Qusayr rebels beg for help as Syrian army pounds town

Syrian rebels pleaded for military and medical aid in the embattled border town of Qusayr yesterday, saying they were unable to evacuate hundreds of wounded under an onslaught from government forces backed by Lebanese Hizbullah fighters.

President Bashar al-Assad launched an offensive to take the town two weeks ago in what many see as an attempt to link territory from the capital Damascus up to his Alawite community heartland on the Mediterranean coast.

“We have 700 people wounded in Qusayr and 100 of them are being given oxygen. The town is surrounded and there’s no way to bring in medical aid,” said Malek Ammar, an opposition activist in the besieged town.

The president is widely believed to be making a push to cement his hold on the critical centres of Syria to strengthen his hand in a planned US and Russia-led peace conference. Qusayr is located near critical supply lines for loyalists and rebels.

Local opposition councils on the outskirts of Damascus issued their own plea for support, saying suburbs around the capital that have been besieged for seven months now face an onslaught from Assad forces supported by Iraqi and Lebanese militias.

'More massacres'
"Today these forces are massing . . . from the east and west and preparing to commit more massacres," wrote the councils from the Ghouta region. "We call on all battalions and brigades to come help block this violent assault against more than 1.5 million people living in besieged eastern Ghouta," it said. Blame for losses in the area would be placed on Damascus- based rebels and the opposition's umbrella National Coalition abroad, it said.

Rebels have been trying to counter the army offensive, but have suffered setbacks around their supply routes in Damascus and in the central province of Homs, where Qusayr is located.

Ahmad Bakar, a doctor in a hospital near Qusayr, posted an appeal on Facebook. “We need immediate intervention . . . and we need a route to be opened to evacuate the wounded.

– (Reuters)