BEIRUT - Syrian forces and their Hezbollah militant allies seized control yesterday of Qusair, dealing a strategic defeat to rebel fighters battling for two years to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
Rebels said they had pulled out of Qusair, which lies on a cross-border supply route with neighbouring Lebanon, after two weeks of fierce battles which marked Lebanese Hezbollah's deepest military involvement yet in Syria's civil war.
One Hezbollah fighter said that they took the town in a rapid overnight offensive, allowing some fighters to flee.
"We did a sudden surprise attack in the early hours and entered the town. They escaped," he said.
Qusair had been in rebel hands for more than a year and television images from the town yesterday showed widespread destruction, with buildings reduced to rubble, the streets torn up and no residents in sight.
Assad's forces fought hard to seize it to reassert control of a corridor through the central province of Homs which links Damascus to the coastal heartland of Assad's minority Alawites, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
"Whoever controls Qusair controls the centre of the country, and whoever controls the centre of the country controls all of Syria," Brigadier General Yahya Suleiman, speaking to Beirut-based Mayadeen television, said.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar television showed a man climbing the bullet-pocked clock tower in the town's central square to plant a Syrian flag, while tanks and troops moved through the streets.
"Our heroic armed forces have returned security and stability to all of the town of Qusair," a statement carried by Syrian state television said.
The outgunned rebels said they had pulled out of Qusair "in face of this huge arsenal and of lack supplies and the blatant intervention of Hezbollah".
"Dozens of fighters stayed behind and ensured the withdrawal of their comrades along with the civilians," the rebels said in a statement.
A rebel commander said the decision to withdraw was taken after a day of rocket fire that "levelled what had remained" of Qusair.
Rebel fighters suffer setback
BEIRUT - Syrian forces and their Hezbollah militant allies seized control yesterday of Qusair, dealing a strategic defeat to rebel fighters battling for two years to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
Rebels said they had pulled out of Qusair, which lies on a cross-border supply route with neighbouring Lebanon, after two weeks of fierce battles which marked Lebanese Hezbollah's deepest military involvement yet in Syria's civil war.
One Hezbollah fighter said that they took the town in a rapid overnight offensive, allowing some fighters to flee.
"We did a sudden surprise attack in the early hours and entered the town. They escaped," he said.
Qusair had been in rebel hands for more than a year and television images from the town yesterday showed widespread destruction, with buildings reduced to rubble, the streets torn up and no residents in sight.
Assad's forces fought hard to seize it to reassert control of a corridor through the central province of Homs which links Damascus to the coastal heartland of Assad's minority Alawites, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
"Whoever controls Qusair controls the centre of the country, and whoever controls the centre of the country controls all of Syria," Brigadier General Yahya Suleiman, speaking to Beirut-based Mayadeen television, said.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar television showed a man climbing the bullet-pocked clock tower in the town's central square to plant a Syrian flag, while tanks and troops moved through the streets.
"Our heroic armed forces have returned security and stability to all of the town of Qusair," a statement carried by Syrian state television said.
The outgunned rebels said they had pulled out of Qusair "in face of this huge arsenal and of lack supplies and the blatant intervention of Hezbollah".
"Dozens of fighters stayed behind and ensured the withdrawal of their comrades along with the civilians," the rebels said in a statement.
A rebel commander said the decision to withdraw was taken after a day of rocket fire that "levelled what had remained" of Qusair.
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