The Islamist faction Hayat Tahrir Al-Cham says it has "begun to surround Damascus".
Syrian rebels said Saturday that they had “begun to surround Damascus”, after conquering key cities and entire swathes of Syrian territory in a matter of days. “Damascus awaits you”, Abu Mohammed Al-Joulani, the leader of the radical Islamist faction Hayat Tahrir Al-Cham (HTC), told his troops, asking them to prepare to take the capital.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the jihadists were no more than twenty kilometers from Damascus on Saturday. In an attempt to avoid panic, the Syrian presidency denounced “rumors and false news about President Bashar al-Assad's departure from Damascus”, adding that the latter “was continuing his work from the capital”.
In another denial statement, the Syrian Defense Ministry said its troops were not retreating near Damascus, while Iraqi authorities announced the entry into their territory of hundreds of Syrian army soldiers fleeing the fighting.
The rebels continued their rapid advance on Saturday to the outskirts of Homs, the major city in the center of the country, while government forces reinforced the front lines and bombarded the insurgents’ positions, trying to save the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad, in power for 24 years.
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Since the rebels entered Aleppo a week ago, government defenses have collapsed across the country at a dizzying speed, while the insurgents have seized several major cities.
In addition to the capture of Aleppo in the north, Hama in the center and Deir Ez Zor in the east, the rebels have also risen up in the south, in Suweida and Deraa, claiming on Friday to have taken control of these two cities and broadcasting videos of scenes of jubilation. The Syrian army says it is carrying out airstrikes around Hama and Homs and is strengthening its position on this front. It also specified that it was repositioning itself around Deraa and Suweida, which the rebels have claimed.
According to Qatar, these events now threaten the territorial integrity of Syria. The rapid evolution of the situation on the ground has caused astonishment in the Arab capitals and raised fears of a new wave of regional instability. The civil war in Syria, which began in 2011 as an uprising against the Assad regime, has led to the intervention of major external powers and caused an influx of millions of refugees into neighboring states.
Bashar al Assad has long relied on his allies to repel the jihadists, including air support from Russian planes, while Iran has mobilized allied forces, including Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi militias, to support the army and storm the insurgents’ strongholds. But with the ongoing war in Ukraine mobilizing its forces, Moscow is less present in the Syrian theater, while many Hezbollah leaders have been eliminated this year by the Jewish state as part of the Middle East crisis.