Syrian forces withdraw from areas in Daraa and Deir Ezzor as rebels advance on Homs

Elsewhere, President Bashar al-Assad’s forces withdrew from areas in southern Daraa province and Deir Ezzor in the east as he scrambled to respond to the opposition’s stunning advances.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based activist group monitoring the war, said that government forces “withdrew from the city of Homs to its outskirts” on Friday.

Shortly after, the Syrian defence ministry announced these reports were “false” and the army was still in place.

Rebel fighters, led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), have seized large swathes of territory, including Syria’s second city Aleppo, since launching a surprise offensive last week.

On Thursday the rebels took Hama, a city 45km north of Homs.

Homs is the last major government-held stronghold before the capital Damascus and its fall would leave the Assad government vulnerable.

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, leader of HTS, told CNN in an interview published on Friday that his ultimate goal was the “overthrow of this regime”.

The possibility of Homs’ capture by the rebels has been greeted with jubilation by many Syrian opposition figures, particularly natives of the city living in exile.

Zaher Sahloul, a doctor and activist who grew up in Homs, stated it was a “monumental day” for the city.

“I feel elated but also filled with anxiety and uncertainty. People are happy to be closing the chapter of the Assad regime, but they are afraid of its revenge,” he told Middle East Eye.

“Everyone I spoke with is happy after they saw what is happening in Aleppo and Hama. I hope that better days will come after a long nightmare.”

He added that it looked like HTS, which grew out of a former al-Qaeda affiliate, had “changed to a more pragmatic movement” who had been spreading “good messages” to minority groups concerned about their takeover.

According to the SOHR, 727 people – mostly combatants but also 111 civilians – have been killed in Syria since the offensive began.

Despite promises to protect Syria’s diversity, religious minorities have expressed concerns about HTS’s record of hard-line and sectarian rule, while Kurdish communities fear the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), a rebel coalition that has also participated in the advance.

Russia has launched air strikes on rebel forces in an attempt to bolster Assad’s troops, who have struggled to halt the rebels’ progress.

Jihad Yazigi, editor-in-chief of the Syria Report, told MEE that the fall of Homs would be a disaster for the Assad government and may push his main backers Russia and Iran to act so as not to lose their main ally in the region.

“Losing Homs would not necessarily mean the regime falling, but it would surely mean that the Russians and the Iranians are going to push for a regime change, or a meaningful policy change,” he explained.

“Because they would be afraid to lose everything.”

As Assad’s forces redeployed to confront the rebel offensive, other factions moved in to fill the vacuum.

According to the observatory, Syrian troops and aligned forces “suddenly” pulled out of eastern Deir Ezzor city and its surroundings on Friday, with the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) moving in.

“Syrian forces and their Iran-backed allies have completely withdrawn from the areas they control in Deir Ezzor province, and Kurdish forces are advancing toward these areas,” said SOHR director Rami Abdel Rahman.

Deir Ezzor, an oil-rich province on the border with Iraq, was split between the SDF to the east of the Euphrates and pro-Assad forces to the west.

With the crumbling of the pro-Assad forces in recent days, however, the SDF has reportedly reinforced its troops and taken control of more areas in Deir Ezzor.

Footage released on social media on Friday appeared to show SDF fighters and vehicles in the centre of Deir Ezzor city.

Meanwhile, the SOHR reported in Syria’s southern Daraa province local fighters took control of at least two checkpoints after government forces pulled out, as well as a police station and an air force intelligence branch.

“Local fighters managed to control several positions” in Nawa, north of Daraa city, including some administrative buildings “after a broad attack targeting the military intelligence department”, the SOHR added.

“In retaliation, regime forces… shelled residential areas in Nawa with artillery.”

Images have also been shared on social media of people chanting anti-Assad slogans in the town of Busra al-Sham, in Daraa where the protests began in 2011, and waving the three-starred rebel flag at the historic Omari mosque in the Daraa al-Balad neighbourhood.

UN Syria envoy Geir Pedersen on Wednesday said the latest developments had provoked “different reactions among the Syrian people, a grave threat for some, a sign of hope for others”, and stressed the need to protect civilians.

Images released on social media showed rebel supporters celebrating in Hama, while members of the exiled opposition praised the capture of the city as a possible stepping stone to Assad’s eventual overthrow.

On Friday, Russia urged its citizens to leave Syria over the “difficult military and political situation” in the country.

The Russian embassy in Damascus advised citizens “to leave the country on commercial flights through airports in operation”.

The warning came a day after the Chinese embassy in Syria made a similar announcement that its citizens should leave the country as soon as possible.

China has been one of the few members of the international community that has supported Assad since the outbreak of war and one of the only countries the Syrian president has visited abroad since 2011.

China’s foreign ministry announced on Monday that it “supports Syria’s efforts to maintain national security and stability”.

Syria’s war, which broke out after government forces opened fire on pro-democracy protesters, has killed more than half a million people. Around 12 million people remain displaced by fighting and repression, half outside the country.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday said the ongoing “carnage” in Syria was the result of a “chronic collective failure” to initiate a political process in the country since 2011.