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Syrian rebels superior throughout the nation on Saturday as they pushed in direction of their objective of capturing Damascus and toppling the Assad regime after seizing cities and swaths of territory in a lightning offensive.
“Damascus awaits you,” Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the chief of the primary insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), informed his fighters on Saturday.
There have been experiences late Saturday that the rebels had entered the strategic metropolis of Homs, with Reuters quoting their spokesman Hassan Abdulghani as saying insurgents had “absolutely liberated” it. The Syrian navy denied rebels had taken town.
President Bashar al-Assad’s military has ceded management of town of Deir Ezzor within the east and has misplaced cities within the south too because the rebellion broadened to incorporate a number of opposition teams.
“Our forces have begun implementing the ultimate part of encircling the capital Damascus,” Abdulghani mentioned on Telegram.
He added that the rebels had been sending reinforcements to the Damascus “axis”, that opposition fighters had taken over three cities in southern Syria, and that that they had overrun a navy base and greater than a dozen cities and villages on the outskirts of Homs.
There have been a number of experiences that Syrian troopers had left Homs and areas round Damascus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based struggle monitor, mentioned that regime forces had withdrawn from a number of cities within the better Damascus space. The Monetary Instances was not capable of confirm these experiences.
The multipronged assault poses probably the most severe menace to Assad’s rule in a decade, reigniting a 13-year civil struggle that had been largely frozen since 2020.
Syrian state media denied that military items had withdrawn from the Damascus countryside and that Assad had fled. However some residents mentioned they had been making ready for the regime to fall. “It’s over,” mentioned one Damascene.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has lengthy backed some Syrian opposition forces, hailed “a brand new diplomatic and political actuality in Syria” on Saturday.
Previously, Assad’s most important supporters — Iran, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant motion Hizbollah, and Russia — helped him struggle off insurgent advances. However US envoy Amos Hochstein mentioned on Saturday that the “collapse” of Assad’s military had accelerated as his backers had been enfeebled and distracted by different conflicts.
Assad’s allies are “considerably weaker than they had been, and with Russia in a special space, not capable of give its consideration to Syria, and Iran simply weaker general”.
Hochstein added that Iran gave the impression to be “pulling out of Syria to some extent”. The New York Instances reported that Iranian navy commanders had been being evacuated.
In a submit on Reality Social, President-elect Donald Trump claimed there was “by no means a lot profit” for Russia in Syria and cautioned in opposition to US involvement.
Nonetheless, Russia’s international minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday mentioned Moscow would stand by its ally and was “attempting to do every thing to not enable terrorists to prevail, even when they are saying they’re not terrorists”. The Islamist HTS is listed as a terrorist organisation by the US.
Rebels, led by 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.
Homs was the biggest metropolis nonetheless managed by Assad’s regime on the freeway that leads south to the capital Damascus.
Analysts mentioned the lack of town would lower 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 targeting the coast.
The coastal space can also be essential to Russia because it provides Moscow entry to the Mediterranean.
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 12 months of struggle with Israel has left the militant group weakened. HTS has requested the Lebanese folks to keep away from getting drawn into the battle.
Rebels had been making good points south of Damascus, too, as different opposition teams joined the revolt. Whereas HTS claimed rebels had taken over Deraa, the birthplace of the Syrian revolution in 2011, and the cities Suwaida and Quneitra, there have been conflicting experiences about territorial management.
In an indication of the severity of the disaster, Moscow warned its citizens on Friday to be able to flee Syria. However Iran’s international ministry spokesperson mentioned its embassy in Damascus had not been evacuated and was working usually.
Extra reporting from Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran, Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul and Andrew England in Doha
