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Syrian Rebels Push South, Edging Closer to Damascus
Government forces appeared to be reinforcing crucial strongholds including the capital, Damascus, and the major city of Homs.
Syrian rebels pushed further south on Friday toward the major city of Homs, edging another step closer to the capital, Damascus, in their dramatic offensive, according to the rebels and a war monitoring group.
Government forces scrambled to stop the rapid advance, which poses the most significant challenge in years to President Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian grip on the country. They erected earthen berms and carried out airstrikes on a major highway as the rebels headed for Homs.
Mr. al-Assad’s forces were redeploying from other parts of the country to reinforce the most crucial government strongholds, including Damascus and Homs, according to the British-based war monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The sudden rebel advance was launched last week by a coalition of rebel groups headed by the Islamist faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. It has abruptly changed the landscape of Syria’s 13-year-old civil war after a long stalemate.
In a little over a week, the rebels have swept through major cities like Aleppo and Hama and captured a significant amount of territory across four provinces, while government forces seemed to put up little resistance.
Homs is a strategic city for Mr. Assad and his allies. It sits at the crossroads of major highways, including one that leads to Damascus. Without control of Homs, the government would lose a key buffer between rebel-held areas in the northwest and Damascus further south.
If the rebels gain control of Homs, it would be a significant turn in fortunes for Mr. Assad. Early in the civil war, which began in 2011, parts of Homs fell to the rebels. Over the years, government forces besieged and bombarded the rebel-held areas to wrest them back, devastating parts of the city in the process.
The opposition fighters heading toward Homs were coming out of Hama to the north, another major city they had breached just one day earlier, while Assad regime troops retreated.
In another sign of the government’s loosening grip on territory, a Kurdish-led force backed by the United States, which is separate from the rebels advancing on Homs, said it had deployed in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, which was previously held by the Assad government.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime forces had withdrawn from Deir al-Zour.
The rebels say their goal is to oust Mr. Assad but it’s not clear what would happen if he were to fall. Many in the international community had come to grudgingly accept his continued role as leader of the country, even after he violently crushed his country’s opposition and used internationally banned chemical weapons. For them, Mr. Assad offered a semblance of control when a rebel takeover of the country added uncertainties to a region already in upheaval.
Some Arab states last year normalized diplomatic relations with the Assad regime after shunning his government for years.
The rebel advance struck at a moment of weakness for Mr. Assad’s allies, including Iran, whose power has been curtailed by a conflict with Israel, and Russia, which is at war with Ukraine.
The Syrian regime has relied on Iran and its Lebanese militia ally, Hezbollah — in addition to Russia — to fight the rebels over the course of the civil war.
Russian airstrikes to try to slow the recent rebel advance have been relatively sparse, in what analysts see as a sign of Russia’s limited ability to aid Mr. al-Assad amid its war in Ukraine.
On Friday, the Syrian military struck rebels and their vehicles both north and south of Hama with artillery, missiles and airstrikes, assisted by Russia. Dozens of opposition fighters were killed and wounded, according to Syrian state media.
Just a few days into their offensive, the rebels swept through Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial hub and one of the largest cities in the country.
After withdrawing from Hama on Thursday following several days of fighting, the Syrian military issued an unusual statement explaining its pullback, saying that it was seeking to avoid battles inside the city that would endanger civilians.
But sacrificing Hama also enables the Assad government to shift its limited military resources and forces to areas it regards as more important, such as Homs.
Despite being largely forgotten by the world, the Syrian civil war never ended and was instead in a protracted stalemate. Diplomatic efforts to find a political solution to the war had been stagnant for years.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has backed some of the Syrian opposition throughout the war, including rebel factions that are now participating in the offensive.
On Friday he said he had been frustrated with Mr. al-Assad over his unwillingness to negotiate over Syria’s future and appeared to welcome the rebel advance.
“Idlib, Hama, Homs, and the target, of course, is Damascus,” Mr. Erdogan told reporters following Friday prayers in Istanbul, according to Turkish state media. “The opposition’s march continues. Our wish is that this march in Syria continues without incident.”
In southern Syria in the province of Daraa — where the antigovernment uprising against the Assad regime began in 2011 — some local rebel groups managed to take control over a number of government buildings and clashed with regime forces, according to the Observatory.
In yet another sign of the heightened tensions, neighboring Jordan largely shuttered a border crossing with southern Syria because of the security situation, a Jordanian Interior Ministry statement said. Jordanians and Jordanian commercial trucks still on the Syrian side would be allowed back into the country, the ministry said, but no one would be permitted to use the checkpoint to leave for Syrian territory.
Israel, meanwhile, said it was reinforcing troops near Syria because of the rebel advance. A military statement said Israel was “prepared for all scenarios, offensive and defensive.”
The Embassy of Russia — one of Syria’s most important international allies — issued a statement warning Russians of “the difficult military and political situation in Syria.” The Embassy in Damascus added that it was reminding Russians “of the possibility of leaving the country on commercial flights through operating airports.”
Aaron Boxerman in Jerusalem and Anton Troianovski in Berlin contributed reporting.
Raja Abdulrahim reports on the Middle East and is based in Jerusalem. More about Raja Abdulrahim
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