‘If al-Qusayr falls, we will have to take this battle to Beirut and die there’

June 4, 2013

Abu Alwaleed is an Arabic teacher in the city of Homs, an estimated 25km from Qusayr. He says rebels cannot break through the blockade around al-Qusayr imposed by the regime and Hezbollah fighters. While the rebels are saying they are winning the fight, Abu Alwaleed tells Nuha Shabaan that the facts tell a different story.

Q: What is the latest from on the ground in al-Qusayr?

A: The air force targeted al-Qusayr from the early morning by doing raids on the city and destroying many houses using surface-to-surface missiles. The big explosions are shaking the city.

We face the terror of Hezbollah and regime forces on a daily basis. Surface-to-surface missiles are a regular thing right now. Even the cemeteries are not safe from their missiles right now. The regime is taking violent revenge on al-Qusayr and its civilians. Each time they try to break through the city, they fail, but at the same time the rebels need ammunition and weapons to keep going. The rebels are being killed at the hand of foreigners [Hezbollah fighters], while the silence of the world is killing us more. We have about 1,000 injured person inside al-Qusayr, and the city is blockaded from the four sides and we cannot treat them.

Q: Are the regime and Hezbollah in fact winning, as they say in their media?

A: Things are very bad right now. Many battalion leaders have died and the airport has been occupied by Hezbollah. The blockaded fighters in the city are facing all the kinds of bombardments. We have shortages of medicine, ammunition, and a cut in the supply roads. Most of the fighting battalions that have come to help are waiting outside the battlefield, as there is no access for them. They are like an audience to the battle, and not fighters, and their numbers are overrated. The regime convoys pass the roads without any one confronting them.

The media connected with the fighters are repeating the scenario of Baba Amro by saying the FSA is winning the war. There are thousands of Hezbollah fighters that are trained in street fighting. I feel very bad for saying that if al-Qusayr falls, we will have to take this battle to Beirut and die there, there is no other option.

Q: What about the humanitarian situation?

A: Very bad and a tragedy. It is a disaster in every sense of the word. There are babies in need of milk, there is no flour, many injuries, and we have not seen any private or international organizations to help us despite all the SOS calls we made to open safe pathways for the civilians and the injured.