Syrian rebels push for Damascus as Assad's power plummets

Syrian rebels launched a nationwide offensive on Saturday as they pushed towards their goal of capturing Damascus after seizing several cities and territories in a light offensive against the Assad regime.

“Damascus is waiting for you,” Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of the main rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), said in a statement to fighters on Saturday.

Rebels are advancing on the strategic city of Homs as President Bashar al-Assad's army relinquishes control of a city in the east and a city lost in the south due to an extended uprising against his rule. To many opposition groups. Gain momentum.

“Our forces have begun the final stages of the siege of Damascus,” HTS spokesman Hassan Abdulghani told the Telegram.

He added that the rebels were sending more forces to Damascus' “axis.” Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based war watchdog, reported that regime forces had withdrawn from several cities in the greater Damascus area. The Financial Times could not verify the report.

The offensive poses the most serious threat to Assad's rule in a decade. Manages 13 years of civil war that has frozen dramatically since 2020.

Syrian state media reported that the army had not withdrawn from the countryside of Damascus and had denied rumors that Assad had fled. But some residents say they are preparing for the fall of the regime. “It's over,” said one Damascene.

US envoy Amos Hochstein said on Saturday that the “collapse” of Assad's army had accelerated after Syria's main allies, such as Iran, Hezbollah, the Lebanese movement backed by Iran and Russia, were weakened and disrupted by the conflict in Syria. Elsewhere.

Assad's allies are “much weaker than before and with Russia in different regions unable to provide attention “Keep it to Syria and Iran is just weaker.”

Hochstein added that Iran was likely to “withdraw from Syria to some degree.” The New York Times reports that the Iranian military commander is being evacuated.

However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that Moscow was “trying to do everything possible to prevent the terrorists from overcoming them, even though they said they were not terrorists.” “. HTS is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, although it has shown a moderate image in recent years.

After a sharp rise by rebels, President-elect Donald Trump has said “there are never many benefits” for Russia in Syria. In a post on Truth Social, he added that “Syria is a mess but not our friend” and warned against US involvement.

Homs is the largest city still under Assad regime on the highway south of Damascus.

Rebels led by the Islamist group HTS and backed by Turkish-backed factions have already taken control of Syria's second city, Aleppo and Hama, since launching their offensive 11 days ago.

Although most of the rebels' advances were met with little resistance by forces loyal to Assad, there were signs that fighting could intensify around Homs. Syrian and Russian forces jointly shelled rebels in the northern suburbs of Homs, state media said.

Analysts say if the government loses Homs, it will cut off Damascus from Assad's other major strongholds on the Latakia coast and the governor of Tartus. Assad is from the Alawite ethnic group, which has a large population on the coast.

The coastal region is also important for Russia, which intervened in the Syrian war in 2015 to support Assad by giving Moscow access to the Mediterranean.

Rebels were also gaining ground south of Damascus on Saturday as other opposition groups joined the uprising. In Deraa and Suwaida, state media said the army was relocating and setting up security after “terrorists attacked the army's scattered checkpoints in order to distract our armed forces.”

In the sign of the severity of the Moscow crisis Warned its citizens. On Friday to prepare to flee Syria. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told the state-run IRNA news agency that its embassy in Damascus had not been evacuated. “The embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran continues its normal activities,” he said.

Homs, near the Syrian-Lebanese border, is where Hizbollah is most present. Iran and Hizbollah support for Assad a decade ago helped control the dictatorship, but a year of war with Israel has weakened militants. HTS issued a statement to Lebanese, asking them not to get into conflict.

In Deraa, the birthplace of the 2011 Syrian revolution, Reuters reported that rebels had reached an agreement for regime forces to withdraw. HTS said Deraa was “liberated from the grip of the criminal regime and its militia.”

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

Assad also lost territory in eastern Syria, where US-backed Kurdish fighters occupied Deir Ezzor, the capital of the oil-rich province.

Additional reports from Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran and Andrew England