Syria rebels advance, Jordan closes border as Assad loses ground: What to know

BEIRUT — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government is quickly losing control over major cities and other parts of the country, as rebels continue to advance their offensive, confronting government forces around the central city of Homs and in Daraa on Friday after taking control of Hama and Aleppo in the past week.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor with sources on the ground in Syria, claimed on Friday that government troops had withdrew from Homs and redeployed on the Homs-Latakia highway.

The Syrian army denied the report, stressing in a statement that its forces remain in Homs and its countryside and are deployed along defensive lines that were reinforced with additional troops equipped with various equipment and weapons.

“Our forces are ready to repel any terrorist attack,” the statement said, in reference to the rebel offensive.

Last Wednesday, an alliance of opposition groups led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched a surprise assault from Idlib province, in the northwest, into Aleppo province, which had been in government hands since 2016. The rebels said their offensive was in response to increased Syrian and Russian strikes against their positions in the north.

Since then, the rebels have captured Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, and taken over the key city of Hama, strategically located in central Syria between Aleppo and the capital, Damascus.

By Friday, rebel forces had seized several towns and villages north of the city of Homs, including Talbiseh, Rastan, Deir Ful and Zaafrana. The SOHR also reported the capture of al-Dar al-Kabira, a town only 3 miles from Homs.

The fall of Homs would add to the rapid series of setbacks suffered by Assad’s forces in recent days.

Homs lies on a major route linking Damascus to the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus, strongholds of Assad and the Alawite minority. It is Syria’s largest province in terms of area, bordering Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan.

HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said on Friday that the purpose of the offensive is to eventually unseat Assad.

“When we talk about objectives, the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime. It is our right to use all available means to achieve that goal,” Jolani said in an interview with CNN.

Russian fighter jets have launched repeated strikes against rebel-held areas in the north in the past days in a bid to slow the rebels' advance.

Russia has backed Assad since the start of the civil war in 2011, militarily intervening in the conflict in 2015.

On Friday, the Russian Embassy in Damascus warned Russian citizens to leave the country due to the “difficult military and political situation.”

Assad’s forces have also received backing from Lebanese Hezbollah. The Iran-backed group sent a small number of “supervising forces” from Lebanon to Syria overnight to prevent the rebels from capturing Homs, two senior Lebanese security sources told Reuters on Friday. A Syrian military officer and two regional officials close to Tehran also told Reuters that Hezbollah members who entered Syria overnight had taken up positions in Homs.

Syrian government loses ground in south, east

The lightning offensive in northern and central Syria has triggered battles elsewhere in the country, with reports of government forces leaving areas of control in Deir ez-Zor and Daraa.

Government forces “almost completely” evacuated their positions in the city of Deir ez-Zor, in the east, including at Deir ez-Zor Airport and other locations, the SOHR reported Friday. It added that Iranian militias had also withdrawn from positions in the city toward the Syria-Iraq border.

The reports of government forces leaving Deir ez-Zor were followed by claims that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces had taken the city. Two security sources based in eastern Syria told Reuters Friday that the SDF, which is backed by the United States, was in full control of Deir ez-Zor and is now moving toward the city of al-Bukamal, bordering Iraq.

In the southern province of Daraa, bordering Jordan, armed clashes have been ongoing between local opposition factions and government forces since Thursday.

On Friday, government forces reportedly withdrew from the city of Inkhil and from two military checkpoints in the village of al-Jbailiya, in western Daraa province, the Daraa24 news site said. A unit from Syrian Air Force Intelligence also left its position in the town of al-Jiza, in Daraa's eastern countryside, on Friday, according to the same site.

The clashes come as local factions on Friday announced the formation of the Southern Operations Room, consisting of the 8th Brigade, the Central Committee and other opposition groups in neighboring Suwayda and Quneitra provinces.

According to their statement — which opens by declaring, “Our destination is Damascus, and the meeting place is the Umayyad Square,” a major site in the capital — the new operations room aims to end “the rule of tyranny.”

Meanwhile, Jordan's Ministry of Interior on Friday announced the closing of its only passenger and commercial border crossing with Syria, citing the security developments in the south.

The Israeli military reportedly began reinforcing Division 201, the unit charged with securing Israel's border with Syria, deploying additional troops on the Golan Heights due to developments in southern Syria.