In another day of fierce fighting in the strategic Syrian town of Qusayr, government forces backed by fighters from the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah continued their offensive on Tuesday against anti-government rebels who have long held the town amid conflicting reports about the progress of the fighting.
Warplanes launched airstrikes Tuesday morning on Qusayr, in the central province of Homs, as clashes raging between rebels and Hezbollah fighters left two rebels dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a watchdog group based in Britain with contacts in Syria.
Government forces also lobbed mortar shells at Qusayr as clashes intensified on the outskirts of the citiy, according to the Local Coordination Committees, a network of activists tracking the fighting.
Official Syrian and Hezbollah news media have portrayed the government offensive to retake the city as progressing quickly, while rebels say they are holding out against better-armed forces.
The Syrian state news agency, SANA, said Tuesday that army units had killed rebels in the northern and central districts of Qusayr, destroying tunnels, weapons and explosive devices as it moved in from the eastern section that the government said it seized on Monday. The agency said a commander of Al Nusra Front, the extremist rebel group labeled a terrorist organization by the United States, had been killed.
Rebels said they would fight on. “The men are still standing strong on all fronts,” said Ammar, an activist in Qusayr reached through Skype. “Their morale is very high and, God willing, military reinforcements from the Free Army should arrive soon.”
He played down the recent gains announced by the Syrian government. “Yes, they’ve been holding large swaths of Homs for a while now,” he said. “They are in control there, but they haven’t made any real advances in Qusayr.”
The activist added that rebels learned Monday, through an informant, that Hezbollah fighters had decided to shift tactics and infiltrate the outskirts of the town through alleyways to turn the battle into a more traditional guerrilla war, for which they have been trained.
“But Hezbollah is still backed by the regime’s warplanes,” he said. “Now we have to wait and see who holds out for a longer period of time.”
The violence in the past three days, coupled with continuous artillery shelling by regime forces, has claimed scores of civilian lives, according to the activist. He said 64 civilians had died and more than 500 had been wounded. “We have no way of rescuing them right now,” he said.
The fighting in Qusayr came amid reports of violence spilling over Syria’s western and southern borders. SANA said on Tuesday that the army had destroyed an Israeli military vehicle that entered Syrian territory near the Golan Heights. Quoting the army’s general command, the agency said the vehicle had crossed the Golan cease-fire line near the village of Bir Ajam and that Israelis had fired two rockets into Syria, causing no casualties.
SANA said that the alleged incursion was meant to raise the “collapsed morale” of rebels after blows they suffered in Qusayr. It was the second time in two days that Syrian state media, aiming to bolster its case that Syria’s opposition is allied with Israel, claimed it had evidence of Israel aiding the rebels. On Monday, state media showed pictures of what it said was an Israeli jeep found in Qusayr but it appeared to be an old vehicle that experts said could have been supplied to Israeli-allied militias in south Lebanon years ago.
Capt. Eytan Buchman, a spokesman for the Israeli military, denied the Syrian version, saying, “This is taking things way out of proportion.”
Captain Buchman said an I.D.F. Jeep on routine patrol in the central Golan Heights had been hit from the Syrian side overnight and responded. “There was an Israeli jeep in Israeli territory,” he said. “Syrians opened fire, we returned fire. The jeep was lightly damaged and we confirmed a direct hit on the Syrian target.”
The Israeli military has struck Syrian targets near the cease-fire line about half a dozen times in recent months, after incidents in which it asserted that Syrian forces had intentionally targeted Israel. It has also counted more than two dozen incidents of stray rounds from internal Syrian battles landing in the Israeli-controlled Golan. Captain Buchman noted that there had also been reports in Syria on Monday about an Israeli vehicle being hit and said they were untrue.
Rebels near Qusayr and Hezbollah fighters just across the border in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley have also traded artillery fire in recent days, accusing each other of endangering civilians with the imprecise weapons.
The fierce fighting in Qusayr has escalated in recent weeks, pitting mainly Alawite and Shiite fighters against Sunnis, further sharpening the sectarian schisms that have plagued Syria since the peaceful uprising there turned into an armed rebellion with sectarian undertones.
As Hezbollah’s role in supporting government forces has become more pronounced, Syrians who once felt admiration for the militant group expressed dismay at this turn of events. They expressed their disillusionment with the group, which once enjoyed a wide base of popular support across the region.
Diana Rifai, a 23-year-old woman living in Beirut who volunteers at a camp for Syrian refugees in Lebanon said around 100 Syrian families from Qusayr had sought refuge in the northern Lebanese area of Wadi Khaled during the past three days.
“Many have injuries, too,” she said, calling the situation “devastating.”
“Something unbelievable honestly," she said. "I saw them in Wadi Khaled, either in unfinished buildings or in storage rooms.”
She added that some had been taken in by Lebanese families.
During her relief work, Ms. Rifai encountered a 4-year-old boy named Bashar, the given name of the embattled president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad. The child told her that, ashamed of his name, he took it upon himself to change it to Mohammed.
Qassem Tilawi, a commander in the Free Syrian Army fighting to unseat Mr. Assad also voiced his disappointment about Hezbollah’s role in Syria.
“I wasn’t expecting that from them,” he said.
By HANIA MOURTADA and ANNE BARNARD
Hania Mourtada and Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon, Hala Droubi from Dubai, and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem.
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