REPORT: Syrian military launches offensive to retake the strategic rebel-held town al-Qussair

Syrian troops backed by tanks and warplanes launched an assault Sunday on a strategic rebel-held town near the Lebanese border, pounding the area with airstrikes and artillery salvos that killed at least 30 people and forced residents to scramble for cover in basements and makeshift bunkers, activists said.                
The town of al-Qussair has been besieged for weeks by regime troops and pro-government gunmen.                   

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 30 people, including 16 rebel fighters and one woman, were killed in al-Qussair in fighting Sunday morning, but that the death toll was expected to rise as government troops continue to try to push into the town.                           

A government official in the nearby provincial capital of Homs said that regime troops have encircled the town and that "the offensive to liberate al-Qussair has begun."              

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, said the army has built up its forces on three fronts around al-Qussair while leaving one clear for "safe passage for fleeing civilians and the armed terrorists who want to surrender."                         

The official said government forces have advanced into the town, taking over the municipality building and other vital government institutions.                    

This as the Syrian opposition called on the international community to take severe measures in order to prevent Iran and Hezbollah from intervening militarily in Syria, and warned that “silence in regards to such an issue will halt any political solution in the country”.               

The opposition said in a statement that foreign forces are committing mass killing and war crimes on the Syrian territories adding that the al-Qussair town is being subject, by members from Hezbollah and Iranian forces, to “barbaric and destructive bombing”.                                        
                      
The regime' offensive on al-Qussair comes as the United States and Russia push a joint effort to get Assad and his opponents to negotiate an end to the country's civil war. Previous attempts to solve the conflict peacefully have failed.           


REUTERS/AP/LBCI

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