs, long a major front in the Syrian rebellion. Qusair also lies close to the main highway between Damascus, the capital, and Homs, which in turn is a junction for the principal road to the Mediterranean coast, a government bastion. Military patrols and checkpoints dot the major roads. Regime forces have rebuffed rebel attempts to cut off the main highway and isolate the capital.

Qusair once had a population of 40,000, but most residents are believed to have fled. Even before Sunday’s battles, the town had suffered significant damage from shelling and gun battles.

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Bulos is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Raja Abdulrahim in Los Angeles contributed to this report.