Syrian rebels continued their lightning advance on Saturday, saying they had seized most of the south, as government forces dug back to defend the key central city of Homs in an attempt to save the 24 years of rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
Since rebels invaded Aleppo a week ago, government defenses have collapsed at breakneck speed across the country as insurgents seized a series of major towns and rose up in places where the rebellion seemed long over.
In addition to capturing Aleppo in the north, Hama in the center and Deir al-Zor in the east, the rebels said they had taken southern Quneitra, Daraa and Suweida in the south and advanced up to 50 kilometers from the capital.
Videos posted on social media on Saturday showed rebels partying, firing into the air and toppling a statue of former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in Daraa, the fourth city lost to Assad's forces in a week , highlighting the growing momentum of the rebels.
Government defenses were focused on Homs, with state television and Syrian military sources reporting heavy airstrikes on rebel positions and a wave of reinforcements arriving to entrench themselves around the city.
Meanwhile, rebels expanded their control over almost the entire southwest and claimed to have captured Sanamayn on the main road linking Damascus to Jordan. The Syrian army said it was repositioning, without acknowledging territorial losses.
The pace of events has stunned Arab capitals and raised fears of a new wave of regional instability, with Qatar saying on Saturday it threatened Syria's territorial integrity.
Syria's civil war, which erupted in 2011 as an uprising against Assad's regime, led to the intervention of major outside powers, created space for jihadist militants to plan attacks around the world and sent millions of refugees to neighboring states.
Thousands of people have fled the Syrian city of Homs as Islamist HTS fighters continue their lightning advance towards Damascus, with the apparent blessing of neighboring Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who wished them well.
Western officials say the Syrian army is in a difficult situation, unable to stop rebel advances and forced to retreat.
Assad has long relied on his allies to subdue the rebels, with bombings by Russian warplanes while Iran sent allied forces, including Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi militias, to reinforce the Syrian army and take assault the insurgent strongholds.
But Russia has been focused on the war in Ukraine since 2022 and Hezbollah has suffered heavy losses in its own grueling war with Israel, severely limiting its or Iran's ability to support Assad.
Russia promises to stop 'terrorists'
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was doing everything possible to prevent “terrorists” from gaining a foothold in Syria and called for dialogue between the Damascus government and the legitimate opposition, without specifying which groups that included. .
Russia has a naval base and an air base in Syria that have been important not only for its support of Assad, but also for its ability to project influence in the Mediterranean and Africa.
Hezbollah sent “supervisory forces” to Homs on Friday, but any significant deployment would risk exposure to Israeli airstrikes, Western officials said. Israel attacked two border crossings between Lebanon and Syria on Friday, Lebanon said.
Iran-backed Iraqi militias are on high alert, with thousands of heavily armed fighters ready to deploy into Syria, many of them gathered near the border. Iraq is not seeking military intervention in Syria, a government spokesperson said on Friday.
Iran, Russia and Turkey, the rebels' main foreign backer, discussed the crisis in Doha. Lavrov said they agreed there should be an immediate end to the fighting.
A senior Iranian official, Ali Larijani, met with Assad in Damascus on Friday, an Iranian news agency said, according to an MP. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said “no specific decisions have been made regarding the future of Syria.”
Battle for Homs includes airstrikes
Rebels said they were “at the walls” of Homs after capturing the last village on its northern outskirts on Friday evening.
In Homs, a resident said the situation seemed normal until Friday, but had become more tense with airstrikes and gunfire clearly audible and pro-Assad militias establishing checkpoints.
“They are sending a message to people to stay in line and not to get upset and expect Homs to go away easily,” the resident said.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres says that after years of conflict in Syria, it is “high time” for all parties to seriously engage and chart a path forward to resolve the long-running crisis. duration.
The capture of Homs, an important crossroads between the capital and the Mediterranean, would cut off Damascus from the coastal stronghold of Assad's minority Alawite sect, as well as the naval base and air base of its Russian allies.
A Syrian military officer said there was a lull in fighting Saturday morning after a night of intense airstrikes against rebels and that a large convoy of troops and vehicles had redeployed from Palmyra to help the defense of Homs.
A coalition of rebel factions, including the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has issued a final call for forces loyal to Assad's government in Homs to defect.
“Homs is the key. It will be very difficult for Assad to hold out, but if Homs falls, the main road linking Damascus to Tartus and the coast will be closed, cutting off the capital from the Alawite Mountains,” Jonathan Landis said. , Syria specialist at the University of Oklahoma.
In the south, the fall of Deraa and Suweida on Friday, then of Quneitra on Saturday, could allow a concerted assault on the capital, seat of Assad's power, according to military sources.
Deraa, which had more than 100,000 inhabitants before the start of the civil war, holds symbolic importance as the birthplace of the uprising. It is the capital of a province of around a million inhabitants, bordering Jordan.
In the east, a U.S.-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters captured Deir el-Zor, the government's main stronghold in the vast desert, on Friday, three Syrian sources told Reuters, jeopardizing the Assad's land ties with his allies in Iraq.
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