Syrian rebels capture fourth city, Assad regime threatens to close in on Homs

Syrian rebels said Saturday they had captured the southern city of Daraa, the birthplace of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and the fourth city the country’s army has lost in the past week.

Rebel sources said the military had agreed to an orderly withdrawal from Daraa under a deal that gives military personnel safe passage to the capital Damascus, about 100 kilometers north.

Videos on social media showed rebels on motorcycles and others interacting with residents on the streets. Video showed people firing shots into the air in the city’s central square in celebration.

There was no immediate comment from the military or Assad’s government, and Reuters could not independently verify the rebels’ claims.

With the fall of Daraa, Assad’s forces surrendered four key centers to the rebels in one week.

Daraa, which had a population of over 100,000 before the civil war began 13 years ago, has symbolic importance as the birthplace of the uprising. It is the capital of a state with a population of about 1 million people, bordering Jordan.

The capture of Daraa came late Friday after rebels claimed they had advanced to the edge of the central city of Homs, a key crossing point between the capital and the Mediterranean coast.

Capturing Homs would cut off Damascus from the coastal stronghold of Assad’s Alawite minority and from the Russian-allied naval and air bases there.

“Our forces have liberated the last village on the outskirts of Homs, which is now within the city walls,” the Syrian forces leading the all-out offensive said on the messaging app Telegram.

A coalition of rebel groups, including the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), issued a final call for asylum to forces loyal to the Assad regime in Homs.

Thousands of people fled Homs for the coastal areas of Latakia and Tartus ahead of the rebel advance, government strongholds, residents and witnesses said.

A US-backed coalition led by Syrian Kurdish fighters captured Deir Ezzor, a key government stronghold in the vast eastern desert, on Friday, three Syrian sources told Reuters.

Rebels took control of Aleppo and Hama in the northwest and center at the beginning of a blitzkrieg that began on November 27.

In another ominous sign for Assad in the east, Syrian Kurdish forces have been forced into Syria by the jihadist group Islamic State, which imposed martial law under strict rule before being defeated by the US-led coalition in 2017. They announced that they had taken control of some areas in the east. .

Aaron Rand, a fellow at the Century Foundation think tank, said Assad’s government “is fighting for its life at this point.”

There was a possibility that the government could detain Homs, but “given the way things have gone so far, I don’t have any hope,” he said on Friday.

At least 200 rebels were killed in Russian and Syrian airstrikes targeting rebel headquarters in the countryside of Hama, Idlib and Aleppo on Friday, Syrian state television said, citing Russia’s Coordination Center in Syria. Reported.

Syrian military officials said Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces were deployed to strengthen government defenses in Homs and its suburbs.

Syrian state media reported on Friday that dozens of rebels were killed in the Homs region in an operation involving Syrian and Russian air force, artillery, missiles and armored vehicles.

Capturing Homs would consolidate a series of strongholds under the control of Islamic militants, from Aleppo on the Turkish border in the north to Daraa on the Jordanian border in the south.

Capturing Homs would give the rebels the ability to cut off the northwest route from the capital to the sea, increasing their chances of isolating Assad’s stronghold in Damascus.

Russia and Jordan on Friday urged their nationals to leave Syria as rebels intensify their offensive.

After years trapped on an icy front, rebels burst out of their northwestern strongholds in Idlib, the swiftest battlefield for either side since a street uprising against Assad descended into civil war 13 years ago. Achieved advancement.

The United Nations Human Rights Office announced in 2022 that the Syrian conflict had killed more than 305,000 people between 2011 and 2021.

With key allies Russia, Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah coming to the rescue, Assad regained control of much of Syria. But all of that has recently been undermined and redirected by other crises, giving Sunni Islamic extremists an opportunity to fight back.

Tehran, which has focused on tensions with arch-enemy Israel since the start of the Gaza war last year, began evacuating military personnel and personnel from Syria on Friday, citing Iran’s inability to maintain Assad’s regime. The New York Times reported that this was a manifestation. said a regional official and three Iranian officials.

Abu Mohammed al-Golani, head of the main rebel faction HTS, vowed in a separate interview with The New York Times published Friday that the rebels can end Assad’s regime. Ta.

“This operation crushed the enemy,” he said of the rebel blitzkrieg.