As part of a lightning-fast offensive that might further destabilize an already war-torn region, Syrian rebels declared they had taken control of a major city in the southwest near the Jordanian border and that they are advancing on the capital, Damascus.
According to Hayat Tahrir al-Shamcommander Hassan Abdul Ghani, who posted on X Saturday, our forces have started conducting the last stage of surrounding the capital, Damascus.
A bust of President Bashar Al-Assad’s father, Hafez Al-Assad, was being torn down in Jaramana, a suburb of Damascus, according to footage confirmed by NBC News. The Syrian government no longer controls Jaramana, according to a statement released Saturday by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a war monitor located in the United Kingdom.
HTS previously declared that it had “completely liberated” the city of Daraa, a vital and symbolic success for the rebels as it is a key border crossing and the site of pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011 that ignited the nation’s continuing civil conflict.
Independent journalists find it extremely challenging to work in Syria, and NBC was unable to independently confirm the rebels’ statements.
The monitoring group reported on Friday that over 90% of the Deraa region, including Daraa city, was under the hands of rebels in the south.
Meanwhile, Syria’s army accused HTS of disseminating videos that said it had seized control of rural Damascus neighborhoods to “intimidate” residents.
It said in a another statement that its forces in Daraa had repositioned and formed a solid, unified defense and security perimeter in that direction.
The push on the capital and the conquest of Daraa, if verified, would be the most recent phase of a broad campaign that has significantly changed the balance of power in Syria.
HTS-led terrorists have taken control of Aleppo in the north and the central city of Hama in less than two weeks. On Thursday, government soldiers were ejected from the city.
The rebels’ takeover of Daraa also follows HTS’s assertion on Friday that it had moved to the outskirts of Homs, a crucial intersection that links Damascus with government positions on the Mediterranean coast.
Russia has maintained a military presence, including the naval base at Tartus, while Iran has traditionally backed Assad. However, larger regional crises, such as Russia’s protracted war with Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza and conflicts with Hezbollah in Lebanon, have diminished both countries’ influence.
It’s “pretty much the end game for Assad” if the rebels capture Homs, H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the London-based think tank Royal United Services Institute, told NBC News over the phone on Saturday.
“Once they get Homs, then really Damascus is cut off and they’ll all be centered around Damascus and Latakia on the coast.”
Three of the nation’s five main cities would be under the control of HTS-led forces if the strategically significant municipality of Homs fell, leaving no significant cities between rebel forces and Damascus.
However, despite the rebels’ quick advance, Hellyer noted there was still no clear end to the fight.
“It comes down to how much fighting spirit there is left in this rump of the Syrian army,” he said. “How much they feel they can hold out in terms of support from the the Russians and the Iranians, which hasn’t been forthcoming.”
The Syrian army announced on Saturday morning that it has started to seize control of the Hama and Homs provinces against what it described as “terrorist organizations.”
NBC News was unable to independently confirm its assertions.
The threat to Homs and the breakdown of government control in Daraa point to a strengthening weakness in Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s grip on power.
The collapse of Aleppo and Hama, along with other towns like Idlib and many rural communities, has reportedly put Assad’s forces under a great deal of strain as conflict between government troops and different rebel factions rages throughout the nation, according to a number of sources from throughout the nation.
Kurdish forces also took control of government posts in eastern Syria, close to the towns of Raqqa and Deir Ez-Zour, and pro-Assad troops were fighting them, according to the Observatory.
Due to the security situation in southern Syria, Jordan’s interior ministry said that it was suspending its Jaber border crossing to all outbound traffic, according to official media.
For the first time since Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Mideast War and annexed it in 1981, the observatory said on Saturday that Syrian government forces have left the Israeli-controlled territory.
According to the observatory, since the rebels launched their onslaught, more than 820 people have been murdered nationwide, including 111 civilians.
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