The Syrian army withdrew from the city of Homs in central Syria ahead of a rebel offensive on Saturday night, with Damascus blocked by Bashar al-Assad’s sea defenses as a lightning strike brought rebel factions to the besieged president’s doorstep.
The video shows Syrian forces withdrawing from security forces in Homs as insurgents led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered the city’s borders. Rebel leader Hassan Abdul-Ghani said his forces were working to “reconcile” areas of the city to find any remaining Syrian soldiers.
Homs fell with surprising speed. The Syrian army was expected to keep the city, a strategic asset for the Syrian government, linking it with Tartus and Latakia — provinces where Bashar al-Assad has been delivered strong support.
Success a little after a week of Islamist rebels led by HTS they took Aleppo in northern Syria, rousing rebel factions throughout the region to rise up against the Syrian army, which offered little resistance.
The rebels captured Homs, and the opposing factions also approached Damascus. Earlier on Saturday, opposition parties in the provinces of Daraa and southern Sweden poured government forces and the government seized large swathes of land. At night, the opposing fighters entered Daraya, only 5 miles (8km) from the city center. Meanwhile, East Damascus allies of the Free Syrian Army occupied the ancient city of Palmyra.
When Homs fell to the rebels, the Syrian government was surrounded in Damascus. The opposing forces advanced towards the capital city from the north, south and east borders. The road that connected Damascus to Tartu and Latakia ran through Homs – and has now been cut off by rebel forces.
The government in neighboring Iraq said 20,000 Syrian soldiers had fled across the border. Al Jazeera showed footage of Syrian tanks and other military vehicles packed with troops crossing into Iraq.
Russia and Iran, which provide the bulk of military and economic support to the Assad regime in the run Syria’s 2011 civil war revolutionThey seemed unwilling to support their ally since the beginning of the rebel operation last week.
Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian group whose fighters used to bolster the ranks of the Syrian army, was unable to send a significant number of fighters to help. the great defeats which have lately been wrought against Israel.
In an interview with the Iraqi media on Friday, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that while “the resistance will do its job”, it is impossible to predict the fate of Assad. Similarly, the secretary general of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said in a speech on Thursday that the group stands with Assad, but still has to provide tangible support to the individual leader. Without significant Russian air support and Hezbollah reinforcements, Syrian forces appear to have melted away in the face of advancing rebels.
Rebel leaders called on government forces to withdraw instead of fighting. “The attack was reduced to just a few points for the regime’s surrender, with security guarantees and with the emphasis that in the end we are all children of one country,” said Yasser al-Mikdad, the governor. in the operations of the Chamber of Liberation of Damascus, an umbrella organization opposing the forces in southern Syria.
He described the capture of the town of Moadamiya on Saturday in the western region of Damascus – about four miles from the Republican Palace, where he said most government forces had advanced before the rebels, leaving only 70 Syrian army soldiers. “Instructions were given to our groups not to engage them and to try to convince them to surrender to avoid slaughter,” Mikdad said.
In the newly occupied areas, the rebels celebrated their victory, with pictures showing that the statue of the late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad had fallen, and the head of the statue tied to a motorcycle dragged on the road.
In the videos the Notice As he could not independently verify, the government police took off their uniforms in the middle of the road and left in civilian clothes.
When the rebels had taken over the towns and cities, the government opened the doors of the prisons, known as the cannons. Concussion met the stunned look of the detaineessome of whom, having been imprisoned for a decade, were promoted abroad for the first time.
Residents of Damascus described scenes of terror among the uncertain who reigned in the fate of the Syrian government as the rebels knocked on the doors of the capital. Jana, who lived in Damascus, speaking under a pseudonym, said: “Those who lived in Lebanon are leaving, fleeing in droves; We could have left ourselves, but things happen so quickly. Maybe we start packing up and packing up our things and leaving, and maybe something happens and sticks, nothing happens.”
Syrian state media denied reports that Assad had fled the capital. “The President of the Syrian Arab Republic also confirms that Mr. President will continue his work and national and constitutional duties from the capital Damascus,” Assad’s office said on Saturday.
The dizzying pace of events in Syria and the uncertainty over the fate of its government have left international powers reeling and raised questions about its geopolitical ramifications. Assad was a key member of Hezbollah and a vital leader of the group, which receives much of its resources from Iran through Iraq and Syria.
Participants of the Astana process – a peace initiative aimed at solving the Syrian crisis – called for a cessation of hostilities in Syria at the conclusion of the group’s meeting in Doha on Saturday night. In a joint statement, the conference called for “all parties to seek a political solution to the Syrian crisis.”
Hundreds of Syrians who fled the onslaught of the civil war and watched the government crack down on the bloody protests in 2011, were anxiously waiting to see if they could return to their country after more than 13 years in exile.