Photo: Russia – a key ally of the Syrian government – is now urging its citizens to leave the country after the rebels closed in on Homs
By Maya Gebeily, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Parisa Hafezi
- Summary
- Insurgents call on government forces to defect
- Follows capture of three major cities in a week
- Rebels also claim to seize Deraa near Jordan
- Lebanon closes all its land border crossings with Syria except one
- Thousands of prisoners were freed by the rebels in Hama
BEIRUT/AMMAN/DUBAI, Dec 6 (Reuters) – Syrian rebel forces said on Friday their lightning advance reached the central city of Homs, which could position the insurgents to topple another town strategic to President Bashar al-Assad’s grip on power.
“Our forces have liberated the last village on the outskirts of the city of Homs and are now on its walls,” the Syrian faction leading the sweeping assault said on Telegram
The Islamist group, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate now known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), made a last call on forces loyal to Assad’s government in Homs to defect.
Rebel sources also said early on Saturday they had seized the southern city of Daraa, near Jordan, after reaching a deal to give army officials safe passage to the capital Damascus for the army’s orderly withdrawal.
Reuters could not independently confirm the rebels’ claims.
If the Sunni Muslim rebels capture Homs, they would cut off Damascus from the coast, a stronghold of Assad’s minority Alawite sect and where his Russian allies have a naval base and air base.
A Syrian army source said any rebel push from the north of Homs would face Iran-backed Hezbollah forces who were positioned to bolster government defenses.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said thousands of people had begun fleeing from Homs on Thursday night towards the Mediterranean coastal regions of Latakia and Tartus, strongholds of the government.
A coastal resident said thousands of people had begun arriving there from Homs, fearing the rebels’ rapid advance.
Syrian state media reported the army was carrying out an operation in the Homs countryside with support from Syrian and Russian air forces, artillery, missiles and armoured vehicles. Citing a military source, it said dozens of rebels were killed.
In another setback for Assad, a U.S.-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters on Friday took Deir el-Zor, the government’s main foothold in the vast desert in the east of the country, three Syrian sources told Reuters.
It was the third major city, after Aleppo and Hama in the northwest and centre, to fall out of Assad’s control in a week.
Piling on the pressure, two Syrian army sources said the alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had swept through the Albu Kamal border crossing with Iraq on Friday.
In southern Daraa province, Syrian local fighters and former rebels overran one of the main army bases, known as Liwa 52, near Herak town as fighting spread to the border with Jordan, two rebel sources told Reuters on Friday.
They also seized parts of the Nassib border crossing with Jordan where dozens of trailers and passenger cars were stranded, sources added.
Syrian state TV reported at least 200 insurgents were killed on Friday in Russian-Syrian airstrikes targeting rebel headquarters in the countryside of Hama, Idlib and Aleppo, citing the Russian Coordination Centre in Syria.
TURKEY URGES GOVERNMENT TO ENTER DIALOGUE
Russia and Jordan urged their nationals to leave Syria.
After years locked behind frozen front lines, rebel forces have burst out of their northwestern Idlib bastion to achieve the swiftest battlefield advance by either side since a street uprising against Assad mushroomed into civil war 13 years ago.
Syria’s conflict has killed more than 507,000 people since then, the Observatory for Human Rights said in March. Of the total, 164,000 were civilians.
Assad regained control of most of Syria after key allies – Russia, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group – came to his rescue. But all have recently been weakened and diverted by other crises, giving Sunni Muslim militants a window to fight back.
A senior Iranian official said Tehran, which has been focused on tensions with arch-foe Israel since the Gaza war began, would send missiles, drones and more advisers to Syria.
“Tehran has taken all necessary steps to increase the number of its military advisers in Syria and deploy forces,” the senior Iranian official said on condition of anonymity.
The head of HTS, Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, vowed in an interview with the New York Times published on Friday that the rebels could end Assad’s rule. “This operation broke the enemy,” he said of the rebels’ lightning offensive.
“Our goal is to liberate Syria from this oppressive regime,” he told the newspaper.
The White House said on Friday that it was closely monitoring developments in Syria.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call that Syria’s government should enter dialogue with the opposition and initiate a political process, a Turkish foreign ministry source said.
In another alarming development for Assad, the head of the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish force said the Islamic State group, which imposed a reign of terror over swathes of Iraq and Syria before its defeat by a U.S.-led coalition in 2017, had now taken control of some areas in eastern Syria.
Aron Lund, a fellow at think-tank Century Foundation, said Assad’s government was “fighting for their lives at this point”.
It was possible the government could hold Homs, “but given the speed at which things have moved so far, I wouldn’t count on it”, he said.
Border crossings with Syria
Lebanon is closing all its land border crossings with Syria except for a main one that links Beirut with the Syrian capital Damascus, the General Security Directorate said Friday. The decision came hours after an Israeli airstrike damaged a border crossing in northern Lebanon just days after it was reopened.
Separately, Jordan’s interior minister said the Naseeb border crossing with Syria had been closed because of the security situation on the Syrian side. He spoke after Syrian opposition activists said insurgents had captured the main border crossing with Jordan, forcing the Syrian authorities to leave.
Separately, Israel’s military said it planned to reinforce its positions in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and near the border with Syria. Israel said it was “monitoring developments and is prepared for all scenarios, offensive and defensive alike.”
A Kurdish-led force in Syria that’s backed by the United States says it has taken positions along the border with Iraq, replacing Syrian government forces.
The move by the Syrian Democratic Forces to capture areas on the west bank of the Euphrates River is likely to cut the landline that links Iran with Lebanon
The SDF said in a statement that its fighters were deployed in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour and west of the Euphrates for the safety of civilians. “Our primary objective is to protect our security and the security of our people,” it said about the deployment.
Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said Iran-backed fighters have evacuated the border crossing point of Boukamal, and the SDF is expected to control it later.
Freed prisoners
Syria’s rebels said they have freed hundreds of prisoners from Hama’s central prison after they entered the embattled city.
“They freed hundreds of prisoners, some have been jailed since 2011,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.
There were some 3,000 people in Hama’s prison, Abdel Rahman said.
He said that this move would massively benefit Abu Mohamed al-Joulani, the leader of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and increase support for him.
Lebanese whose relatives went missing during the country’s Civil War have regained hope of meeting their loved ones after Syrian rebels reportedly freed dozens of Lebanese and Syrian detainees on Thursday.
Later on Thursday, news arose that a man from northern Lebanon who had been imprisoned in Syria for around four decades was among those released, but this is yet to be verified.
Ali Hassan al Ali was reported as being among 100 Lebanese nationals freed after 38 years in jail. He was arrested when he was 18 years old
Ali, whose image went viral on social media after he was reported as being among 100 Lebanese nationals freed, was arrested when he was 18 years old. He is now 56, having spent 38 years in prison.
Reuters/ Ya Libnan