Syrian troops backed by Lebanon's Hezbollah have entered Qusayr, a strategic rebel stronghold linking Damascus to the coast, a day after President Bashar al-Assad insisted he would not quit.

The advance came as Assad's opponents warned his regime's barbaric and destructive assault on Qusayr could torpedo US-Russian attempts to organise a conference on ending more than two years of bloodshed.

The Arab League called an emergency meeting for Thursday, ahead of the conference, as the opposition Syrian National Council demanded that it meet and stop the massacre in Qusayr. 

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