Qusair

Qusair: Buoyed by Wednesday's victory in the strategic town of Qusair, pro-government forces have directed their efforts toward driving rebels from strategic areas to the north, including the cities of Homs and Aleppo, according to Times Colonist. The push brought Assad's troops to the edge of Buwaydah village, also north of Qusair, where most of the rebels who withdrew from Qusair took up positions and regrouped. State TV reported government troops broke into the village Friday night and were pursuing rebels there and BEIRUT - Syrian troops backed by Hezbollah fighters pressed forward with their offensive in the country's opposition-held heartland on Friday, taking two small villages and entering a third near a strategic town that was captured by the government earlier this week, while the U.N. asked donor countries for $5.2 billion in humanitarian aid as it predicted the number of refugees could more than double by the end of the year. Government forces faced little resistance Friday as they took control of the villages of Salhiyeh and Masoudiyeh, just north of Qusair, activists and the state news agency SANA said. On Thursday, the rebels also lost control of the nearby village of Dabaa. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.