HOMS, SYRIA – DECEMBER 6: Anti-government armed groups advance in Syria’s strategically important Homs province, the gateway to the capital Damascus, on December 6, 2024.
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Syrian rebels said they took control of the southern city of Daraa on Saturday, the birthplace of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar Assad and the fourth city his forces have lost in a week.
Rebel sources said the military agreed to an orderly withdrawal from Daraa, with the agreement providing for safe passage for military officials to the capital Damascus, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the north.
Social media videos showed insurgents on motorcycles and others mingling with residents on the streets. Video showed people firing guns into the sky in celebration in the city’s main square.
There was no immediate comment from the military or Assad’s government, and Reuters was unable to independently verify the rebel claims.
With the fall of Daraa, Assad’s forces surrendered four key centers to the rebels within a week.
Before the civil war broke out 13 years ago, Daraa’s population had exceeded 100,000. As the cradle of the uprising, Daraa had important symbolic significance. It is the capital of a province of about 1 million people that borders Jordan.
Daraa was captured late on Friday after rebels claimed they had advanced to the edge of the central city of Homs, a key crossroads between the capital and the Mediterranean coast.
Capturing Homs would cut off Damascus from the coastal strongholds of Assad’s minority Alawite sect and the naval and air bases of his Russian allies there.
“Our forces have liberated the last village on the outskirts of the city of Homs and have now captured the city walls,” the Syrian faction leading the massive attack said on the Telegram messaging app.
A coalition of rebel factions, including the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), ended up calling on forces loyal to Assad’s government in Homs to defect.
Thousands of people fled Homs for the coastal areas of Latakia and Tartus before the rebel offensive, government strongholds, residents and witnesses said.
Assad’s regime is under threat
A coalition led by U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces seized Deir ez-Zor, the government’s main stronghold in the vast eastern desert, on Friday, three Syrian sources told Reuters.
Rebels earlier captured Aleppo and Hama in the northwest and center in a lightning offensive that began on November 27.
In another ominous sign for Assad in the east, Syrian Kurdish forces said the Islamic State, a jihadist group that imposed martial law under its harsh rule before being defeated by a U.S.-led coalition in 2017 -Has taken control of some areas in eastern Syria.
Alan Lund, a researcher at the Century Foundation, a think tank, said Assad’s government “is fighting for its life at this time.”
He said on Friday it was possible for the government to take control of Homs, “but given the speed at which things are developing, I wouldn’t count on that.”
Russia and Syria launched air strikes on rebel headquarters in the countryside of Hama, Idlib and Aleppo on Friday, killing at least 200 rebels, Syrian state television quoted the Russian Coordination Center in Syria as saying.
A Syrian military source said Iran-backed Hezbollah forces aimed to bolster government defenses in and around Homs.
Syrian and Russian air forces, artillery, missiles and armored vehicles launched an operation in the countryside of Homs on Friday, killing dozens of rebels, Syrian state media reported.
Capturing Homs would consolidate a series of powerful positions under the control of Islamist rebels, from Aleppo on the border with Turkey in the north to Daraa on the border with Jordan in the south.
Capturing Homs would also increase the rebels’ chances of isolating the seat of Assad’s regime in Damascus and the ability to block the northwest route from the capital to the sea.
Rebels revitalized
Russia and Jordan on Friday urged their nationals to leave Syria as rebels launch an offensive.
After years of being trapped on a frozen frontline, rebels broke out from their stronghold in northwestern Idlib in the fastest battlefield advance since a street uprising against Assad 13 years ago quickly turned into a civil war.
The United Nations Human Rights Office said in 2022 that the conflict in Syria killed more than 305,000 people between 2011 and 2021.
Assad regained control of much of Syria after key allies including Russia, Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah came to the rescue. But all of that has recently been weakened and diverted by other crises, giving Sunni Muslim militants an opportunity to fight back.
Tehran, which has been concerned about tensions with its old enemy Israel since the Gaza war began last year, began evacuating military officials and personnel from Syria on Friday, a sign of Iran’s inability to keep Assad in power, the New York Times reported. and three Iranian officials.
Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, the leader of the main rebel faction, HTS, vowed in a separate interview with The New York Times published on Friday that the rebels could end Assad’s rule.
“This operation routed the enemy,” he said of the rebels’ lightning offensive.
