Syrian rebels claim to reach key city of Homs, extending rapid offensive against Assad

By Maya Gebeily, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Parisa Hafezi

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.

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.

Rebel sources also said early on Saturday they had seized the southern city of Daraa, near Jordan, after reaching a deal to give army officials safe passage to the capital Damascus for the army's orderly withdrawal.

Reuters could not independently confirm the rebels' claims.

If the Sunni Muslim rebels capture Homs, they would cut off Damascus from the coast, a stronghold of Assad's minority Alawite sect and where his Russian allies have a naval base and air base.

A Syrian army source said any rebel push from the north of Homs would face Iran-backed Hezbollah forces who were positioned to bolster government defences.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said thousands of people had begun fleeing from Homs on Thursday night towards the Mediterranean coastal regions of Latakia and Tartus, strongholds of the government.

A coastal resident said thousands of people had begun arriving there from Homs, fearing the rebels' rapid advance.

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 U.S.-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.

Piling on the pressure, two Syrian army sources said the alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had swept through the Albu Kamal border crossing with Iraq on Friday.

In southern Daraa province, Syrian local fighters and former rebels overran one of the main army bases, known as Liwa 52, near Herak town as fighting spread to the border with Jordan, two rebel sources told Reuters on Friday.

They also seized parts of the Nassib border crossing with Jordan where dozens of trailers and passenger cars were stranded, sources added.

Syrian state TV reported at least 200 insurgents were killed on Friday in Russian-Syrian airstrikes targeting rebel headquarters in the countryside of Hama, Idlib and Aleppo, citing the Russian Coordination Centre in Syria.

TURKEY URGES GOVERNMENT TO ENTER DIALOGUE

Russia and Jordan urged their nationals to leave Syria.

After years locked behind frozen front lines, rebel forces have burst out of their northwestern Idlib bastion to achieve the swiftest battlefield advance by either side since a street uprising against Assad mushroomed into civil war 13 years ago.

Syria's conflict has killed more than 507,000 people since then, the Observatory for Human Rights said in March. Of the total, 164,000 were civilians.

Assad regained control of most of Syria after key allies - Russia, Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah group - came to his rescue. But all have recently been weakened and diverted by other crises, giving Sunni Muslim militants a window to fight back.

A senior Iranian official said Tehran, which has been focused on tensions with arch-foe Israel since the Gaza war began, would send missiles, drones and more advisers to Syria.

"Tehran has taken all necessary steps to increase the number of its military advisers in Syria and deploy forces," the senior Iranian official said on condition of anonymity.

The head of HTS, Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, vowed in an interview with the New York Times published on Friday that the rebels could end Assad's rule. "This operation broke the enemy," he said of the rebels’ lightning offensive.

“Our goal is to liberate Syria from this oppressive regime,” he told the newspaper.

The White House said on Friday that it was closely monitoring developments in Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call that Syria's government should enter dialogue with the opposition and initiate a political process, a Turkish foreign ministry source said.

In another alarming development for Assad, the head of the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish force said the Islamic State group, which imposed a reign of terror over swathes of Iraq and Syria before its defeat by a U.S.-led coalition in 2017, had now taken control of some areas in eastern Syria.

Aron Lund, a fellow at think-tank Century Foundation, said Assad's government was "fighting for their lives at this point".

It was possible the government could hold Homs, "but given the speed at which things have moved so far, I wouldn't count on it", he said.