Syria: Government loses important city of Daraa, rebels near Homs

After the capture of the major cities of Aleppo and Hama by Islamist opponents of the government, Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, according to activists, also lost control of the symbolic city of Daraa in the south of the country and most of the province of the same name. “Local factions have taken control of additional areas in Daraa province, including the city of Daraa,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said late Friday evening.

The local groups now control “more than 90 percent of the province as the regime forces have gradually withdrawn,” the Observatory said.

Daraa was considered an opposition stronghold at the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011. The uprising against President Assad began in the province of the same name in 2011 and was bloodily suppressed – which ultimately led to the Syrian civil war. The region has been under government control again since 2018.

In the past few days, the Islamist fighters from the Hajat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militia and their allies have already taken over the major cities of Aleppo and Hama in northwestern Syria.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, on Friday they were just five kilometers from the city of Homs, the country’s third largest city after the capital Damascus and Aleppo. On the way to Homs, the HTS and its allies entered the cities of Rastan and Talbisseh, the Observatory said. There was a “complete absence” of Assad government troops in these two cities.

According to the Observatory, government troops have already withdrawn from Homs. However, the Syrian Defense Ministry has denied this. The army said it had sent reinforcements to Homs.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights draws its information from a network of different sources in Syria. Much of the information provided by the observatory cannot be independently verified.

If the Syrian Islamists also take Homs, this would cut off the connection between Damascus and the Mediterranean coast. According to the Observatory, tens of thousands of people have already fled Homs, mainly members of the Alawite minority, to which Assad also belongs.

On Friday, the army also withdrew from the entire Deir Essor province in eastern Syria, according to the Observatory. Government forces and their Iranian-backed allies have “completely withdrawn from the areas they control in Deir Essor province,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

Fighters from the military alliance Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led by Kurdish militias, are now advancing into these areas. The military alliance, which already controls a large part of northeast Syria, also expressed its willingness to hold talks in view of the Islamists’ advance.

The leader of the Islamist NTS, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, reiterated his group’s goal of overthrowing Assad in an interview with the US broadcaster CNN. It is the right of its fighters to “use all available means to achieve this goal,” said al-Jolani.

In southern Syria, local armed groups took control of the Nassib border crossing on the border with Jordan, according to the Observatory. Jordan says it has closed the border crossing.

After years of relative stalemate in the Syrian civil war, a week ago the HTS and allied groups launched a major offensive in the northwest of the country. It is the most intense fighting in Syria in four years.

In view of the advance of the Islamists, the foreign ministers of Türkiye, Iran and Russia wanted to meet in Qatar on Saturday. Iran and Russia are important allies of Assad. Turkey shares a long land border with Syria and has hosted nearly three million Syrian refugees. Ankara has been supporting insurgents in northern Syria for years, but has recently sought rapprochement with Damascus.

The foreign ministers of Iran, Iraq and Syria met on Friday. Syrian Foreign Minister Bassam al-Bassagh accused his government’s enemies of wanting to “redraw the political map.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi assured that he would provide the allied Assad government with “all support.” However, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing Iranian officials among others, that Tehran had begun withdrawing its military commanders and personnel from Syria.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for the protection of civilians and minorities in Syria during a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan. Blinken called for a “political solution” to the conflict, his spokesman said. The US State Department on Friday called on US citizens to “leave Syria now while commercial opportunities still exist.”