Syrian opposition urges rebel fighters to ‘rush to rescue’ of Qusayr

Syria's opposition urged fighters across the country Wednesday to "rush to the rescue" of rebel stronghold Qusayr, while appealing to the international community to set up a humanitarian corridor to the embattled town.

Syria's acting National Coalition opposition chief George Sabra issued the call for rebel reinforcements to the town as Syrian troops backed by fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement battled for control of Qusayr.

"Revolutionary battalions and Free Syrian Army, rush to the rescue of Qusayr and Homs," Sabra said in a statement, urging brigades around the country to send forces and weapons, "however small."

"We call on the international community to open a humanitarian corridor to rescue the wounded and take in medicine and assistance to 50,000 besieged people," he added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog estimates around 25,000 civilians are trapped inside Qusayr, with thousands more still in villages around the town in central Homs province bordering Lebanon.

Sabra also urged the U.N. Security Council "to convene an emergency meeting and go beyond expressing concern to action."

"Our country's borders and sovereignty and the lives of its citizens are being violated. We call on the Security Council to take a position equal to the seriousness of this situation," he said.

The Syrian army backed by Hezbollah fighters launched a long-expected assault against Qusayr on Sunday, reportedly entering the town and seizing several municipal buildings.

The fighting has since left more than 100 people dead, the Observatory said on Tuesday, most of them rebel fighters and Hezbollah members.

The regime has made recapturing Qusayr a key objective due to the town's strategic location between the capital Damascus and the Mediterranean coast, and near the border with Lebanon.

The battle has been drawing in Lebanon, with Syrian regime ally Hezbollah siding with the army and Sunni Lebanese battling alongside rebel forces.

Earlier this week, the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) held Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah personally responsible for the situation in the Syrian border town of Qusayr, as sectarian tension was on the rise in neighboring Lebanon.

“We announced that Hassan Nasrallah will be held personally responsible for the current situation because he in person is meeting with all of [his fighters] before they head to Qusayr,” FSA spokesperson Louay Almokdad told Al Arabiya English. “We are today calling Nasrallah a killer of the Syrian people.”

“It has reached the audacity and extent of criminal behavior that Nasrallah met with 1,200 of his fighters in the southern suburbs [of Beirut] before they headed to [Syria],” the FSA spokesperson said, adding the Hezbollah chief has distributed “tokens of motivation on which Shiite slogans – Yatharat al-Hussein – were written to each of his fighters.”

“We are certain these are fighters of Hassan Nasrallah. They are no longer Hezbollah, they are fighters of Hassan Nasrallah and [Iran’s supreme leader] Ali Khamanei.”

However, the FSA spokesperson also said that, along with Hezbollah, were fighters from other Lebanese groups, including the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and the Baath Party.

The Syrian rebels have repeatedly warned that they will hit Hezbollah targets on Lebanese territory if the latter does not withdraw from Syria and have called on the Lebanese government to put a stop to Hezbollah intervention.