REPORT: Fighting in Syria's al-Qusayr, UN says world watching

        
Violence continued in many Syrian cities days before the international meeting between the UN, Moscow and Washington which will be held on Wednesday in Geneva, in preparation for the international conference aiming at finding a solution to the Syrian crisis.                                       

On the field, the state-run news agency SANA confirmed that a number of “terrorists’ hideouts” were destroyed in southwest al-Qusayr, noting that the Syrian army took control over several buildings in the city’s center where the rebels used to hide in order to target army units. 

Meanwhile, Syrian troops and Hezbollah fighters besieging the border town of al-Qusayr fought with rebels as the United Nations warned all sides they would be held accountable for the suffering of trapped civilians.             

For its part, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighting was taking place inside al-Qusayr and in villages around it, largely controlled by President Bashar al-Assad's forces who have cut off access to the town.                

Rebels have pleaded for military help and medical aid for the hundreds of people wounded in the onslaught by government forces, who are also fighting back fiercely around the capital Damascus and the south and center of the country.                      

Early on Saturday, at least seven rockets were fired into Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley from rebel-controlled Syrian territory, security sources said.             

Most of the rockets landed in empty fields. No one was hurt but some buildings were hit by shrapnel.                   

Positions:             

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was monitoring the battle for al-Qusayr "with the gravest concern" and called on both sides to allow civilians to escape the town, usually home to 30,000 people.             
On another note, Syria gleefully turned the tables on Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan over his response to anti-government demonstrations, calling on him to halt the violent repression of peaceful protests or resign.            

Syrian state television broadcast hours of live footage from Istanbul, where thousands of protesters clashed for a second day with riot police who fired teargas and water cannons.              


REUTERS/AP/LBCI


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