Syrian rebels came out on Saturday, claiming to have taken over much of the south, as government forces scrambled to secure the capital city of Homs in an attempt to save President Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year rule.
Since rebels stormed Aleppo last week, government defenses have crumbled across the country as insurgents seized a string of major cities and resurged in areas where it appeared the insurgency was over.
Besides capturing Aleppo in the north, Hama in the center and Deir al-Zor in the east, the rebels claimed to have taken Quneitra in the south, Deraa and Suweida in the south and advanced to an area of 50 kilometers from the capital.
Videos on social media released on Saturday showed rebels celebrating, shooting in the air, and toppling a statue of former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad in Deraa, the fourth city Assad’s forces have lost in less than a week, highlighting the rebels’ growing momentum.
Government defenses were concentrated in Homs, where state television and Syrian military sources reported heavy airstrikes on rebel positions and a wave of reinforcements arriving to dig into the city.
Meanwhile, the rebels are expanding their control almost everywhere in the southwest and claim to have captured Sanamayn on the main road from Damascus to Jordan. The Syrian army said it was reorganizing, without admitting the loss of territory.
The scale of the events has shocked Arab officials and raised fears of instability in the new region, with Qatar saying on Saturday it was threatening Syria’s territorial integrity.
The Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011 as an uprising against the Assad regime, attracted major foreign powers, created space for jihadist terrorists to plan attacks around the world and sent millions of refugees to neighboring countries.
Thousands have fled the Syrian city of Homs as Islamist HTS militants continue to advance towards Damascus, with the apparent blessing of neighboring Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has wished them well.
Western officials say the Syrian army is in a difficult position, unable to stop the rebels’ gains and forced to retreat.
Assad had long relied on allies to defeat the rebels, with Russian warplanes bombing them while Iran sent a coalition of forces including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Iraqi army to reinforce the Syrian army and hard-fought rebels.
But Russia has been focused on the war in Ukraine since 2022 and Hezbollah has lost heavily in its bitter war with Israel, limiting its or Iran’s ability to bolster Assad.
Russia vows to stop ‘terrorists’
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was doing everything possible to stop “terrorists” rampant in Syria, and called for talks between the Damascus government and the official opposition, without specifying which groups.
Russia has a naval base and an airbase in Syria that have been important not only in supporting Assad, but also in its ability to exert influence in the Mediterranean and Africa.
Hezbollah sent “surveillance forces” to Homs on Friday but any significant deployment would be vulnerable to Israeli airstrikes, Western officials said. Israel attacked two border crossings between Lebanon and Syria on Friday, Lebanon said.
Iran-backed Iraqi forces are on high alert, with thousands of heavily armed fighters poised to move into Syria, many of them massed near the border. Iraq does not want military intervention in Syria, a government spokesman said on Friday.
Iran, Russia, and Turkey, major backers of foreign rebels, discussed the Doha crisis. Lavrov said they agreed that the war must end immediately.
Iran’s top diplomat, Ali Larijani, met with Assad in Damascus on Friday, Iranian media said. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said “no concrete decisions have been taken about the future of Syria.”
The Battle for Homs includes airstrikes
Rebels said they were “on the walls” of Homs after taking the last town on the northern outskirts on Friday.
Inside Homs, a resident said the situation felt normal until Friday but has become more intense as there are airstrikes and gunfire can be heard and pro-Assad groups have set up checkpoints.
“They are sending a message for people to stay in line and not to be happy and not to expect that Homs will go easily,” said a resident.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres says that after years of conflict in Syria, it is ‘time’ for all parties to engage deeply and chart a way to resolve the long-running crisis.
Taking Homs, a key crossroads between the capital and the Mediterranean, would cut Damascus off from the coastal stronghold of Assad’s Alawite minority, as well as the naval base and air base of his Russian allies there.
A Syrian army chief said there was a lull in fighting on Saturday morning after intense airstrikes on rebels and that dozens of troops and vehicles had been redeployed from Palmyra to help defend Homs.
A coalition of rebel groups including the Islamic group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has issued a final call to forces loyal to the Assad regime in Homs to defect.
“Homs is the key. It will be very difficult for Assad to make a stand but if Homs falls, the main road from Damascus to Tartus and the coast will be closed, cutting through the capital in the Alawite mountains,” said Jonathan Landis. , a Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma.
In the south, the fall of Deraa and Suweida on Friday, followed by Quneitra on Saturday, could allow a coordinated attack on the capital, which is Assad’s power base, military sources said.
Deraa, which had a population of more than 100,000 before the start of the civil war, holds symbolic importance as the starting point of the uprising. It is the capital of a province with about one million people, bordering Jordan.
In the east, the US-backed coalition led by the Syrian Kurds captured Deir el-Zor, the government’s main base in the desert, on Friday, three Syrian sources told Reuters, jeopardizing Assad’s land links with Iraqi allies.
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