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| Syrian rebels face Qusayr assault |
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.jpg) Government forces are continuing their assault on Qusayr. Syria army on Saturday continued to bombard rebel-held areas of the city bordering Lebanon, activists told Al Jazeera, as clashes raged between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and opposition fighters on several front lines.
Rebel fighters encircled Qusayr as regime troops launched a fierce assault on the city which is home to more than 10,000 people.
Regime forces have recently captured the northern district of Arjun in Qusayr, leaving rebels little chance to escape.
While around 300 rebels managed on Friday to break through army lines near the village of Shamsinn, northeast of Qusayr- after losing 11 fighters - it was unclear if they could quell the advances of regime forces.
Brigadier General Salim Idris, the head of the military council of the Free Syrian Army, told Al Jazeera that the opposition fighters, who arrived from the northern province of Aleppo, were heavily outgunned and overwhelmed by members of the Hezbollah group.
Idris warned the “revolution could be lost”, if the West did not act quickly and support the rebels with heavy weaponry.
More than 1,000 wounded people remain trapped in Qusayr, activists said, and makeshift clinics there suffer from “acute” shortages of medical supplies.
Activists have warned of “a massacre” by regime forces if they manage to storm the city.
The control of Qusayr is essential for the rebels as it is their principal transit point for weapons and fighters from across the border in Lebanon.
It is also strategic for the regime because it is located on the road linking Damascus with the Mediterranean coast, its rear base.
UN blacklists al-Nusra
The United Nations Security Council has agreed to add the Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group al-Nusra Front operating in Syria to the UN sanctions blacklist, diplomatic sources say.
The UN diplomatic sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday that a Security Council committee that monitors sanctions against Al-Qaeda had come up with the decision to blacklist the al-Nusra Front as an alias of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
(Source: Al Jazeera and Agencies)
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