Battle of al-Qusayr (2013)

Battle of al-Qusayr (2013)
	Part of the Syrian civil war and the Al-Qusayr offensive
Date	19 May – 5 June 2013; (2 weeks and 3 days)
Location	Al-Qusayr and its district, Syria
Result	Decisive Syrian Army & Hezbollah victory
Belligerents
Free Syrian Army; Syrian Islamic Liberation Front; Al-Nusra Front	Syrian Arab Republic Syrian Armed Forces; National Defense Forces Popular Committees; ; Hezbollah
Commanders and leaders
Lt. Col. Mohieddin al-Zain; (al-Qusayr military council); Abu Omar †; (top Al-Nusra Front commander); Abdul Qader Saleh (WIA); (Al-Tawhid Brigade commander); Mahmoud Mohammed Ammar †; (Al Mughaouirs Brigade commander); Bilal Idris †; (Farouq Battalion commander); Nawaf Alwani †; (Al Nusra Front commander); Bakr Saleh Mustapha †; (Kassioune Brigade commander); Abul-Baraa; (al-Nusra front 'Emir')	Abu Jihad; (Hezbollah commander); Fadi al-Jazar †; (Hezbollah commander) Mustafa Badreddine
Units involved
15 rebel units	1st Armoured Division; 10th Mechanised Division; Unit 910 (Hezbollah)
Strength
1,900 fighters	5,000–6,000 soldiers and militiamen,; 1,700–2,000 Hezbollah fighters
Casualties and losses
431–500+ killed, 1,000 wounded (opposition claim); 1,257 killed, 1,192 wounded, 1,000 captured (government claim)	114 Hezbollah fighters, 23 soldiers and militiamen and 8 Iranian officers killed, 200 Hezbollah fighters wounded
	47 civilians killed and 500 wounded

The second of two battles in al-Qusayr started on 19 May 2013, as part of the larger al-Qusayr offensive, launched in early April 2013 by the Syrian Army and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, during the Syrian civil war, with the aim of capturing the villages around the rebel-held town of al-Qusayr and ultimately launching an attack on the town itself. The region was strategically important as a supply route for rebels fighting Syrian government forces in Homs and also for the Syrian government, as it lies between the capital, Damascus, and the Syrian coast, a stronghold for Assad supporters.

Prior to the offensive, the Syrian Air Force dropped leaflets over the town warning that government forces were going to attack the city. This led to thousands of civilians fleeing, though 25,000 residents stayed. Free Syrian Army (FSA) General Salim Idris warned of a "massacre" if the Syrian Army and Hezbollah were to take the town.

During the final days of the battle Hezbollah forces and rebels negotiated a withdrawal plan, in which the rebels and civilians could evacuate the town through a narrow corridor without being attacked. On 5 June, after two weeks of fighting, the Syrian Army and Hezbollah regained control of al-Qusayr as the last rebel contingents retreated. One observer described the battle as the "defining battle of the country's civil war."

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