Syrian rebels move closer to Homs, latest blow to Assad

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Syrian rebels say they are closing in on the strategic city of Homs as they advance south toward President Bashar al-Assad's last strongholds.

“Our forces have liberated the last village on the outskirts of Homs city and are now near its walls,” the rebels said Friday evening via their Telegram channel.

Homs is the largest city still controlled by the Assad regime, on the highway leading south to the capital, Damascus. The rebels, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, have already taken Aleppo, Syria's second city, and Hama, since launching their offensive 11 days ago.

The assault poses the most serious threat to Assad's regime in a decade, reigniting a 13-year civil war that has been largely frozen since 2020.

State media said joint Syrian and Russian forces shelled rebel forces in the northern suburbs of Homs.

Although much of the rebel advance has been met with little resistance from forces loyal to Assad, there are signs that fighting could intensify around Homs.

If the government lost Homs, analysts say, it would cut off Damascus from Assad's other major support base in the coastal governorates of Latakia and Tartus. Assad comes from the minority Alawite sect, whose population is concentrated on the coast.

The region is also crucial for Russia, which intervened in Syria's war in 2015 to support Assad, giving Moscow access to the Mediterranean.

HTS, which is supported by Turkish-backed factions, has taken advantage of the weakened and distracted supporters of Assad, Iran, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah movement and Russia, weakened and distracted by other conflicts.

Russian planes responded to the rebel advance with airstrikes, but in a sign of the seriousness of the crisis, Moscow warned its citizens Friday to flee Syria. On Saturday, the New York Times reported that Iranian military commanders were being evacuated.

Homs is close to the Syrian-Lebanese border, where Hezbollah has a large presence. Iran and Hezbollah's support for Assad a decade ago helped consolidate the dictator's rule, but a year of war with Israel has weakened it.

Local media reported that roads were clogged with people fleeing the offensive, and HTS issued a statement addressed to the Lebanese asking them not to get drawn into the conflict.

In Daraa, the birthplace of the Syrian revolution in 2011, Reuters reported that rebels had reached a deal with regime forces to withdraw. HTS said Daraa had been “liberated from the grip of the criminal regime and its militias”.

Several towns near the Jordanian border have also been claimed by opposition factions, with minimal fighting.

State media downplayed the south's rapid realignment, saying the army was repositioning and establishing a “security cordon” after “terrorist elements attacked the army's scattered checkpoints in an attempt to distract our armed forces.”

But Assad has also lost ground in eastern Syria, where U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters have taken control of the city of Deir Ezzor, the capital of the oil-rich province. This is the area where ISIS jihadist militants were most prevalent in Syria.