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Syrian rebels say they’re closing in on the strategic metropolis of Homs as they push forward with a lightning advance southwards in the direction of President Bashar al-Assad’s remaining strongholds.
Assad’s military has additionally ceded management of a metropolis within the east and misplaced cities within the south because the rebellion in opposition to his rule, which has broadened to incorporate a number of opposition teams, gained momentum on Saturday.
“Our forces have begun implementing the ultimate part of encircling the capital Damascus,” Hassan Abdulghani, a spokesperson for the principle insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, mentioned on Telegram.
The multifront assault poses probably the most critical risk to Assad’s rule in a decade, reigniting a 13-year civil warfare that had been largely frozen since 2020.
US envoy Amos Hochstein mentioned on Saturday that the “collapse” of Assad’s military had accelerated after Syria’s fundamental allies — Iran, Hizbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese motion, and Russia — have been left weakened and distracted by conflicts elsewhere.
Assad’s allies are “considerably weaker than they have been [in the past], and with Russia in a distinct space, not capable of give its consideration to Syria, and Iran simply weaker total”.
Hochstein added that Iran gave the impression to be “pulling out of Syria to some extent”. The New York Instances reported that Iranian army commanders have been being evacuated.
Homs is the most important metropolis nonetheless managed by Assad’s regime on the freeway that leads south to the capital Damascus. Rebels, led by the Islamist HTS and supported by Turkish-backed factions, have already captured Syria’s second metropolis Aleppo and Hama since launching their offensive 11 days in the past.
Though a lot of the rebels’ advance has been met with little resistance by forces loyal to Assad, there are indicators that the preventing could also be extra intense round Homs. State media mentioned that joint Syrian and Russian forces had shelled rebels in Homs’s northern suburbs.
If the federal government have been to lose Homs, analysts mentioned, it could minimize off Damascus from Assad’s different massive assist base within the coastal Latakia and Tartus governorates. Assad comes from the minority Alawite sect, whose inhabitants is focused on the coast.
The coastal space can be essential to Russia, which intervened in Syria’s warfare in 2015 to assist Assad, giving Moscow entry to the Mediterranean.
Rebels have been additionally making features south of Damascus on Saturday, as different opposition teams joined the revolt. In Deraa and Suwaida, Syrian state media mentioned the military was repositioning and establishing a “safety cordon” after “terrorist parts attacked the military’s scattered checkpoints with the intention of distracting our armed forces”.
In an indication of the severity of the disaster, Moscow warned its citizens on Friday to be able to flee Syria. Iran’s international ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei instructed the state information company IRNA, nonetheless, that its embassy in Damascus had not been evacuated. “The embassy of the Islamic republic of Iran continues its actions as traditional,” he mentioned.
Homs is near the Syrian-Lebanese border, the place Hizbollah has a big presence. Iran and Hizbollah’s assist of Assad a decade in the past helped shore up the dictator’s rule, however a yr of warfare with Israel has left the militant group weakened. HTS issued an announcement addressed to the Lebanese asking them to not get drawn into the battle.
Solely one border crossing remained open between Lebanon and Syria, on the Beirut-Damascus street, after Lebanese safety forces on Friday closed different entry factors, citing “repeated Israeli assaults concentrating on land border crossings”.
The Israeli army has repeatedly focused the crossings, and mentioned it had struck websites near the border on Thursday night time, because it goals to chop off Hizbollah’s resupply routes from Syria.
In Deraa, the birthplace of the Syrian revolution in 2011, Reuters reported that the rebels had reached an settlement for regime forces to withdraw. HTS mentioned Deraa had been “liberated from the grip of the legal regime and its militias”.
A number of cities close to the Jordanian border have additionally been claimed by opposition factions, with minimal preventing.
Assad has additionally misplaced floor in jap Syria, the place US-backed Kurdish fighters have taken management of Deir Ezzor metropolis, the capital of the oil-rich province.
Extra reporting from Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran and Andrew England
