By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Timour Azhari
AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) -Syrian rebels readied to press their lightning advance on Saturday as authorities forces buttressed collapsing frontlines and bombarded the insurgents’ positions round Homs, in a bid to save lots of President Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year rule.
For the reason that rebels’ sweep into Aleppo per week in the past, authorities defences have crumbled throughout the nation at dizzying velocity as insurgents seized a string of main cities and rose up in locations the place the revolt had lengthy appeared over.
Moreover capturing Aleppo within the north, Hama within the centre and Deir al-Zor within the east, rebels rose up in southern Suweida and Deraa, saying on Friday that they had taken management of the 2 cities and posting movies displaying rebel celebrations there.
Syria’s navy mentioned it was finishing up airstrikes round Hama and Homs and reinforcing on that entrance. It additionally mentioned it was repositioning round Deraa and Suweida, with out acknowledging their seize by rebels.
The tempo of occasions has surprised Arab capitals and raised fears of a contemporary wave of regional instability, with Qatar saying on Saturday it threatened Syria’s territorial integrity.
Syria’s civil conflict, which erupted in 2011 as an rebellion towards Assad’s rule, dragged in huge outdoors powers, created house for jihadist militants to plot assaults around the globe and despatched tens of millions of refugees into neighbouring states.
Western officers say the Syrian navy is in a troublesome state of affairs, unable to halt insurgent features and compelled into retreat.
Assad had lengthy relied on allies to subdue the rebels, with Russian warplanes bombing from the skies whereas Iran despatched allied forces together with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraqi militia to bolster the Syrian navy and storm rebel strongholds.
However Russia has been targeted on the conflict in Ukraine since 2022 and Hezbollah’s management has been decimated this yr in its personal gruelling conflict with Israel.
Russia on Friday urged its nationals to depart the nation. Iran evacuated households of diplomats from Syria, an Iranian official mentioned.
Hezbollah has despatched some “supervising forces” to Homs on Friday however any vital deployment would danger publicity to Israeli airstrikes, Western officers mentioned. Israel attacked two Lebanon-Syria border crossings on Friday, Lebanon mentioned.
Iran-backed Iraqi militias are on excessive alert, with 1000’s of closely armed fighters able to deploy to Syria, lots of them amassed close to the border. However they haven’t but been ordered to cross, two of their commanders mentioned. Iraq doesn’t search navy intervention in Syria, a authorities spokesman mentioned on Friday.
Iran, Russia, and Turkey, which is the principle international supporter of the rebels, will meet on Saturday to debate the disaster in Syria.
Iranian International Minister Abbas Araqchi advised Iranian tv “no specific decisions have been made regarding a horizon for Syria’s future”. He mentioned his conferences in Doha have been targeted on preserving Syria’s territorial integrity and stopping “potential consequences” within the area.
BATTLE FOR HOMS
The rebels mentioned they have been “at the walls” of Homs after taking the final village on its northern outskirts late on Friday, a day after seizing close by Hama following a quick battle outdoors town.
Inside Homs, a resident mentioned the state of affairs had felt regular till Friday, however had grown extra tense with the sound of airstrikes and gunfire clearly audible and pro-Assad militia teams establishing checkpoints.
“They are sending a message to people to keep in line and that they should not get excited and not expect Homs to go easily,” the resident mentioned.
Seizing Homs, a key crossroads between the capital and the Mediterranean, would reduce off Damascus from the coastal stronghold of Assad’s minority Alawite sect, and from a naval base and air base of his Russian allies there.
Rebels outdoors Homs got here underneath intense bombardment in a single day and the navy and its allies have been making an attempt to dig in for a defence of town, either side mentioned.
A Syrian navy officer mentioned there was a lull in combating on Saturday morning after an evening of intense airstrikes on the rebels.
A coalition of insurgent factions that embody the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) made a final name on forces loyal to Assad’s authorities in Homs to defect.
Forward of the insurgent advance, 1000’s of individuals fled Homs in direction of the coastal areas of Latakia and Tartus, strongholds of the federal government, residents and witnesses mentioned.
“Homs is the key. It will be very hard for Assad to make a stand but if Homs should fall, the main highway from Damascus to Tartus and the coast will be closed, cutting the capital off from the Alawite Mountains,” mentioned Jonathan Landis, a Syria specialist on the College of Oklahoma.
“But the Syrian army won’t fight. No one wants to die for Assad and his regime,” he added.
Taking Deraa and Suweida within the south might permit a concerted assault on the capital, the seat of Assad’s energy, navy sources mentioned.
Insurgent sources mentioned on Friday the navy had agreed to make an orderly withdrawal from Deraa underneath a deal giving military officers protected passage to the capital Damascus, about 100 km (60 miles) north.
Deraa, which had a inhabitants of greater than 100,000 earlier than the civil conflict started 13 years in the past, holds symbolic significance because the cradle of the rebellion. It’s the capital of a province of about a million individuals, bordering Jordan.
Within the east, a U.S.-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters captured Deir el-Zor, the federal government’s predominant foothold within the huge desert, on Friday, three Syrian sources advised Reuters, jeopardising Assad’s land connection to allies in Iraq.
