Beirut, Lebanon/Amman, Jordan/Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Reuters
Syrian rebel forces said on Friday their lightning advance reached the central city of Homs, which could position the insurgents to topple another town strategic to President Bashar al-Assad’s grip on power.
“Our forces have liberated the last village on the outskirts of the city of Homs and are now on its walls,” the Syrian faction leading the sweeping assault said on Telegram.
People stand near a damaged vehicle, after rebels led by HTS have sought to capitalise on their swift takeover of Aleppo in the north and Hama in west-central Syria by pressing onwards to Homs, in Hama, Syria, on 6th December, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Mahmoud Hasano
Reuters could not independently confirm the rebels’ claim.
The Islamist group, a former al-Qaeda affiliate now known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), made a last call on forces loyal to Assad’s government in Homs to defect.
If the rebels capture Homs, they would cut off the capital Damascus from the coast, a longtime redoubt of Assad’s minority Alawite sect and where his Russian allies have a naval base and air base.
Syrian state media reported the army was carrying out an operation in the Homs countryside with support from Syrian and Russian air forces, artillery, missiles and armoured vehicles. Citing a military source, it said dozens of rebels were killed.
In another setback for Assad, a US-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters on Friday took Deir el-Zor, the government’s main foothold in the vast desert in the east of the country, three Syrian sources told Reuters.
It was the third major city, after Aleppo and Hama in the northwest and centre, to fall out of Assad’s control in a week.
Meanwhile, a US-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters captured the main city in eastern Syria and the main border crossing with Iraq on Friday, taking effective control of Syria’s vast eastern desert in two rapid moves.
Two security sources based in eastern Syria said that by Friday afternoon the alliance, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), had taken full control of the city of Deir el-Zor, the third city to fall out of Assad’s control in a week.
Omar Abu Layla, an activist from the media platform Deir Ezzor 24 with contacts in the city, told Reuters that Syrian government forces and Iran-backed Iraqi fighters had pulled out of Deir el-Zor before the SDF swept in.
Shortly afterwards, the Syrian Democratic Forces swept through the nearby Albu Kamal border crossing with Iraq, two Syrian army sources told Reuters.
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Deir el-Zor city has changed hands several times since Syria’s conflict broke out in 2011 after protests against Assad.
It first fell to rebel forces before the Islamic State group captured it in 2014. The Syrian army, backed by pro-Tehran Iraqi factions, retook it in 2017 and held it until Friday.
SDF head Mazlum Abdi told reporters earlier on Friday at a press conference in Hasakeh city that his forces had “channels of communication with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS),” particularly in order to protect Kurds living in Aleppo city.
He said the SDF had not clashed with HTS but that the SDF would defend itself if it was attacked, and that it was in contact with both the US and Russia to protect areas under their control.
Abdi, whose force has clashed with Syrian government forces and allied Tehran-backed Iraqi fighters in the past, said he was surprised to see government forces collapse so quickly amid the rebel assault.
In February, he told Reuters that additional air defences should be deployed in northeast Syria after six of his fighters were killed in a drone attack blamed on pro-Iran factions.
– With reporting by ORHAN QEREMAN in Hasakeh, Syria; and TIMOUR AZHARI and LAILA BASSAM in Beirut, Lebanon; Additional reporting by CLAUDA TANIOS, NAYERA ABDULLAH, EMMA FARGE, CECILE MANTOVANI AND CRISPIAN BALMER.
