The report Wednesday said Syrian troops had ousted "terrorists" -- a term the government uses to describe opposition fighters trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad.
Qusair is located along a key highway linking Damascus to the Mediterranean coast, and is close to rebel smuggling routes along border.
The fighting in Qusair has drawn in Hezbollah militants from Lebanon, raising international concerns about the spread of the Syrian conflict. Last week, the United Nations Human Rights Council approved a resolution condemning Mr. Assad's government for using "foreign fighters" in Qusair.
Meanwhile, officials from the United Nations, Russia and the United States are holding talks Wednesday in Geneva, as they try to pull together a peace conference to end the crisis.
They hope to establish negotiations between the Syrian government and the opposition to form a transitional government, but the talks have yet to materialize.
Reports of Chemical Weapons Use
On Tuesday, the United Nations released a report saying there are "reasonable grounds" to believe a limited amount of chemical weapons have been used in Syria, while France said it is certain that the nerve agent sarin was used multiple times.
The report by the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria said there is not enough evidence to determine which chemical agents have been used in Syria or who deployed them. It said those conclusions would require testing victims and collecting samples at the site of four alleged attacks.
But in Paris, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said tests performed by a French laboratory showed with certainty that the deadly nerve agent sarin was used in Syria on several occasions.
He said the results were handed over to the United Nations, but did not disclose where or by whom the sarin gas had been used.
The White House said Tuesday the United States needs more evidence about the use of chemical weapons in Syria before making decisions on how to respond.
The U.N. report urges Syria to allow a team of U.N. investigators into the country to investigate chemical weapons use. The Syrian government has said investigators would only be able to visit one site.
Both rebels and the Syrian government have accused each other of using chemical weapons and committing human rights violations.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday the atrocities detailed in the U.N. report were "sickening and staggering."
The U.N. commission said both sides in Syria are guilty of human-rights abuses, but that violations by rebels have never reached the intensity and scale of those carried out by pro-government forces.
05 Jun, 2013
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Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGAA8TS5PSxtnOuDrBdbJeVIYZ_wg&url=http://www.voanews.com/content/syrian-army-takes-control-of-key-town/1675466.html
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