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Syrian rebels advanced across the country on Saturday toward their goal of seizing Damascus and overthrowing Assad’s regime after seizing cities and swaths of territory in a lightning offensive.
“Damascus is waiting for you,” Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, leader of the main rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), told his fighters on Saturday.
Reports emerged late on Saturday that rebels had entered the strategic city of Homs, with Reuters citing rebel spokesman Hassan Abdulghani as saying the rebels had “completely liberated” the city. The Syrian military denies that rebels have captured the city.
President Bashar Assad’s forces have relinquished control of the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor and are also losing towns in the south as the uprising expands to include multiple opposition groups.
“Our forces have begun the final phase of the siege of the capital Damascus,” Abdul Ghani said on Telegram.
He added that rebels were sending reinforcements to the Damascus “axis” and that rebel fighters had seized three cities in southern Syria, as well as a military base and more than a dozen towns and villages on the outskirts of Homs.
There have been multiple reports that Syrian soldiers have left Homs and areas around Damascus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based war monitor, said Syrian government forces had withdrawn from several towns in the Damascus area. The Financial Times was unable to verify the reports.
The multi-pronged attack poses the most serious threat to Assad’s rule in a decade, reigniting a 13-year civil war that has been largely frozen since 2020.
Syrian state media denied that troops had withdrawn from the Damascus countryside and that Assad had fled. But some residents say they are bracing for the regime’s collapse. “It’s all over,” said one Damascus man.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has long supported some Syrian opposition forces, welcomed “the new diplomatic and political reality in Syria” on Saturday.
In the past, Assad’s main backers – Iran, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant movement Hezbollah and Russia – have helped him repel rebel advances. But U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said on Saturday the “collapse” of Assad’s forces has accelerated as his supporters are weakened and distracted by other conflicts.
Assad’s allies “are much weaker than before, Russia is in a different region and cannot focus on Syria, and Iran is overall weaker”.
Hochstein added that Iran appeared to be “withdrawing its troops from Syria to some extent.” The New York Times reported that Iranian military commanders were withdrawing.
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In an article published in Truth Social, President-elect Donald Trump claimed that Russia “never had much to gain” in Syria and warned the United States not to get involved.
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday that Moscow would stand with its allies and “do everything possible not to allow terrorists to succeed, even if they claim they are no longer terrorists”. Islamist HTS is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States.
Rebels led by HTS and backed by Turkish-backed factions have captured Syria’s second-largest cities, Aleppo and Hama, since launching an offensive 11 days ago.
Homs is the largest city still under the control of Assad’s regime on the highway south to the capital Damascus.
Analysts say losing the city would cut off Damascus from Assad’s other large support base in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus. Assad comes from the minority Alawite sect, whose population is concentrated in coastal areas.
The coastal area is also crucial to Russia because it is Moscow’s gateway to the Mediterranean.
Homs is close to the Syrian-Lebanese border, where Hezbollah has a large presence. Iran and Hezbollah’s support for Assad helped cement the dictator’s rule a decade ago, but a year of war with Israel has weakened the militant group. HTS asks the Lebanese people to avoid involvement in the conflict.
Rebels are also making gains south of Damascus as other opposition groups join the rebellion. While HTS claims rebels have captured Daraa, the birthplace of the 2011 Syrian revolution, as well as the cities of Suweida and Quneitra, there are conflicting reports on territorial control.
Moscow on Friday warned its citizens to prepare to flee Syria, signaling the seriousness of the crisis. However, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that its embassy in Damascus has not yet been evacuated and is working normally.
Additional reporting from Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran, Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul and Andrew England in Doha
