At least 66 residents of the city were believed by Western media outlets to have been killed by the security forces before heavier fighting began in February 2012.

[6] On 10 February, Syrian state media reported the resumption of fighting in Al-Qusayr and the death of a lieutenant colonel, a chief warrant officer, and two other policemen.

After the attack on the intelligence building, members of the FSA prepared for a battle as the estimated 400 pro-government soldiers and militia in the city barricaded themselves in the main hospital and the town hall.

[11] The FSA was eventually able to "turn the tide" on 25 February, when 30 soldiers and a T-62 tank defected to the Free Syrian Army's side.

It was hidden temporarily and then jump-started with the aid of two tractors and a truck and proved its worth immediately by firing shells into the enemy positions and turning the battle.

Due to lack of access to the cemetery 60 people were buried in a public garden, including a recently killed photographer, who died from his wounds in Lebanon and was sent back for his burial in his hometown.

The rebels, who were holding about half of the city, complained that they were running low on ammunition as it was increasingly difficult to get weapons from Lebanon due to the deployment of the Syrian army.

On the morning of 4 March, the army launched an offensive on Al-Qusayr, starting with artillery shelling, followed by tanks rolling into town.

[18][citation needed] Government artillery brought down a bridge near Al-Qusayr, which was a route for civilian refugees, retreating rebels and wounded leaving Homs province and going to Lebanon.

One FSA fighter reported that the Syrian army might launch a new offensive to try and take the town, and that at least two civilians were killed in one round of shelling.

[2] By 23 April, the FSA had taken over security responsibilities in northern Qusayr and surrounding villages and brought at least one former police officer back to work.

[24] It was also reported that one of the leaders of the radical Lebanese terrorist group Fatah al-Islam, Abdel Ghani Jawhar, was killed in Qusayr, after he blew himself up while making a bomb on 20 April.

[26] On 9 May, Al Jazeera reporter James Bays ventured to Qusayr and found that there were two main brigades of opposition fighters in the city.

[29] In early July, it was confirmed that the fighting for the city was still ongoing when an Al Jazeera correspondent made an exclusive report which witnessed the capture of the main government stronghold in Qusayr, the town hall.

[33] On 10 July, reports suggested Al-Qusayr was completely under rebel control, with the city being under siege from the surrounding countryside, while residents were facing a humanitarian catastrophe.

[35] On 29 July, 8 rebels were killed and 15 other wounded when the law enforcement members repelled an attack, state media reported.

[37] On October 2, the FSA claimed to have killed Hezbollah commander Ali Hussein Nassif during an ambush in the vicinity of Al-Qusayr.

The New York Times reported that rockets were indeed being launched from nearby Hermel, a Hezbollah-dominated town in Lebanon, across the border, about 10 miles from Al-Qusayr.