Syrian government troops launched a major offensive over the weekend on rebel-held areas within the strategic city of Homs. The attacks are part of a campaign that observers believe is aimed at consolidating the Bashar al-Assad regime’s control in the aftermath of the regime’s Hezbollah-backed success in seizing the strategically critical city of Qusayr. The attack broad and sustained:

Activists said jets and mortars had pounded rebel-held areas of the city that have been under siege by Assad’s troops for a year, and soldiers fought battles with rebel fighters in several districts.

“Government forces are trying to storm (Homs) from all fronts,” said an activist using the name Abu Mohammad. There were no immediate details of casualties but video footage uploaded by activists showed heavy explosions and white clouds of smoke rising from what they said were rebel districts. Loud, concentrated rounds of gunfire could also be heard.

Securing Homs would insulate the regime’s supply lines between the country’s capital, Damascus, and the Mediterranean Sea. The offensive came after reports emerged Friday that opposition forces managed to seize a major military outpost near the southern city of Deraa, positioning rebels to target the government-controlled city.

Meanwhile new developments are underscoring the sectarian dimensions of the conflict. Hundreds of rebels are believed to have fled across the Syrian-Lebanese border for medical treatment, which is reportedly being paid for by sympathetic Lebanese Sunnis:

In Tripoli, a Sunni stronghold on the country’s northern coast, hundreds of Syrian rebels – and a large number of injured civilians – are holed up for medical treatment in wards scattered throughout the city, Lebanon’s second largest. Doctors say anonymous Sunni donors, mainly Lebanese, are footing the bill as rebels recover before they rejoin the fight. The names of the hospitals are kept secret as a means of avoiding reprisal attacks from Hezbollah, the Shiite paramilitary group that is now fighting on Bashar al-Assad’s behalf.

“There’s been a huge embrace of Sunni fighters in this part of the country,” explains Dr. Nauhad Almurad, a doctor at a private hospital. Some 34 Syrian patients, mostly rebel fighters, were being treated that day in a special sealed-off ward.

The Al Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front also issued a statement claiming that it was coordinating with other Syrian rebels groups in orchestrating attacks on government troops.

[Photo: FreedomHouse / Flickr]