Syrian army attacks rebel stronghold

The Syrian army has pounded the rebel-held central town of Qusayr, killing at least 51 people in an apparent preparation for a ground assault, watchdog and activists said.

The attack on Sunday came a day after a rare interview with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was released, in which he said that his government was not using "fighters from outside of Syria, of other nationalities, and needs no support from any Arab or foreign state".

There are now conflicting reports as to whether or not government forces have entered the town centre, with state TV reporting the army is inside the walls, but the opposition fighters said that this is not the case.

Reports coming out of Qusayr, which is in Homs province, said fighters of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement assisted the military.

Speaking from Qusayr, anti-government activist Hadi Abdallah said Syrian warplanes bombed the town in the morning and shells were hitting the town at a rate of up to 50 a minute.

"The army is hitting Qusayr with tanks and artillery from the north and east while Hezbollah is firing mortar rounds and
multiple rocket launchers from the south and west," he said.

Rami Khouri, director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, American University of Beirut said that Assad would want control of Qusayr before the conference being planned for June to discuss a resolution to the conflict.

"There are several different strategic, diplomatic, and political factors that makes Qusayr particularly important," he said.

"It is the heartland of the Alawite community, it has been used as a conduit for supplies, men and guns going in to Syria, and it is close to Lebanon.

"Assad wants to make sure he is in the strongest position possible if this conference takes place."

Abu Imad, another anti-government activist in the Qusayr region, said the rebel grip was tenuous but the army was not yet in control of the town.

"If Qusayr falls, it will be a big problem because the regime will be in control of most of the countryside south of the city of Homs and the rebel forces holding old Homs will be squeezed," he said.

The death toll was likely to rise, as many people were critically injured in the onslaught, and that opposition fighters were reporting that most of the dead were civilians.

The Syrian Revolution General Commission, a network of activists on the ground, also reported an intense bombardment of Qusayr, which the Syrian regime has been trying to recapture.

"A rain of shells on the city, at the same time as artillery fire and mortar fire from dawn. Homes were destroyed and burnt down," the group said.

The Qusayr district of Homs province has been the focus of fierce fighting between government forces and the rebels in recent weeks.

Assad spoke to the Argentine newspaper Clarin and the Argentine state news agency Telam in a frank and lengthy interview in Damascus, released on Saturday, in which he insisted that he will not resign before elections in 2014.

UK-based activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 52 people were killed in Qusair: 48 fighters and three civilians.

Unconfirmed reports in Lebanese media said that a number of Hezbollah fighters had been killed in a rebel ambush.

The town - close to the border with Lebanon and with a population of 30,000 - has great strategic value. Its control would give the government access from the capital to the coast.