At least 58 killed as Syrian troops enter heart of Qusayr скачать в хорошем качестве

At least 58 killed as Syrian troops enter heart of Qusayr

Syrian troops entered the center of the rebel stronghold of Qusayr on Sunday, seizing the town's main square and its municipality building, a military source said. "The Syrian army controls Qusayr's main square in the center of the city, and the surrounding buildings, including the municipality building," the source told AFP. Syrian activists say regime airstrikes and heavy shelling of the strategic tow, near the Lebanese border, has killed at least 40 people and left hundreds wounded, including opposition fighters, activists told Al Arabiya. Hadi Abdullah, a Syrian activist speaking from Qusayr, denied to Al Arabiya that the town has fallen into the hands of regime forces. The activist added that with support from Hezbollah militias, the Syrian regime is heavily shelling Qusyar, leveling civilian homes. Qusayr is home to about 20,000 residents and has been besieged for weeks by government troops. Opposition activists say members of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group are also fighting with President Bashar Assad's troops in the area. Hezbollah denies taking part in Syria's two-year conflict -- which has killed at least 80,000 people, according to the U.N. However, the group -- an ally of the Syrian regime -- has held regular funerals of Hezbollah fighters, who -- it said -- were killed serving their "jihadi duties." Earlier in May, spokesperson of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) Louay Almokdad told Al Arabiya that Hezbollah was using artillery shells containing fatal Mustard Gas in the area. The town is strategically important because it links Damascus with the coast, where regime loyalists are concentrated. This includes Alawites, followers of a Shiite offshoot to which the Assad family belongs. The rebellion against Assad is largely driven by Syria's majority Sunnis. The Syrian Revolution General Commission, a network of activists on the ground, also reported intense bombardment of Qusayr, which the Syrian regime has been trying to recapture. "A rain of shells on the city, at the same time as artillery fire and mortar fire from dawn. Homes were destroyed and burnt down," AFP reported the group as saying. The Qusayr district of Homs province has been the focus of fierce fighting between government forces and the rebels in recent weeks.