The Syrian Arab Army started an invasion of the city of Qusair yesterday morning despite the UN-brokered ceasefire. The army moved some fifty vehicles into the city under the cover of heavy shelling.

Qusair, in the Homs governorate, has witnessed intermittent shelling and heavy deployment of military checkpoints over the past month but the invasion started yesterday morning. The Syrian Army intensified shelling from three directions; Sharshar Bridge, Dabaa Military Airport, and the Sayegh neighborhood.

The army shelled the neighborhood of Qusair’s central administration building before moving into the city. After the shelling, the army set up an operations base in the administration building and inside a nearby school. It then started launching its attacks from the new camp.

“They only control half of the city,” Rami Yousef an activist told Al-Ayyam. “Whenever they want to take a new neighborhood, they shell it brutally before bringing their tanks.”

Due to the lack of bomb shelters in the city the residents had to make their own. Digging large holes in the ground and fortifying roofs with reinforced concrete, they hope this will offer them some safety from the Syrian Army’s onslaught of the city.

Rami, from Bab Dreib in Homs’ provincial capital, has had to flee after the army invaded laying waste to the neighborhood. He says Qusair was his second refuge after he left Bab Dreib. Rami hopes this is his last move.