The Syrian army has withdrawn from Homs city in central Syria ahead of a rebel offensive on Saturday night, cutting off Damascus from Bashar al-Assad’s coastal strongholds as a lightning offensive brought rebel factions to the besieged president’s doorstep.
Videos showed Syrian forces withdrawing from security branches in Homs as insurgents led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered city limits. The rebel commander Hassan Abdul-Ghani said that its forces were conducting “combing operations” in the city neighbourhoods to find any Syrian soldiers that remained.
The speed at which Homs fell was surprising. The Syrian army had been expected to make a stand to save the city, a strategic asset for the Syrian government, linking it to Tartus and Latakia – provinces where Bashar al-Assad has traditionally enjoyed strong support.
The advance came just a week after Islamist insurgents led by HTS retook Aleppo in northern Syria, inspiring rebel factions all across the country to rise up against the Syrian army which offered little resistance.
As rebel forces took Homs, opposition factions also continued their approach towards Damascus. Earlier on Saturday, opposition factions in the southern provinces of Daraa and Sweida routed government forces and took control of wide swathes of the districts. By night, opposition fighters had entered Daraya, just 5 miles (8km) from the centre of the capital. Meanwhile, east of Damascus, members of the Free Syrian Army took control of the ancient city of Palmyra.
With the fall of Homs to rebels, the Syrian regime had been encircled in Damascus. Opposition forces were advancing towards the capital city from the north, south and east of the country. The highway that linked Damascus to Tartus and Latakia ran through Homs – and has now been cut off by rebel forces.
The government in neighbouring Iraq said that 2,000 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 provided the bulk of military and financial support to the Assad government during the course of Syria’s 2011 revolution-turned-civil war, have seemed unwilling to lend support to their ally since the beginning of the rebel operation last week.
Hezbollah, the pro-Iran group whose fighters used to bolster the ranks of the Syrian army, has been unable to send a significant number of fighters to help after the heavy defeats it has recently incurred against Israel.
In an interview with Iraqi media on Friday, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that, while the “resistance would do its duty”, it was impossible to predict the fate of Assad. Similarly, the secretary general of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said in a speech on Thursday that the group would stand with Assad, but it has yet to provide tangible support to the isolated leader. Without significant Russian air support and Hezbollah’s reinforcements, Syrian forces have seemingly melted away in the face of advancing rebels.
Leaders of the rebels have called on government forces to defect instead of fighting. “The clashes have been limited to just a few points to pressure regime forces to surrender, with assurances that they would be safe and with emphasis that in the end, we are all sons of one country,” said Yasser al-Mikdad, a commander in the operations room of the Liberation of Damascus, an umbrella organisation for opposition forces in southern Syria.
He described the taking of the town of Moadamiya on Saturday in the western countryside of Damascus – about four miles from the Republican Palace – where he said most government forces withdrew before advancing rebels, leaving only 70 Syrian army soldiers. “Instructions were issued to our groups not to engage them and to try to convince them to surrender to avoid bloodshed,” Mikdad said.
In newly seized areas, rebels rejoiced in their victory, with videos showing statues of late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad being toppled, and a statue’s head tied to a motorcycle and dragged along the road.
In videos that the Observer was unable to independently verify, regime police officers took off their uniforms in the middle of the street and walked away in civilian clothing.
As rebels swept through towns and cities, they opened the doors to government prisons, notorious for their use of torture. Crowds met dazed-looking detainees, some of whom had been imprisoned for decades, as they stepped outside for the first time in years.
In Damascus, residents described scenes of panic amid the uncertainty that reigned over the fate of the Syrian government as rebels beat on the capital’s door. Jana, a resident of Damascus who spoke under a pseudonym, said: “Those who have residencies in Lebanon are leaving, lots are fleeing. We ourselves, we could leave, but things are happening so quickly. Maybe we start to get ready and gather our things and leave, and maybe something happens and we get stuck, nothing is clear.”
Syrian state media denied rumours that Assad had fled the capital. “The presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic also confirms that Mr President continues his work and national and constitutional duties from the capital, Damascus,” Assad’s office said in a statement on Saturday.
The dizzying pace of events in Syria and the uncertainty over the fate of its government has left international powers reeling and prompted questions over the geopolitical ramifications. Assad was a key ally of Hezbollah and a vital supplier of the group, which receives much of its resources from Iran via Iraq and Syria.
Participants of the Astana process – a peace initiative focused on solving the Syrian crisis – urged a cessation of conflict 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”.
Millions of Syrians who fled the violence of the civil war and the government’s bloody crackdown on protests in 2011 also watched the rebels’ advance anxiously, waiting to see if they may be able to safely return to the country after more than 13 years in exile.
