HOMS, SYRIA – DECEMBER 06: Anti-regime armed teams advancing in Syria’s strategically necessary province of Homs, the gateway to the capital Damascus, on Dec. 06, 2024.
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Syrian rebels mentioned they seized management of the southern metropolis of Daraa on Saturday, the birthplace of a 2011 rebellion towards President Bashar al-Assad and the fourth metropolis his forces have misplaced in every week.
Insurgent sources mentioned the navy agreed to make an orderly withdrawal from Daraa underneath a deal giving military officers protected passage to the capital Damascus, about 100 km (60 miles) north.
Social media movies confirmed rebels on bikes and others mingling with residents on the streets. Individuals fired pictures into the air on the metropolis’s foremost sq. in celebration, in line with the movies.
There was no fast remark from the navy or Assad’s authorities, and Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the rebels’ declare.
With the autumn of Daraa, Assad’s forces have surrendered 4 necessary centres to the insurgents in every week.
Daraa, which had a inhabitants of greater than 100,000 earlier than the civil warfare started 13 years in the past, holds symbolic significance because the cradle of the rebellion. It’s the capital of a province of about 1 million folks, bordering Jordan.
Daraa’s seizure adopted the rebels’ declare late on Friday that that they had superior to the sting of the central metropolis of Homs, a key crossroads between the capital and the Mediterranean coast.
Capturing Homs would minimize off Damascus from the coastal stronghold of Assad’s minority Alawite sect, and from a naval base and air base of his Russian allies there.
“Our forces have liberated the final village on the outskirts of the town of Homs and at the moment are on its partitions,” the Syrian faction main the sweeping assault mentioned on the Telegram messaging app.
A coalition of insurgent factions that embody the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) made a final name on forces loyal to Assad’s authorities in Homs to defect.
Forward of the insurgent advance, 1000’s of individuals fled Homs in direction of the coastal areas of Latakia and Tartus, strongholds of the federal government, residents and witnesses mentioned.
Assad regime underneath menace
A U.S.-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters captured Deir el-Zor, the federal government’s foremost foothold within the huge jap desert, on Friday, three Syrian sources informed Reuters.
The rebels seized Aleppo and Hama within the northwest and centre earlier within the lightning offensive that started on Nov. 27.
In one other ominous signal for Assad within the east, the Syrian Kurdish drive mentioned Islamic State — a jihadist group that imposed martial legislation underneath its harsh rule earlier than its defeat by a U.S.-led coalition in 2017 — had taken management of some areas in jap Syria.
Aron Lund, a fellow at think-tank Century Basis, mentioned Assad’s authorities was “preventing for his or her lives at this level”.
It was attainable the federal government might maintain Homs, “however given the velocity at which issues have moved to this point, I would not rely on it”, he mentioned on Friday.
Syrian state TV reported Russian-Syrian airstrikes concentrating on insurgent headquarters within the countryside of Hama, Idlib and Aleppo killed not less than 200 insurgents on Friday, citing the Russian Coordination Centre in Syria.
A Syrian military supply mentioned Iran-backed Hezbollah forces have been positioned to bolster authorities defences in and close to Homs.
Syrian state media reported dozens of rebels have been killed within the Homs countryside on Friday in an operation by Syrian and Russian air forces, artillery, missiles and armoured automobiles.
Capturing Homs would solidify a series of highly effective positions underneath the Islamic insurgents’ management from Aleppo on the Turkish border within the north to Daraa on the Jordanian border to the south.
Gaining Homs would additionally improve the rebels’ possibilities of isolating the seat of Assad’s regime in Damascus with the flexibility to dam the route northwest from the capital to the ocean.
Rebels reenergised
Because the rebels pressed their offensive, Russia and Jordan on Friday urged their nationals to go away Syria.
After years locked behind frozen entrance strains, insurgent forces have burst out of their northwestern Idlib bastion to attain the swiftest battlefield advance by both facet since a road rebellion towards Assad mushroomed into civil warfare 13 years in the past.
Syria’s battle killed greater than 305,000 folks between 2011 and 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Workplace mentioned in 2022.
Assad regained management of most of Syria after key allies — Russia, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah — got here to his rescue. However all have not too long ago been weakened and diverted by different crises, giving Sunni Muslim militants a window to battle again.
Tehran, which has been focussed on tensions with arch-foe Israel for the reason that Gaza warfare started final yr, started to evacuate its navy officers and personnel from Syria on Friday, an indication of Iran’s lack of ability to maintain Assad in energy, the New York Occasions reported, citing regional officers and three Iranian officers.
The top of the principle insurgent faction HTS, Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, vowed in a separate interview with the New York Occasions printed on Friday that the insurgents might finish Assad’s rule.
“This operation broke the enemy,” he mentioned of the rebels’ lightning offensive.
