BEIRUT — Syrian government forces and their allies in Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, seized most of the strategic crossroads town of Qusair early Wednesday, a painful defeat for outgunned Syrian rebels and an advance for President Bashar Assad. If it sticks, the military gain could infuse his forces with momentum and embolden him to push for military victory just as Russia and the United States are pressing the combatants to negotiate.
The government’s triumphal advance into Qusair — formerly home to some 40,000 people near the Lebanese border and a key supply route for both sides — also suggested that the intervention on Assad’s side by Hezbollah had proved decisive as its fighters besieged, then stormed, a rebel stronghold that the Syrian military had bombarded in vain for months.
Yet the intervention also carries big political risks for Hezbollah, which has historically been revered in Syria for its opposition to Israel but is now seen as a sectarian-driven occupying force by Assad’s insurgent enemies, who are mostly Sunni. Hezbollah has said it intervened in Syria to protect neighboring Lebanon from Islamist extremists.
At the same time, senior U.S., Russian and U.N. officials convened in Geneva to try to find enough common ground among themselves and the Syrian combatants to hold talks to halt the carnage and work toward a political transition.
By late afternoon, the sides had failed to agree even on who would attend the conference, and officials said they would adjourn and try again June 25.
In Syria, images broadcast by media embedded with government troops showed a deserted town with heavily damaged buildings and the Syrian flag flying over a clock tower in its main square. Syrian soldiers celebrated atop rubble, waving Syrian flags and chanting pro-regime slogans. Military bulldozers were removing rubble and clearing roads as armored vehicles whizzed by.
Outnumbered and outgunned, rebel fighters held out for weeks after the regime launched its assault on Qusair on May 19. They inflicted heavier than expected casualties on the Hezbollah forces who joined the battle, forcing the group to admit its involvement as dozens of its fighters were brought home for burial.
