Rockets Land in Hermel Amid Qusayr Assault, Syria Opposition Accuses Hizbullah of 'Genocide'
Several rockets landed in and around Lebanon’s northeastern town of Hermel from Syria as Syrian troops backed by Hizbullah fighters launched an assault on the rebel-held central town of Qusayr.
The state-run National News Agency said around eight Grad rockets hit different areas of Hermel.
According to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3), several rockets landed in a residential neighborhood, causing limited material damage.
Qusayr is home to about 20,000 residents and has been besieged for weeks by Syrian government troops.
Opposition activists said Hizbullah members launched on Sunday the assault on the town along with President Bashar Assad's troops in the area.
Qusayr is strategically important because it is close to the Lebanese border and it links Damascus with the coast, where regime loyalists are concentrated. This includes Alawites to which the Assad family belongs.
Later on Sunday, a source close to Hizbullah said four Hizbullah fighters from the Bekaa region were killed overnight in the town of Qusayr, shortly before Syrian forces began the long-expected assault.
Meanwhile, Radio Voice of Lebanon (100.5) said Hizbullah transported 10 bodies and more than 17 wounded fighters from Syria into Lebanon on Sunday evening.
MTV said Hizbullah announced the death of its member Hatem Hussein who hails from the town of Srifa in Tyre District and was killed in Qusayr.
Citing reports, the TV network said a Hizbullah official called Fadi al-Jazzar was killed in Qusayr's battles and contact was lost with a group that was under his command.
It later quoted its correspondent as saying that Hizbullah members Hasan Faisal Shukur, Abbas Mohammed Othman, Mohammed Fouad Rabah, Mohammed Qassem Abdul Sater, Hajj Ahmed Wael Raad and Hajj Ridwan al-Attar were killed in Qusayr's battles.
Earlier, MTV said a group belonging to the jihadist al-Nusra Front surrendered to a Hizbullah group after its leaders fled to the Syrian town of al-Dabaa near Qusayr.
The Syrian opposition condemned "attempts to invade" the town, which it said could render U.S.-Russian attempts to organize a peace conference "meaningless."
The Syrian National Council, a key component of the opposition, denounced the "barbaric and destructive bombing" of Qusayr.
It accused the regime of working with Hizbullah to "invade the town and wipe it and its residents off the map."
"We say to the countries that are working for a political solution in Syria that allowing this invasion to go ahead in silence... will render any conference and any peace effort meaningless," the group said in a statement.
The United States and Russia are working to organize a peace conference next month, in a bid to find a political solution to the conflict.
The statement accused “forces from outside Syria of committing genocide and war crimes.”
The U.N. Security Council should “carry out its duty in preventing members of an extremist terrorist group like Hizbullah and forces that back terrorism like Iran from violating the border of our country and invading the homes of the (Syrian) people,” it said.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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