Al-Qusayr (, , Literary Arabic: ) is a city in western Syria, administratively part of the Homs Governorate. It is located about south of Homs and is situated in a mountainous area overlooking Syria's border with Lebanon which lies to the southwest. Nearby localities include Rablah and Zira'a to the south, Jandar further to the east, al-Dabaah to the northeast, Arjoun to the northwest and Aqrabiyah to the west. Al-Qusayr has an altitude of .
A Muslim majority city with a significant Christian minority, al-Qusayr had a population of 29,818 in 2004 according to the Syrian census. In addition to being capital of the al-Qusayr District, it is also the administrative center of the al-Qusayr nahiyah ("subdistrict") which consisted of 60 localities with a collective population of 107,470 in 2004.
History
Al-Qusayr is the closest modern-day city to the ancient walled hilltop city of Qadesh (now the ruins known as Tell Nebi Mend, ( ft)) named for the idol worshipped by the ancients at the time and which sits north and above the plain east of the river where historians place the largest known chariot vs. chariot battle in antiquity, the Battle of Qadash, May 1274 BC between the forces of Ramesses II's Egypt and the Anatolian Empire of the Hittites of Muwatalli II.
Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi visited the town in the early 13th-century, during Ayyubid rule, and noted al-Qusayr was located north of Damascus, was surrounded by gardens and possessed an extensive khan (caravansary.)
During the Khedivate Egyptian conquest of the Levant in 1832, Ibrahim Pasha, the leader of the campaign, was hosted in al-Qusayr. Following his army's withdrawal, several Egyptian families remained in the town because of its climate and abundant agriculture. Olives, apples, apricots, wheat, barley and potatoes were grown in the area.
2011–2013 Syrian civil war
Some of al-Qusayr's inhabitants participated in the 2011–2013 Syrian civil war against the government of Bashar al-Assad. The town became the destination for a number of defectors from the Syrian Army. Between the start of the rebellion in April 2011 and 13 February 2012, at least 70 residents have been killed. Since November 2011, al-Qusayr had been besieged by the army. On 13 February, about 400 army soldiers and pro-government militiamen commandeered the city's main hospital and the municipal hall. There were reportedly several pro-government snipers in the city putting daily life at a standstill and the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) had established a base in the city.
The people of al-Qusayr set up a local civilians committee largely to prevent inter-religious strife in the city. Between 7–9 February, the FSA kidnapped a Christian Syrian Army corporal who they suspected was cooperating with government forces and whose family, they claimed, operated an unofficial checkpoint outside al-Qusayr to harass anti-government residents. Afterward, pro-government residents kidnapped six Sunni Muslims from the city, killing one. A local mob subsequently abducted 20 Christians. All were released in an exchange deal mediated by the local civilians committee which also stipulated the exile of the corporal and his family from al-Qusayr. On 13 February, the FSA raided and captured the city's mukhabarat (intelligence or security agency) headquarters, killing five military intelligence agents in the process. In June 2012 the military chief of the armed opposition, Abdel Salam Harba, ordered the remaining thousand of the prior ten thousand Christians to leave al-Qusayr.
Four tanks were sent to the city afterward. However, one of the tanks defected to the opposition together with 30 soldiers. The defected tank managed to take out the other three tanks, killing 20 government soldiers, according to local rebels. The FSA then captured the town hall and hospital, and focused on other government positions. On 25 February, the whole town was controlled by the FSA. Since the government sent no further reinforcements, the 80 remaining government soldiers fled from their posts in al-Qusayr.