(Reuters) - Syrian forces and their Hezbollah militant allies seized control on Wednesday of the border town of Qusair, dealing a strategic defeat to rebel fighters battling for two years to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
Rebels said they had pulled out of Qusair, which lies on a cross-border supply route with neighboring Lebanon, after two weeks of fierce battles which marked Lebanese Hezbollah's deepest military involvement yet in Syria's civil war.
One Hezbollah fighter told Reuters that they took the town in a rapid overnight offensive, allowing some fighters to flee. "We did a sudden surprise attack in the early hours and entered the town. They escaped," he said.
Qusair had been in rebel hands for over a year and television images from the town on Wednesday showed widespread destruction, with buildings reduced to rubble, the streets torn up and no residents in sight.
Assad's forces fought hard to seize it to reassert control of a corridor through the central province of Homs which links Damascus to the coastal heartland of Assad's minority Alawites, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
"Whoever controls Qusair controls the center of the country, and whoever controls the center of the country controls all of Syria," said Brigadier General Yahya Suleiman, speaking to Beirut-based Mayadeen television.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar television showed a man climbing the bullet-pocked clocktower in the town's central square to plant a Syrian flag, while tanks and troops moved through the streets.
"Our heroic armed forces have returned security and stability to all of the town of Qusair," a statement carried by Syrian state television said.
