Baladi News – Homs (Saleh al-Dahheik)
Defector Colonel Yusuf Waw gave an account of the horrible massacre of al –Qusayr that took place on 5 June 2013, which coincides with the day of the 1967 setback.
In the morning of that day, the remaining residents of al-Qusayr, who amounted to 12 thousands, headed towards al-Salihiyya and al-Bowayda al-Sharqiyya in the north on their feet.
Chased by Assad’s regime forces and carrying their wounded friends and relatives, the group reached the famous “death gap” between al-Husayniyya and Shamsin after being after suffering enormous casualties.
“The residents spread among the almond and olive trees. At 9 Am, a patrol of the regime headed towards the area, and the rebels gathered their humble arms and resisted the attacking force, which forced the patrol to escape, whereas the rebels claimed 13 victims,” the speaker said, indicating that the attack was followed by a heavy artillery shelling.
On the night of 7 June, the group, short of food and water, had to pass through the gap that extends 1.5 km between two barricades of the regime on open ground. The front of the group, which included children and women, succeeded to cross the gap towards the east.
“However, the others, including me, were discovered, and started running randomly under the heavy fires of the regime forces and hid behind an earthen berm,” added the speaker.
After heavy casualties were afflicted upon the group, they decided that the only way to cross was to attack one of the barricades as there was nothing to lose.
Whereas the group was trying to cross the highway under heavy shelling, tanks were waiting at the bisector. The tanks committed a terrible massacre against the people who were trying to cross, while others kept hiding among pine and cypress trees on the side of the highway.
After desperate attempts, the remaining number of people reached al-Dibeh village, “the city of dreams”, in the morning, where they started checking who was present and who was absent, concluded the speaker.
Media activist Hadi Al Abdullah, who was one of those who succeeded to cross, indicated that the death toll of the forgotten massacre reached 700, of them 400 were documented.
According to leaked information, the regime forces used caterpillars to gather the corpses, burned them, and buried them in a big hole.
On 8 June, the displaced headed towards Qalamun cities on trucks donated by local residents. At night, the trucks moved slowly on agricultural zig-zag roads with their lights turned off to avoid the barracks and positions of the 11th Division of Assad’s forces. However, one truck carrying 100 people was ambushed by a Shilka vehicle. Everyone on the truck was killed, except a lucky man who was destined to live and tell the story.