By Maya Gebeily, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Parisa Hafezi

BEIRUT/AMMAN/DUBAI – Syrian rebel forces advanced on the central city of Homs and Kurdish fighters seized effective control of the eastern desert on Friday (6), jolting President Bashar al-Assad’s grip on power and triggering local revolts against his rule in the south.

If Islamist insurgents captured Homs in their lightning new offensive, it would cut off the capital Damascus from the coast, a long-time redoubt of Assad’s minority Alawite sect and where his Russian allies have a naval base and air base.

In a parallel setback for Assad, a US-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters took Deir el-Zor, the government’s main foothold in the vast desert in the east of the country, three Syrian sources told Reuters on Friday.

It was the third major city, after Aleppo and Hama in the northwest and centre, to fall out of Assad’s control in a week.

Piling on the pressure, two Syrian army sources said the alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had swept through the nearby Albu Kamal border crossing with Iraq.

In southern Deraa province, Syrian local fighters and former rebels overran one of the main army bases, known as Liwa 52, near Herak town as fighting spread to the southern border with Jordan, two rebel sources told Reuters on Friday.

They also seized parts of the Nassib border crossing with Jordan near the customs section where dozens of trailers and passenger cars were stranded, sources added.

After years locked behind frozen front lines, rebel forces have burst out of their northwestern Idlib bastion to achieve the swiftest battlefield advance by either side since a street uprising against Assad mushroomed into civil war 13 years ago.

Assad regained control of most of Syria after key allies – Russia, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group – came to his rescue. But all have recently been weakened and diverted by other crises, giving Sunni Muslim militants a window to fight back.

A senior Iranian official meanwhile said Tehran, which has been focused on tensions with arch-foe Israel since the Gaza war began, would send missiles, drones and more advisers to Syria.

“It is likely that Tehran will need to send military equipment, missiles and drones to Syria … Tehran has taken all necessary steps to increase the number of its military advisers in Syria and deploy forces,” the senior Iranian official said on condition of anonymity.

“Now, Tehran is providing intelligence and satellite support to Syria.”

The head of the Syrian faction leading the sweeping assault told CNN that his group – a former Al-Qaeda affiliate now known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – aimed to “build Syria” and bring Syrian refugees back home from Lebanon and Europe.

It was Abu Mohammed Al-Golani’s first interview since his group began seizing territory from Assad’s forces on Nov. 27. Rebels have captured two major cities so far and are now thrusting toward the key crossroads city of Homs.

HTS broke from Al-Qaeda in 2016, says it poses no threat to the West and has spent years trying to moderate its image, presenting itself as a viable alternative to the Assad family’s 54-year authoritarian rule.

Surprise Offensive

The rebels’ sweep has taken the region by surprise and emboldened other opponents of Assad. Syrian rebel commander Hassan Abdul Ghany urged top military officers to defect, in a video statement aired on Friday.

At least three people were killed in clashes between Druze militias and security forces in the southern Syrian city of Sweida on Friday, two witnesses and a local activist said.

They said anti-government fighters also seized the main police station and the biggest civilian prison hours after hundreds of people protested in a square demanding Assad’s downfall.

The Israeli military said it was reinforcing aerial and ground forces in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in southwest Syria and was prepared for all scenarios.

Iran-backed Hezbollah, meanwhile, sent a small number of “supervising forces” from Lebanon to Syria overnight to help prevent anti-government fighters from seizing Homs, two senior Lebanese security sources told Reuters.

But Israel has seriously weakened Hezbollah in fighting in Lebanon this year, assassinating its top officials and devastating its military infrastructure.

HTS rebels said they had also taken over the towns of Talbisa and Rastan, bringing them within miles (km) of Homs.

The Syrian military said there was no truth to reports it had withdrawn from Homs, saying in a statement it was deployed along “steady and solid defence lines” there.

A resident of Homs earlier said the offices of Syria’s main security branches there had emptied, with members exiting the city.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said thousands of people had begun fleeing from Homs on Thursday night towards the Mediterranean coastal regions of Latakia and Tartus, strongholds of the government.

A coastal resident said thousands of people had begun arriving there from Homs, fearing the rebels’ rapid advance.

Wasim Marouh, a Homs resident who decided not to leave, said most of its main commercial streets were largely deserted while pro-government militia groups patrolled the area.

Islamic State

In another alarming development for Assad, the head of the US-backed Syrian Kurdish force said the Islamic State group, which imposed a reign of terror over swathes of Iraq and Syria before its defeat by a US-led coalition in 2017, had now taken control of some areas in eastern Syria.

“Due to the recent developments, there is increased movement by Islamic State mercenaries in the Syrian desert, in the south and west of Deir Al-Zor and the countryside of al-Raqqa,” Mazloum Abdi told reporters, referring to areas in Syria’s east.

Rebels led by HTS have sought to capitalise on their swift takeover of Aleppo in the north and Hama in west-central Syria by pressing onwards to Homs, another 40 km (24 miles) south.

A rebel operations room urged Homs residents in an online post to rise up, saying: “Your time has come.”

Russian bombing overnight destroyed the Rastan bridge along the M5 highway, the main route to Homs, to prevent rebels from using it to advance, a Syrian army officer told Reuters.

Aron Lund, a fellow at the think-tank Century Foundation, said the government was “fighting for their lives at this point”.

It was possible the government could hold Homs “but given the speed at which things have moved so far, I wouldn’t count on it”.

-Reuters