BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Syrian government and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah intensified their assault on Syrian rebels in the town of Qusayr on Saturday, unleashing the heaviest shelling since the battle began a week ago, Syrian antigovernment activists said.
The battle raged as neighboring Lebanon commemorated the 13th anniversary of the end of Israel’s 15-year occupation of its southern region, which is widely credited to Hezbollah’s years of guerrilla warfare.
Syrian opposition activists said that government forces and Hezbollah had ratcheted up the attacks in an effort to allow Hezbollah to claim victory, or at least success on the battlefield, at a holiday rally where the group’s revered leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was scheduled to address his followers via videotape.
“Hezbollah wants to score points and successes to justify the death of its soldiers in Syria before the speech today,” said Rami Abdulrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group that tracks the violence through a network of contacts inside Syria. Hezbollah’s fighters have suffered unexpected losses in Qusayr, reportedly numbering in the dozens, as the tenacity of the rebels has surprised Syrian government supporters and opponents.
In Lebanon, the holiday, usually an occasion for national unity, has been marred by tension over Hezbollah’s deepening assistance of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, where the group’s Lebanese Sunni rivals support the rebels. The death toll rose to 29 in the worst sectarian clashes in years in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli, widely seen as spurred by the Qusayr fighting
In Qusayr, rocket and artillery attacks killed 22 people, wounded dozens and destroyed houses and buildings where some civilians are living, Mr. Abdulrahman said.
An opposition media activist, Hadi Abdullah, who often films himself at the front lines, described the fighting on Twitter. “Al Qusayr is getting destroyed and completely burned. Hundreds of shells and rockets in all types are falling nonstop on us,” he wrote. “Houses are burning and destroyed.” Other antigovernment activists posted a video on YouTube showing nonstop shelling and bombing, while clouds of smoke rose up in what seemed like a lifeless city.
During the last week, the Syrian military, progovernment militias and Hezbollah appeared to have seized parts of Qusayr as rebels held on in the north — though the two sides each claimed to be prevailing and there was little independent confirmation.
Syria’s state news agency, SANA, said Saturday the army had entered the northern part of the city, “killed numbers of terrorists and destroyed their dens and equipment,” including tunnels, weapons and ammunition.
Rebels say that government forces and Hezbollah have been largely repelled by long-planned defenses, including land mines and improvised bombs. Mr. Abdulrahman said he believed that the government controlled much of the city and was escalating attacks on airports.
SANA noted the holiday and praised Hezbollah for “forcing the Israeli Army to retreat.”
The battle for Al Qusayr — straddling routes to Lebanon and connecting Damascus with the progovernment coastal region — has thrown into sharp relief the direct military involvement of Lebanon’s most powerful political and military organization, Hezbollah, in the Syrian conflict.
Already regarded by the United States government as a terrorist organization, the military wing of Hezbollah is facing a similar status in Europe as Britain, France and Germany push the European Union to follow suit.
In Istanbul, members of the main opposition group, The National Coalition for Syria, met for a third day in an attempt to choose a new president, widen their base by adding members, and decide whether to participate in peace talks planned by the United States and Russia next month.
Members reached via telephone said that the opposition was pressured by foreign governments and key regional players to accept new members — in part to reassure Syrian minorities and to shift the balance of power away from Islamists — and that they had not yet agreed on any new names. “We’ve got a new list of liberals and members of minority groups that are expected to bring internal balance to the group,” said a liberal coalition member, Samir Nachar, reached in Istanbul.
Anne Barnard reported from Beirut, and Hala Droubi from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The battle raged as neighboring Lebanon commemorated the 13th anniversary of the end of Israel’s 15-year occupation of its southern region, which is widely credited to Hezbollah’s years of guerrilla warfare.
Syrian opposition activists said that government forces and Hezbollah had ratcheted up the attacks in an effort to allow Hezbollah to claim victory, or at least success on the battlefield, at a holiday rally where the group’s revered leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was scheduled to address his followers via videotape.
“Hezbollah wants to score points and successes to justify the death of its soldiers in Syria before the speech today,” said Rami Abdulrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group that tracks the violence through a network of contacts inside Syria. Hezbollah’s fighters have suffered unexpected losses in Qusayr, reportedly numbering in the dozens, as the tenacity of the rebels has surprised Syrian government supporters and opponents.
In Lebanon, the holiday, usually an occasion for national unity, has been marred by tension over Hezbollah’s deepening assistance of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, where the group’s Lebanese Sunni rivals support the rebels. The death toll rose to 29 in the worst sectarian clashes in years in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli, widely seen as spurred by the Qusayr fighting
In Qusayr, rocket and artillery attacks killed 22 people, wounded dozens and destroyed houses and buildings where some civilians are living, Mr. Abdulrahman said.
An opposition media activist, Hadi Abdullah, who often films himself at the front lines, described the fighting on Twitter. “Al Qusayr is getting destroyed and completely burned. Hundreds of shells and rockets in all types are falling nonstop on us,” he wrote. “Houses are burning and destroyed.” Other antigovernment activists posted a video on YouTube showing nonstop shelling and bombing, while clouds of smoke rose up in what seemed like a lifeless city.
During the last week, the Syrian military, progovernment militias and Hezbollah appeared to have seized parts of Qusayr as rebels held on in the north — though the two sides each claimed to be prevailing and there was little independent confirmation.
Syria’s state news agency, SANA, said Saturday the army had entered the northern part of the city, “killed numbers of terrorists and destroyed their dens and equipment,” including tunnels, weapons and ammunition.
Rebels say that government forces and Hezbollah have been largely repelled by long-planned defenses, including land mines and improvised bombs. Mr. Abdulrahman said he believed that the government controlled much of the city and was escalating attacks on airports.
SANA noted the holiday and praised Hezbollah for “forcing the Israeli Army to retreat.”
The battle for Al Qusayr — straddling routes to Lebanon and connecting Damascus with the progovernment coastal region — has thrown into sharp relief the direct military involvement of Lebanon’s most powerful political and military organization, Hezbollah, in the Syrian conflict.
Already regarded by the United States government as a terrorist organization, the military wing of Hezbollah is facing a similar status in Europe as Britain, France and Germany push the European Union to follow suit.
In Istanbul, members of the main opposition group, The National Coalition for Syria, met for a third day in an attempt to choose a new president, widen their base by adding members, and decide whether to participate in peace talks planned by the United States and Russia next month.
Members reached via telephone said that the opposition was pressured by foreign governments and key regional players to accept new members — in part to reassure Syrian minorities and to shift the balance of power away from Islamists — and that they had not yet agreed on any new names. “We’ve got a new list of liberals and members of minority groups that are expected to bring internal balance to the group,” said a liberal coalition member, Samir Nachar, reached in Istanbul.
Anne Barnard reported from Beirut, and Hala Droubi from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.