The Battle of al-Qusayr and the Rebels of Syria's Coastal Region (2013)

It has now been ten years since the Battle of al-Qusayr in the Homs countryside on the border with Lebanon. The battle is best remembered for the overt role that Hezbollah played to help the Syrian government retake the town from rebel control, marking the first occasion in which Hezbollah’s overt intervention in the Syrian civil war came to wider public attention. In addition, the battle is remembered for the large number of Hezbollah fighters killed in the battle.

The following account- composed by the owner of the Telegram channel “Archive of the Battles and Martyrs of the Syrian Sahel” (Sahel referring to the coastal region of Syria)- presents a very interesting and rather lesser known aspect of the battle: namely, the unsuccessful attempt by rebels from elsewhere to break the siege of al-Qusayr imposed by the Syrian army and Hezbollah. This attempt involved a contingent of rebels from the Sahel area and other parts of northern Syria travelling an elaborate route down from Idlib into the Hama countryside and then the Homs desert, up through the Qalamoun mountains and finally arriving at the Lebanese border and the farms of the al-Qusayr area. Ultimately, however, these rebels could not break the siege and reach the town. The entire expedition reputedly lasted three weeks.